An estate agent shows a couple round a well-appointed semi in Pudsey, West Yorkshire. The couple adore the place so much they put in an offer on the spot. Nothing much unusual about that. Only the estate agent's car has just floated away, there are ducks swimming through the living room, and the house is under a foot of floodwater.

That was the unusual premise of an episode from the third series of ITV hit sitcom, 'Barbara', starring Gwen Taylor as pushy, no-nonsense Yorkshire woman Barbara Liversidge and Sam Kelly as her taxi driver husband Ted. Co-writer Graham Mark Walker gives an insight into how he approaches sitcom writing, both alone and as part of a team of five, and how to flood a TV studio without electrocuting the entire cast.

"It was Mark Bussell (producer and co-writer) who wanted to do a Water World. And the rest of us thought it was a daft enough idea, so we all said 'great'. Of course someone had to check it was safe to do it, but once we got the ok we just got on with it, making lists of Funny Things to Do with Water.

"Some of the gags, like the one where Barbara's found inside a rolled up carpet, and the opening scene, before she comes down in the morning to see the devastation, they all had to be done dry and so we pre-recorded those. The rest was taped as normal before the audience at Carlton's studios in Nottingham.

"The liquid was actually contained inside this specially constructed tank and the set then built around that, so only a few flats or props and things actually came in contact with the water. And all the electrical gubbins had to be kept a safe measured distance away. Some props, like the piano, which the Liversidges have in the living room, they were swapped for models. But things like the three-piece suite just got wet. This 'Flood' episode was the last of this run of 'Barbara' to be shot - understandably."

"Special thanks should go to Gwen, Sam and the rest of the actors who had to rehearse knee-deep in water all day. I'm saying 'water' but it was suspiciously brown. I've no idea what they put in it to make it look like that. Best not to ask.

'Barbara' was the first sitcom series for all five members of its writing team.

"No, you couldn't say we were steeped in experience, least not when we made that pilot (made in 1995). But none of us was what you might call blushing youths. We're all now in our late thirties, early forties. I'm the oldest at 42 and therefore the wisest of course."

Graham's 'Barbara' teammates had known each other for many years.

"Rob (Clark) and Ramsay (Gilderdale), were at Nottingham University together, and Mark (Bussell) and Justin (Sbresni) were at Southampton Uni about the same time. Mark had become a producer at Central (now

Carlton) after getting a pilot made there. Rob was a producer at Carlton at that time too (mid-1994) working on game shows mainly."

Rob Clark is now Head of Entertainment for the Scottish Media Group and was Executive Producer on Ant and Dec's recent tribute to 'The Likely Lads'. Ramsay is an actor as well as a writer, perhaps best known for his role as Guy of Gisborne in BBC Children's 'Maid Marian & Her Merry Men'.

Graham met Mark after actor and writer Nigel Planer recommended they should do so.

"I sent the first ever script I wrote to Elephant Productions, which is a company he (Nigel Planer) co-owned. He liked it and mentioned me to Mark, and then I met Mark and a couple of months later Mark rang me and said did I want to join the team he was putting together. And I did.

"We've now written 28 'Barbara's - 29 if you want to count the pilot, and quite frankly I do. The next series will be on sometime in the autumn. And yes, it takes five of us to write them. Goodness me, five. Do we write every fifth word, perchance? Why no! Sorry, I'm just bored with people, usually critics, chattering on about there being five of us like it's somehow A Bad Thing. I don't hear them say it about 'Frasier'. And there are four writers in 'The League of Gentlemen'. But does anyone get into a pink tizzy about that? No, they don't. Bah!

Graham explains how his team approaches writing a script.

"To be organised is the key, I reckon. We split the process into stages. Stage 1 is Ideas - 3 months spent just coming up with ideas, anything from a small sight gag to a whole story. Stage 2 is Story Breaking - weaving the stories together and selecting sight gags to produce episodes. At the end of this stage we will have a whole episode written on a few pages described in bald drama, scene by scene, beat by beat. Stage 3 is First Draft - using the Stage 2 outline as an agenda, we meet around a table to produce dialogue. One of us - usually Mark- will scribble down whatever emerges. This normally takes 2 to 2 and half days per script. And Stage 4 is Rewriting - this process continues over months, through rehearsals and up to the recording. Using email, drafts are shuttled back and forth between Mark & Justin (they write together as a pair at this stage) and me and Ramsay separately. We can have several scripts on the go at once.

"In any organisation someone has to have the last say, and in our case that is gorgeous producer and father of three, Mark Bussell.

The full five-member 'Barbara' team only meets when writing.

"Last year we were in the same building five days a week for just two months, to write the first drafts of twelve scripts. I dearly hope team writing gets more established in Britain - we do it and so does 'My Family' (BBC). What are they doing this year - 27 episodes or something mad? If ITV or BBC has faith in something, and has taken the time to establish it, it should then have the conviction to extend it to at least a 13 run by bringing in some more writers. Makes it a whole lot easier to sell programmes to NZBC or Cable Indonesia or wherever if you've got 13 or 26 of the things. Having said that, I reckon there's still a place for the single writer or pair though, who want to fashion something quite small and lovely.

"When I'm working on something of my own I set myself a goal of 25 ideas a day, describing each one in a couple of sentences at most. That's a goal - I sometimes don't make it. I do find I'm able to go to the fridge 25 times a day though. The trick is not to be critical of whatever you sketch out at your early stage. Reserve judgement for when you come to story breaking. That's the time when you'll realise most of the ideas you've jotted down are rubbish.

"Like a lot of new writers, I used to hare off with the first notion that came into my head and start bashing out dialogue. Occasionally the dialogue wouldn't be that bad, but the stories were weak because they lacked any comic charge. There just wasn't enough going on in them.

"So my Handy Hint of the Day is, spend more time on the ideas stage. You should find that the subsequent processes become far easier. You'll be able to select from pages and pages of notes, and put your characters in your funniest, most difficult, and most visually interesting situations. You'll ease the pressure on your dialogue, allowing your sparkling words to sit on top of what you've built, rather than acting as the entire foundation of your comedy playhouse.

"And your biggest visual gag should be at or near the end. Build up to it, but avoid overdosing on sight gags, especially if you've got a lot of lovingly crafted wordplay. A studio audience will pick up more quickly on visual gags than word gags and so will 'tune out' with its ears. You can find all your lovely dialogue going for nothing, and when an audience doesn't get a gag, let me tell you, it's like a dagger through the heart sometimes.

Graham often uses diagrams and charts to help work out characters and stories.

"For a 'Barbara'-type situation, one with a central character around which all the others spin, I would draw a wheel. Barbara would sit in the centre, and spokes would emanate to the other characters. On each of the spokes of the wheel I would describe the routine between the two characters, and by routine I don't mean the relationship between them, but what the two characters do whenever they meet that is a source of comedy. So, for instance, the routines between Barbara and her son-in-law Martin are 'Martin resents Barbara interfering in his domestic life' and 'Barbara thinks Martin's pompous'. This doesn't preclude characters around the wheel having routines between each other, but too many would undermine Barbara's central position.

"Saying that, 'Barbara' is quite an ensemble thing, rather than everything revolving just around Barbara herself. So there are routines around the hub of the wheel, the other characters, as well. Anyway, once the wheel is completed, with all the routines in place, you'll have totally described your central character. Each of the characters around the wheel should uniquely illuminate a different facet of them.

"I think it's important that whenever you bring two characters together, you play their routine out. It's like a catchphrase. Or an 'our tune'. Once the routine is established, the audience will get enjoyment from anticipation of the routine, as well as seeing and hearing it play.

"Think of 'Frasier', and how funny the routine of Niles' covert desire for Daphne was. Once established it was honed to the point where Daphne would just have to say something, innocent at face value, but because it was delivered within Nile's company, charged with comedy. Also see that now they are betrothed they have no routine - nothing has been given to those two characters as a replacement. Part of why it's not so hot anymore, I think."

So watch out for the return of 'Barbara' to ITV later this year, including a guest appearance from veteran comedy actor Bernard Cribbins. "He plays this mad, staring-eyed, taxidermist who turns up at Barbara's Bonfire Night party and is just brilliant."

'Twas brillig, oh all right then, it wasn't. But it was certainly a bit nippy for April, so well wrapped up, I headed into the great metropolis to attend my very first Writers' Guild evening.

The title 'Crossing Boundaries' had confused me at first but it soon became clear that this was not a Royal Geographical Society meeting but, hosted by the Guild's Books Committee, it was on writing for different media.

The speakers, all experienced in more than one medium, were:

* David Nobbs who wrote The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Gentlemen's Relish, Love on a Branch Line, A Bit of a Do, Reggie, Rich Tea and Sympathy, The Hello Goodbye Man, The Life and Times of Henry Pratt, Fairly Secret Army etc. And he was only the Chair.

* Alan Plater, writer of Last of the Blonde Bombshells, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, A Very British Coup, A Murder is Announced, The Barchester Chronicles, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Beiderbecke Tapes.

* Andrew Davies, writer on The Way We Live Now, Bridget Jones's Diary, Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, Circle of Friends, House of Cards, Take a Girl Like You, and the new adaptation of Dr Zhivago.

* And American playwright, critic and broadcaster, Bonnie Greer, completed the panel. Her credits include The Little Prince, Jitterbug, and Riding The 903. She has also worked with David Mamet and Norman Mailer. She's a Governor of the London International Film School and once played Joan of Arc on the Paris stage.

Actually, apart from Bonnie who radiated inner and outer beauty along with razor sharp intelligence - girl power! - these venerable writers looked disappointingly normal. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this row of kindly and distinguished-looking old gents. They'll forgive these personal jibes when I explain that I was a little dazed after falling through the seat of my chair. I didn't mind at all. I was compensated for the ignominy with a place in the front row. I think the organisers were hoping that I wouldn't sue.

The speakers felt quite differently about the varied media in which they have written. Alan Plater began by saying that he feels most at home writing drama. He wrote three books for the Beiderbecke series but confessed that whenever he writes a novel, he imagines that he has Tolstoy sitting on one shoulder and Dostoyevsky on the other and they are saying 'Oi! We wrote novels!'

Plays, on the other hand, don't worry him. In fact, he loves them. 'As an old socialist,' he says, 'I like the collective thing, being in the thick of it with actors, seeing the talent of others affecting something I've written.' Stage plays are easier than writing for television, he says, because the audience will do some of the work for you. For instance, you can stage the Battle of Agincourt with only six people. 'You can say to a director, "We're going to have four on the French side and two on the English side and the English will win." You can't do that on television where you have to create a brick wall that can actually be seen because a television audience doesn't work hard.'

Bonnie Greer sees herself simply as someone who has always written and never consciously defined herself as a writer. Even as a child, she breathed, ergo she wrote, apparently on torn-up grocery bags. She has enjoyed writing anything and everything. Journalism, to Bonnie, is like 'having a conversation with a large group of people and that's fun'. Then radio writing, where 'the whole world has to be created through the ear' is the 'most free and most exciting form of writing'. How can she choose? Where writing is concerned, crossing boundaries freely, she's like a kid in a sweet shop.

Yet she admitted that her heart really lies in prose, in novels and short stories, and she would prefer above all else to have 'novelist' inscribed on her tombstone. Unlike Alan Plater, this love of novel writing is partly driven by an increasing desire to keep control of her work. 'The hardest thing is to collaborate as I get older. Watching a play you've written is wonderful but there are so many hands on a script. In novels you have solitude, control, the rhythm of prose.'

Andrew Davies wasn't quite as enthusiastic. Like Bonnie, he started writing everything from school age. He used to love it. 'Now … finishing things is good. First drafts are absolute hell. Rewrites are OK. I resent them though.' In fact, he says, he hates writing. I suspect that he was telling a porky to create a diversion. How could the man who wrote something as wonderful as the wet shirt scene in Pride and Prejudice hate writing? It's not his favourite by the way, that scene which he says ' … was about hesitancy, inarticulateness and the transparency of the shirt.'

I liked Andrew and he was the only one who denied all knowledge of 'the demon'. 'It is the demon that chases you across the media,' said Bonnie. 'If I hear a lot of talking in my head, I know it's probably radio or theatre. If I see images, it's cinema or a novel (I see cinema and the novel as closely linked). Younger writers are writing cinematically so the kind of writing coming out has to do with the attention span that we can hold.' So the demon is pulling her strings.

Is that the way to go? Alan Plater spoke of the demon too. 'The demon tells you what [medium] it is', he said.

But I'm with Andrew, the pragmatist. He said he wrote plays for directors who were interested in putting them on, and he wrote children's books for his kids. So, in a sense, he follows his nose, not the demon.

And who is this wretched demon anyway? Andrew said the only demon he knew was his wife. When they were young and very much in love, she faithfully typed his first novel as he wrote it until one day she came to him and said, 'I can't type out this f*****g s**t any more!'

I decided to track down the demon. The kindly gentleman on my right whispered that it was a quote from D H Lawrence, so the next day I telephoned my former English teacher. He was commonly held to be an expert on D H Lawrence, at least amongst the Lower Sixth, and he was able to tell me that in the preface to the collected poems Lawrence said that he had tried to let the Demon have his way. (If anyone knows any more about the Demon please write to me care of the editor. I'd like to know why the demon has not appeared to me.)

So, what about the disadvantages of crossing the boundaries?

The speakers spoke as one for the first time and agreed that it's very difficult. Bonnie said that if you write plays, novels and articles simultaneously you will never be allowed into the metaphorical 'club' representing each field. You will be viewed as a dilettante.

And Alan is still smarting after all these years from a review of one of his stage plays that claimed it was '…episodic, as you would expect from a man who writes a lot of television.' He quoted Hilaire Belloc who said you should not be the sort of writer who writes everything. You'll never get any credit. Write only about the earthworm and people will beat a path to your door.

Is writing about 'getting credit' then? Andrew said that '…in Britain you don't bring glory from one field to another, you bring suspicion.' So, there's neither credit, glory nor even acceptance to be found in writing across the boundaries. How then, have the panel been getting away with it all these years?

Andrew demonstrated this point when he admitted that he had never found it difficult to cross boundaries. He said that people had not seemed to be aware that he wrote in anything other than the format in which they were involved at that time.

So is it true to say that some writers can successfully cross boundaries and others can't? Isn't it that same old question: what is the secret ingredient that makes one writer succeed and another fail, and can it be taught?

The speakers again agreed that whilst you can have a bash at it - and they all have at some point - in truth, they believe that writing can't really be taught. Alan Plater was the most enthusiastic. He thinks that teaching is about creating an environment where students are not afraid and then allowing them to 'let rip with what they have inside them.'

Andrew said, 'People with much talent learn a lot and quickly, but if they are not talented, you want to tell them to go out and get experience, have something to write about, become a more interesting person, just shape up and be somebody else.' Well…that's telling you.

And Bonnie said that she really didn't think it could be taught. She said that out of a room of fifty students, only one will be a writer. 'Others may be successful but only one is a writer.' I managed to overcome a sudden impulse to leap to my feet and cry, 'That's me!'

I haven't mentioned David Nobbs and I must. He was without doubt the most graceful chairperson I've ever encountered. He bowled the discussion along, gently persuading Alan to be quiet and Andrew to speak, and pretending at one point to argue with Bonnie, although nobody was fooled, and he did it all without showing a single join. I wonder if he would chair my dinner parties…

So what is the lesson to be learned about crossing boundaries? Should we stick to what we do best/earn the most money from/enjoy the most? Or just follow our noses?

My butcher says that whilst there are many pastimes at which he excels, organised butchery is the only one that he could bear to follow day in, day out for forty years. Oh happy man, who has never been tempted by money, prestige or whimsy to cross boundaries and moonlight in a chip shop! But we are not here to talk about my butcher.

The last word should really be for the Writers' Guild. I was impressed. In fact, I shall go again. I shall even join. What made the evening a success for me (apart from the august company and April fool furniture) was the excellent mix of opinions for which it was certainly worth going out on a chilly April evening.

* Scriptwriter is a monthly magazine for anyone interested in writing filmscripts. It is published by Julian Friedmann, who spoke at last year's BSCW conference. The website can be found at www.scriptwritermagazine.com, and to subscribe, or for more details, e-mail Julian: julian@scriptwritermagazine.com. Julian promises several articles about comedy writing in the next issue.

At the recent Networking Day organised by the British Society of Comedy Writers, a workshop by Keith Lindsay focused on writing for sitcoms.

The only difference between dramas and sitcoms, he claimed, is that the sitcom "lets you off the hook." In other words, you are allowed to write for laughs.

Sitcoms, therefore, can include all the usual conflict associated with drama, but there must be the release of laughter at the end.

One of the first things to be realised in sitcom writing is that it is character based. What happens to the characters during any particular episode need not be particularly dramatic or exciting - in fact it can be downright mundane - but the fact that your character is facing the problem is what makes it humorous.

Every character must be so well drawn that what they say immediately identifies them. Once the script is written it should be obvious who has said what. In 'Only Fools and Horses,' for example, only Del Boy would say "You plonker!" and then only to Rodney. Only Captain Mainwaring would say "You stupid boy!" and then only to Private Pike.

Catchphrases become attached to strong characters, although do not necessarily start out that way. Once there is audience response to a catchphrase its repetition makes sense. For this reason, Keith regretted the fact that many programmes are recorded without an audience.

Keith advocated a "dynamic diamond" in that at each corner there is a single character. This person can interact with any of the other three, each in an individual way. In many sitcoms, these characters share a common history. This is often never revealed in the weekly plots, but it is there, nevertheless.

Keith asked his listeners to imagine the lives that Albert and Harold Steptoe had together before the series of programmes. Similarly, everyone in the cast of 'Dad's Army' had a completely different existence until they were thrown together in the Home Guard.

Most sitcom characters have flaws in their personality. The best also often bring their own "attitude" to the stories. Think how tame 'One Foot in the Grave' would be without Victor Meldrew's famous intolerant temper.

Characters also come into conflict with their colleagues, but often also complement each other. They often have to rely on each other, despite being on differing social levels.

Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson have changed status in the Home Guard, Jonesy the butcher had his own leverage over those in charge through bribery with meat, but all the time poor Private Pike is at the bottom of the pile.

Keith's claim that sitcoms are either hierarchical or symbiotic was discussed. It was realised that nearly every sitcom mentioned was one of the other. The best scripts occurred when both systems were in evidence. 'Dad's Army' was a prime example of both a hierarchy - Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones, the members of the unit, and, bringing up the rear, Private Pike - as well as being symbiotic in that all the characters had to rely on each other.

A symbiotic system with no real sense of hierarchy was, perhaps, 'Last of the Summer Wine.' None of the characters was obviously the most important, and the stories were able to concentrate on either Compo, Clegg, or Truly when Roy Clarke wished.

In the majority of sitcoms, characters could be places at the four points of the dynamic diamond, and the relationships between them then became more obvious.

'Blackadder' was chiefly hierarchical, as was 'Fawlty Towers.' Edmund Blackadder's main adversary was, of course, Baldrick, with occasional intervention by the other characters.

Basil Fawlty was full of flaws, and always in conflict with his wife, Polly, or Manuel, or even the guests.

'The Royle Family' tended more towards the symbiotic, and was perhaps less noteworthy through lack of strong conflict.

From the writing point of view, Keith advised that sitcom characters "do their own thing" and he suggested the writer follow their lead.

When a sitcom script was completed, presentation to a broadcaster had its own pitfalls. Keith's advice: Don't be precious about your work. Allow others in. Their observations and help may make your workmanlike sitcom the next all-time favourite.

* Mike Wilson is Editor of Link, the magazine of the National Association of Writers' Groups.

Robert McKee believes the problem with cinema today is the lack of story. Fine direction, photography, set design and dialogue abound, but scant story. To help make Hollywood a better place, McKee has preached the gospel of story design since 1984 in his 3-day seminar and, for the more budget conscious, his book ‘Story’.

