Well, today we've let the people we would like to interview know, and let the people from the long list who we're not going to interview know too. We'll be meeting people next Tuesday and Wednesday, and announcing the six by the end of next week, all being well. And that's the news from the college.
Since some of the comments have moved into general areas beyond the scheme, it seems like a good opportunity to address some myths and misconceptions.
One, which hasn't yet surfaced but is bound to at some point, is that we are so bereft of projects that we steal ideas from new writers and give them to some mythical group of favourites who exist in a basement of Television Centre waiting to be fed. There is never a shortage of scripts of ideas. There is always a shortage of good scripts and ideas. Indeed, when I ran an online team-writing project called Cleaners, someone claimed I had stolen it which, since it was based on a format I devised at Alomo, was demonstrably untrue. It's a fact of writing life that several people will have a similar idea at much the same time. Although I have only once seen a project set in a public lavatory.
Another, which Kroggy has raised, is that there is some sort of clique or inner circle of writers, to which outsiders can never be admitted. This is a good conspiracy theory, but doesn't bear close examination. In my seven years at the ±«Óãtv, I have found or been involved in finding (some with the invaluable help of the writers' room) seven writers who had no broadcast credits, knew no one at the ±«Óãtv, and are all now writing professionally both here and for other broadcasters. Colleagues have similar experiences to report. Everyone in comedy wants to find and foster new writers whose work they can develop and see produced. There is no closed shop.
I am currently reading projects which we plan to pitch to commissioning and thence, all being well, to channels. A quarter of those projects are by writers with no broadcast credits, and are thus, by my definition, new. For some it may be a second or third attempt to get a show made, but for all of them it was a matter of someone here who didn't know them finding a script they liked.
So while we obviously have a pool of writers who seem likely to create a produceable show, it is a pool which is constantly refreshed and continues to expand. That doesn't feel like a clique to me.
I thought the college entry requirements were clear, though I had three or four requests for clarification. They were designed to rule out complete beginners, because the scheme isn't designed for complete beginners.
The final shortlist was a result of reading and comment by nine people with significant experience in television comedy, including the senior members of the comedy department.
I am not going to publish submissions, first because some are in development outside the ±«Óãtv, and second because I will not expose writers to trial by internet, even if they were willing. .