Writing a comedy about comedy writing


episodesWriting comedy is hard.   I’ve tried it.  So to try to squeeze comedy out of the plight of writers writing a sitcom would seem to be a case of writerly navel-gazing at its worst.

Thank heavens, then, for Episodes (BBC-2) which, having reached its fourth series, seems finally to be getting the attention it deserves.  Annoyingly, like someone who claims to have seen The Beatles in The Cavern in 1962, I have been a fan of this show since the first episode.  Honestly.  But I’ve spent the last three years enthusing about it to blank faces.

The “sit” is this: Beverley and Sean (played by Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan) are a married British couple whose gentle, thoughtful, witty Britcom has been bought by a Hollywood studio.  The studio then proceeds to rip it to shreds and remake it, replacing Richard Griffiths (he was in series 1) with Matt Le Blanc of Friends fame.

But that was series 1.  It has now matured into a comedy about the insincerity and venality of the TV business and has gone from being pretty funny to usually hilarious, never more so than in the scenes with Le Blanc who plays a priapic, amoral version of himself, frustrated at being in a show that’s much less successful than Friends.  He picked up a Golden Globe in 2012 for his performance.

It’s a weird US/UK hybrid.  It’s co-written by David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik (Crane co-wrote Friends) and made by Hat Trick Productions of the UK.  It’s shot mainly in the UK (Camden in London apparently doubling for Las Vegas in one episode.  I know, I know…) but goes out first on Showtime in the US.

Anyway, it’s very funny and available on Netflix, and last night I properly LOL’d and was still chuckling as I got into bed at this scene.  Episodes Series 4, ep. 5 Matt,  so cash-strapped after being ripped off by his late accountant that he might have to consider selling his vineyard, accepts $500,000 to attend the birthday party of the world’s second-most-murderous dictator who is a huge fan of Friends.  Once there he bumps into an unlikely fellow guest…

(The answer to the above puzzle: turn it upside down!)

Back to blog

The Monkey Who Fell From The Future

The hilarious, moving and adventure-packed new novel for readers of 9 and up from Ross Welford, the bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author of Time Travelling with a Hamster

More Info

Into the Sideways World

When Willa and Manny stumble upon a seemingly perfect world without pollution or conflict, they try desperately to make people in their own troubled world believe them.

More Info

When We Got Lost in Dreamland

When 11 year-old Malky and his younger brother Seb become the owners of a “Dreaminator”, they are thrust into worlds beyond their wildest imagination. But impossible dreams come with incredible risks...

More Info

The Kid Who Came From Space

A small village in the wilds of Northumberland is rocked by the disappearance of twelve-year-old Tammy. Only her twin brother, Ethan, knows she is safe – and the extraordinary truth of where she is. It is a secret he must keep, or risk never seeing her again.

More Info

The Dog Who Saved The World

My pet dog is called Mr Mash. We named him that because he's a mishmash. A total mongrel. He smells terrible. He'll eat literally anything. He can't see very well. But I love him more than anything. (Sorry dad.) And without him, the world is going to end...

More Info

The 1,000-year-old Boy

There are stories about people who want to live forever. This is a story about someone who wants to stop.

More Info

What Not To Do If You Turn Invisible

Turning invisible at will: it’s one way of curing your acne. But far more drastic than 13 year-old Ethel Leatherhead intended when she tried a combination of untested medicines and a sunbed.

More Info

Time Travelling With A Hamster

My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine, and again four years later when he was twelve.

More Info