Breaking film into acts, sequences, scenes and beats, he isolates the five-part story structure:

- Inciting Incident: an event that really upsets the protagonist’s balance
- Progression: layers of conflict which expose the world of the protagonist or drive deeper into their psyche
- Crisis: the expected, ultimate conflict as set up by the Inciting Incident
- Climax: the action required to overcome the crisis that leaves no way back
- Resolution: tie up the loose ends or afford the audience some relief so they can ease back into real life

While following this pattern, a story must remain true to its Controlling Idea, a combination of Value and Cause. For example, ‘Dirty Harry’ has the Controlling Idea “Justice triumphs (value) because the protagonist is more violent than the criminal (cause)” whereas Columbo series abides by “Justice triumphs (value) because the protagonist is smarter than the criminal (cause)”. A single controlling idea often inspires the audience to add more meaning of their own. Driving several ideas home causes confusion and the story drifts uncontrollably.

McKee draws examples from a wide range of films and genres, including ‘A Fish Called Wanda’, ‘Die Hard’, ‘JFK’ and ‘Casablanca’. Not all are regarded as classics, but they are common films, easily available on video and complement the discussion.

A chapter on Comedy forms the base text for Robert McKee’s Comedy Seminar (See Geoff Parfitt’s review in the July ezine). A good comedy film does not ignore the principles of story. It has licence to add scenes redundant to the plot solely because they are funny. A typical Marx Brothers film has the 5 elements of story, but they only use ten minutes of screen time.

Don’t look here for an insight into the Hollywood machine or how to fight with your agent. More surprisingly, there is little about wording the script. It has the standard tips (don’t direct the director, don’t treat actors like puppets and dialogue is not like real-life conversation), but ‘Story’ is what it says on the box – “substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting”.

There are many more tips, tricks and methods that help build a more saleable script. Disregarding the occasional arrogant turn of phrase and a bias towards Classical Story telling (Anti-structure and Minimalism are discussed but to no depth), ‘Story’ is an essential for the screenwriter with a message for the world who wants to avoid cliché when telling it. No book can be all bad if it quotes Ernest Hemmingway with “A first draft of anything is shit”.

Published by Methuen. For more information: http://www.mckeestory.com

1-3 November 2002
At: THE APOLLO HOTEL, 243 HAGLEY ROAD, EDGBASTON, BIRMINGHAM B16 9RA
Tel: 0121 455 0271 Fax: 0121 456 2394

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME:

The BSCW 3rd International Comedy Conference, the biggest event of its kind in Europe, will soon be upon us.

From every corner of the globe broadcasters, producers, agents, artists and writers will descend on Birmingham for the weekend. The event will see the launch of new products and the formation of new partnerships.

It is right that the event should attract so much attention. Conferences, seminars and workshops are the lifeblood of the industry. Decision makers of every level have the chance to mingle, put faces to names and producers can boast of their latest projects.

Many UK professionals will be making the trip this year, for while much of the business of the BSCW will be foreign focused, there is lots to be gained for the domestic market. Sneak previews of new projects, new contacts and potentially new sales are only part of the benefits. Let's not forget the event is in the heart of England … see you there!

Confirmed so far …

TALKS, DISCUSSIONS & WORKSHOPS include:

* DAVE BONNER (Managing Director, Red Balloon Productions Ltd) "LATEST REQUIREMENTS OF RED BALLOON PRODUCTIONS"
* CLIVE CULLUM (Freelance scriptwriter) "THE IMPORTANCE OF NETWORKING"
* W M WALTER FERNANDO (Producer/Director, NAWA Cinema Films, Sri Lanka) "WRITING SCRIPTS FOR SRI LANKAN MARKETS"
* MIKE JACKSON (Managing Director, Splash TV) "DEVELOPING IDEAS FOR CHILDREN'S TELEVISION"
* MI MIYAUCHI (TV Producer, NRK, Japan) "WRITING OPPORTUNITIES IN JAPAN"
* ANTHONY PARKER (Freelance TV Producer) "PRODUCING SITUATION COMEDY"
* VINCE POWELL (Scriptwriter) "HOW TO WRITE SUCCESSFUL SITCOM"
* RICHARD MICHAELS STEFANIK (Story/Screenplay Consultant, Megahit Movies, USA) "STORY DESIGN: CREATING POPULAR HOLLYWOOD MOVIES" and "CREATING HUMOROUS CHARACTERS & SCENES"

Plus CABARET with international artists including...

