How I got to sort of write for TV…

By Stefan Gibbons-Arif

I have written words that people (sometimes comedians, sometimes puppets) have said on TV and Radio and for the most part got paid for it, but I’m not really a professional fancy pants writer.

I work as a freelance Assistant Producer in comedy television and Children’s comedy. Fortunately, I’ve been able to write one-liners, sometimes two-liners and even full scripts, but trying to just be a TV writer, nothing else, is pretty ruddy difficult.

I just want to share my experience so far for people who want to write comedy for television. There are many different routes and stories out there, but here is my one if you’re curious.

I started off working in television by hearing from a friend of a friend that a BBC show needed a runner. ‘The 5:19 Show’ was part of BBC Switch, catering for the early teenage audience but the department was cut because teenagers don’t exist anymore or summat.

As a runner, I did whatever I was asked, which sometimes meant making terrible budget props from materials in the prop cupboard and at other times dressing up as a tree and having satsumas thrown at me by a cast member of the movie Twilight slash dressing up as Guy Fawkes and having bread rolls thrown at me by the American band “3OH!3”.
Runner jobs can solely involve making tea and getting people lunch, but I lucked out on this one. Also, at one point the presenter who was a professional comedian said I was funny and it was the highlight of my career and LIFE at the time.

About 3 months down the line, the Producer of the 5:19 show suggested me to another Producer friend for a junior researcher role at ‘Russell Howard’s Good News’. The interview went well and that’s where I stayed working for about 6 series.

I don’t want to downplay my role on the show too much but I essentially watched the news all day (BBC local news, ITV news, Sky rolling news) looking out for anything that could be funny, and as I clambered up to the role of Associate Producer, I led an editorial team who also did the same. We became an absolute machine, churning through hours and hours of news footage to find the best bits. We worked 6 days a week and ate takeaways most nights and as a younger person, it was ace, but I couldn’t do it now. I like to be home for at least the C4+1 showing of the Simpsons and cook a lamb tagine. Also, I met my wife working on RHGN so in some ways it was my best job ever.

Working on a comedy show, you’ll inevitably work with funny people, sometimes annoying people, sometimes a combination, and sometimes scary people…anyway, the main thing is, you’ll work with funny people.

I learnt the craft of topical joke writing over the course of my time at Russell Howard’s Good News even though I wasn’t writing anything.
Once I suggested a joke in a meeting and it got made into a sketch, and I was in the sketch dressed as a fairy and it was the highlight of my career and LIFE at the time.
Obviously suggesting a joke to a comedian and writers is pretty nerve wracking and you should stick to your role in the team, so don’t do that kind of thing straight away, definitely build a rapport with everyone and be nice and not an arse and do your actual job.

Anyway, once I left the series, I was employed as an external gag writer for one series but didn’t get any jokes in the show. That was a bit of a kick in the teeth.

After I fixed my teeth, I worked on half a series of ‘Mock The Week’ as an Associate Producer and contributed jokes to the show and theeeeeen I worked on ‘The Last Leg’ on Channel 4, and contributed some jokes there.

This was all building up my confidence, knowing that I could write jokes that could make broadcast on different shows, so that led me to sending jokes into BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Newsjack and getting an actual writing credit and some money. I also got a sketch onto Radio 4’s ‘Show What You Wrote’ so do look out for those sorts of opportunities open to everyone.

Then I moved to Manchester because London got too expensive in general which I marked by how much the price of a coffee was going up each week…and house prices.

I managed to get a job casting for a CBeebies show called ‘Spot Bots’, which I then wrote some scripts for and got an actual TV writing credit. The show, however, is silent comedy for pre-schoolers, so I just had to write things like ‘The fairy fell over’. Though thinking about it that was probably my first official TV writing credit.
I don’t think I promised you a success story, just a story.
I just realised that I’ve mentioned fairies again…maybe fairies will continue to pop up in seminal writing moments in my life.

Via contacts I had made in London, I managed to get a meeting with an executive producer at BBC Comedy in Salford and worked there for 9 months as an Assistant Producer, reading scripts and making a few pilots.
This is where I learnt a lot about the BBC Comedy commissioning process and read a lot of comedy scripts…that probably warrants another blog.

After the 9 months, I went over to CBBC to work as an Assistant Producer but specifically a writing Assistant Producer on ‘Sam and Mark’s Big Friday Wind-Up’, which I’d describe as ‘Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ but with Sam and Mark and on a Friday. I essentially wrote a lot of funny links and it was grand because I actually felt I was being paid to write, but sadly not getting an actual ‘writer’ credit for some reason.

THEN, we get to my latest and best role on CBBC’s ‘Hacker Time’ (Sort of like a British version of ‘The Muppets’).

Here, I got to write full scripts, sketches, songs and even a mini-mockumentary series. Again, I was a ‘Writing Assistant Producer’ but still not credited as a writer, which was crazy because I wrote half the series. Maybe I just need to be content that I’m getting paid to write bits for TV and not worry about the credit.

I think this has been therapeutic for me.

I don’t know if there is any real advice I can give for aspiring comedy writers. Reflecting on my story, maybe if you want to write for comedy television, try working in comedy television? That way you’ll meet the right people and be in the right industry.

Oh and another thing I kept learning is not to underestimate writing for radio. The BBC, for example, has a lot of comedy hours to fill on radio and it means the writing has to be top notch. Shows such as Miranda, Flight of the Conchords and The Mighty Boosh started off as radio shows and then got made for TV, not that TV is the pinnacle anymore.

Anyway, I’m off to write a radio play about fairies.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEE