The British Society of Comedy Writers Celebrates Second Successful Networking Day.

London’s Comedy Pub was an appropriate venue for the BSCW’s second Networking Day, on Saturday 22nd March. BSCW members and subscribers met and mingled with industry guests, at an informative and productive day for all – one speaker even commented: “I thoroughly enjoyed the day.”

This international event brought together writers and entertainment industry figures, including representatives of the BBC and Fit-to-Fill Productions, to share their knowledge and learn about writing comedy today. The event attracted a host of delegates from the UK and around the world, including America, Denmark and particularly popularly, the Isle of Wight!

After BSCW President Ken Rock welcomed everyone, the day started with an edifying talk from Ronnie Wolfe, sharing “50 things you should know about writing sitcom” based on his experiences writing “On the Buses” and “The Rag Trade” and those of other writers he has interviewed. Ronnie’s hilarious illustrations of his tips made it hard to take notes for laughing. One attendee commented “Ronnie’s talk gave a really good insight into sitcoms.”

Next, guests were introduced; the remaining speakers, as well as Felicity Fair Thompson, who runs writing courses, Melvin D Willis of Todomundo, a health and safety training organisation recruiting writers for their material, Shaw Taylor, formerly of Police Five, and Alex J Geairns of Cult TV, an annual festival celebrating cult television programs from around the world.

After a lunch break and a chance to get chatting, participants hurried back to Richard Michaels Stefanik’s talk “Story Design: Creating Popular Hollywood Movies.” Richard covered a lot of ground during his talk, using recent examples of successful films, including Spiderman and Men In Black, to illustrate his ideas.

A late addition to the program, the BBC’s Anne Taylor arrived to outline current opportunities offered by BBC Talent, and to ensure writers had entry forms for this competition. She remarked “I only wanted to speak for five minutes but was so enthralled by the excellent questions from your lovely audience.”

Author Gareth Owen then held the floor. Sharing his research for “The Pinewood Story” and particularly those tales that for legal reasons couldn’t be included in the book, he held the delegates spellbound with tales of big names at the famous studios.

Raymond Allen’s talk on his experiences as a comedy writer included tales of his life mirroring that of his creation, Frank Spencer, in “Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em.” The first comedy script he’d sent to the BBC, the show ran to 22 episodes, shown in nearly 60 countries.

Throughout the day participants mingled or bought the speakers’ discounted books – Ronnie Wolfe’s new edition of “Writing Comedy”, Richard Michaels Stefanik’s “The Megahit Movies” and Gareth Owen’s “The Pinewood Story” and “Roger Moore – His films and career”. John Byrne kindly autographed copies of his new release “Writing Comedy,” and the Screenwriters store offered discounted products. These books were all also up for raffle, and the prizes raised over £100 for a Guatemalan hospital.

After all this the evening’s Networking Party kicked into full swing. Free drinks and nibbles proved popular, as did the magician’s baffling tricks, while writers chatted to delegates from Cult TV, Teletext, Denmark’s Castor Visions, Wild Iris Productions UK Ltd, Naiad Productions and Marketing Ltd, F*F Productions, and many other organisations.

Finally, the BSCW were delighted to announce their fourth annual International Comedy Conference, from 7th – 9th November. Further details will be revealed soon, on the BSCW’s website, www.bscw.co.uk. Bookings are being accepted, as the organization consolidates its role at the forefront of the comedy and light entertainment industries.


Comments from conference delegates:

“Thanks for a lovely and very informative day on Saturday!”

“Well worth going.”

“If everyone there got half as much out of it as I did, the speakers certainly did their jobs!”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me to the networking day”

Background:

The British Society of Comedy Writers was launched to an international audience at The Golden Rose of Montreux TV Festival in April 2000, and in the UK in July 2000 at the Groucho Club. The BSCW is a professional organisation offering market information, networking and promotion opportunities, support and advice to our members.

Benefits of membership of the BSCW include:

- Regular market information – distributed by e-mail and website.
- BSCW web space, including a comedy CV and contact information.
- Invitations to meetings within comedy and light entertainment.
- A monthly E-zine covering industry issues, profiles and comment.
- Discounted rates for conferences and training workshops.
- Discounts on books with certain publishers.

The BSCW offers subscriber status, providing opportunities to learn about comedy to those with limited experience who are keen to develop their skills.

The BSCW web pages can be found at http://www.bscw.co.uk

ENDS

For more information on this press release, please contact Gill Smith on +44 (0) 7970 759744 or gill@bscw.co.uk. For more information about the BSCW, please contact Ken Rock on +44 (0) 1902 722 729 or Ken@bscw.co.uk, or have a look on the website www.bscw.co.uk.

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