DEBBIE NUNN (England)
MRS PINKERTON-LOVELY AND HER LITTLE STRINGED INSTRUMENT (England)
ZEN (Japan)

And an OPEN MIC SPOT for all you budding comedians

Once again the BSCW is organising a series of script surgeries where delegates can discuss their work on a one-to-one basis with our experienced script doctors.

SCRIPT SURGERIES

* DAVID BODYCOMBE (Game/Quiz Show Formats)
* KEITH LINDSAY (Soap Opera)
* RONALD WOLFE (Situation Comedy)

More names and details will be announced soon.

Please note the conference is residential only. No day, half-day or individual passes will be issued.

Fee for the residential weekend: BSCW Members/Subscribers: £185 or £165 for early registration. Non-members: £205 or £185 for early registration.

To reserve your place and to receive a £20 discount for early registration please return the booking form together with a £50 non-returnable deposit by 31st August 2002. No single rooms can be guaranteed after this date.

The fee covers accommodation at the Apollo Hotel, entrance to all workshops, talks, discussions, receptions, cabaret evening, all meals and gratuities.

This event is expected to sell-out quickly so early booking is advisable. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Further information about workshops, conference, membership and the booking form can be found on our web site at: www.bscw.co.uk

Representatives from the following companies have already confirmed their attendance:

- BBC Radio (UK)
- BBC Television (UK)
- Brighton Film School (UK)
- Chrystal Television (UK)
- Cologne Comedy School (Germany)
- Cult TV (UK)
- D & D Film und Fernsehproduktion GmbH (Germany)
- D & D Humorprodukties (Belgium)
- Debbie Nunn Productions (UK)
- Distraction Formats (Canada)
- Imperial Film Productions (UK)
- Labyrinth Games (UK)
- Media X-change (UK)
- Megahit Movies (USA)
- National Association of Writers' Groups (UK)
- Nawacinema Films (Sri Lanka)
- NOB Broadcast Facilities (Holland)
- NOS Central Staf & Services (Holland)
- NRK (Japan)
- PP Productions (UK)
- Red Balloon Productions (UK)
- Riviera Productions (UK)
- Royal Television Society (UK)
- S4C (Wales)
- Society of Authors (UK)
- Spirit, Hop and Grape Company (UK)
- Splash TV (UK)
- VRT (Belgium)
- Writers Guild of Great Britain (UK)

As well as writing articles for 'Scriptwriter', as seen above, Janice Day is working on her first novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lucy Pascoe, Middle Aged, thinking about how to adapt it as a comedy feature film, while playing the ukulele and singing cabaret, though not all at the same time.

Simon Warne writes "First off just before Christmas of last year I won the TAPS comedy writer of the year award, following the successful showcase of my sitcom script `Arrested Development' at the Riverside Studios in September.

He continues "As a result of the award I got myself an agent and interest from Alomo in a new sitcom script. I have just completed work on my first feature film (a romantic comedy) and last week received a new commission from BBC Radio Four for an afternoon play - so life is good." It sounds great!

Carol Donockley reports "Just to let you know that I've had a bit of good news. I've signed a contract with the BBC for some work I've done for the pre school programme 'Story Makers' which goes out on BBC2 and CBBC and I've been accepted onto a TAPS course at Granada studios in August to work on my drama "All fall down".

Gill Smith was a regional finalist in Help the Aged's national 'Healthy Eating' poetry competition. "I'll enjoy my very healthy prize - a large tin of Quality Street!"

AS USUAL, I'd really love to see your articles, review, news and successes for the next E-zine. You know where to send them by now - gill@bscw.co.uk. In case some of you, like me, work better to a deadline, then I'd like everything in by 25th August, please, for the September issue.