Category: About Writing
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The Boomshanka Method
Here’s a fun writing exercise. Have your characters gather around a fire for warmth and help one another compose a letter to their bank manager. This is still one of my favourite scenes in any sitcom, and it shows all four characters with a clear voice. Even Neil, being the passive one in the setup,…
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Stupid Sitcom Characters
The best stupid sitcom characters aren’t actually stupid at all. They have an intelligence with a flawless internal logic. Take Baldrick for example. In his two most memorable scenes, he’s not wrong, and his logic is impeccable. Especially in this. Something else that makes a ‘stupid’ character more intresting is to have them being inexplicably…
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Angry Sitcom Characters
Let’s start with Rik again, this time playing Rick in The Young Ones. Here’s a character consumed by the impotent rage of youth, wanting to change the world, thwarted by his spots. Basil Fawlty is angry at everything, taking it out on everyone, but this anger is fueled by the reality of his failing business.…
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Lonely Sitcom Characters
There are more lonely sitcom characters than you might expect. The first one that springs to mind for me is Richie, in Bottom. The whole show is pretty bleak in a Beckett kind of way. Two people who can’t stand one another are forced to live out their shitty existence together, and smash each other…
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Wyatt’s Watchdogs
I’ve reached a milestone in my epic binge watching of Last Of The Summer Wine. Foggy has left the series for the final time, to be replaced by Frank Thornton as Truly Of The Yard. I thought this might mark a downturn in my enjoyment of the show, but it’s added a freshness back into…
