2010

Okay then, the year is fast approaching its end, time to take stock and look back at what has been a pretty great 12 months for me. Yes, I’m going to pat myself on the back in a sick-inducingly self satisfied manner.

MISSING SCENE:

Myself, David ‘The Drunk Camel’ Bussell and Ben ‘Don’t Look At His Mobile Phone Pictures’ Ricketts wrote a bunch of stuff, and some mad fool of a production company decided to go and make a bloody pilot! And what’s more, Alice Lowe, Kevin Eldon, Steve Furst and Isabel Fay for some reason agreed to star in it; madness! It’s still slightly hard to believe that it ever happened, but the weeks filming was amongst the most enjoyable things I’ve ever been involved in.

So what is its current status? Well, it’s still out there; basically it was decided that it would stand a better chance of getting the opportunity it deserves if a bigger name production company agreed to come aboard and put their weight behind it. So let’s see if any of them like it enough to put their balls where my mouth is.

THE I.T.CROWD:

Okay, this was a biggie, THE biggie, the most important professional moment of my ‘career’ (don’t laugh) so far. Graham Linehan asked me to join a few other writers in helping to create and develop stories and ideas for series 5 of The IT Crowd. Mental.

As I write this, I’m still in the middle of working on the show, and it’s been amazing. Will I end up having anything I can point to on screen and shout ‘that was me!’?? Who knows, but it’s been a great and potentially hugely important time for me as a writer. A comedy genius thought enough of me to welcome me onto his show. If I wasn’t such a double hard bastard, I’d well up a little.

I GOT ME AN AGENT:

I’m official! I was never really bothered about getting an agent, and never chased one or put myself forward in the hope of getting signed up. Then a producer sent a script of mine along to her agent, and he asked me in for a chat. I can’t deny that being able to say you have an agent feels good, it feels proper. I now have someone actively looking after me as a writer, trying to find me work; and it’s thanks to Will at Independent Talent that I landed the I.T. gig.

It feels like another big milestone crossed off the list; of course, come this time next year I could have been dropped like a hot sausage, but right now I have an agent, and it feels rather lovely.

So those are the three big things that happened to me as a writer this year; by far the best twelve months for me since I decided to try scribbling comedy nonsense. There were other things, such as the show I wrote with Ben ‘Reporter In Sherlock’ Green that Pozzitive pitched, but no channel wanted, but those three have been the biggest and most important to me.

So 2010, a potential game changer of a year for me as a writer; will 2011 match up, or somehow better it even, or will this be as good as it gets for me? Will the agent drop me before march? Will The IT Crowd be nothing more than a sexy blip? Looking forward to finding out!

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