But the Holy Grail is your own TV series. TV programmes cost a lot to make, TV commissioners need ratings and risks on comedy unknowns are hard to take and then hard to back if the first series doesn’t quite crack it.
That’s why there was such a reaction when the BBC announced they were intending to axe BBC3. A 300,000 viewers petition, protesting performers and a massive industry outcry. BBC3 was set up in 2003 specifically to appeal to 16-34 year olds – and, in the words of the then Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, to be a “powerhouse of new talent”, the young speaking to the young and it was.
BBC3 soon became vital to the development of unknown comedy talent giving them their first chance on TV. Matt Lucas and David Walliams premiered Little Britain on Radio 4, then it made the transition to television on BBC3, then BBC2 then BBC1. Unknowns James Corden and Ruth Jones went the same TV route for Gavin & Stacey – from 3 to 2 to 1 and there’s a list of programmes, Him & Her, Mighty Boosh, and of course Bad Education, which has taken Jack Whitehall to the film.
Don’t worry, said BBC3, we will continue to develop new comedy online, on iplayer and they have. I’ve just watched 2014 Foster's comedy newcomer Dane Baptiste’s very funny sitcom pilot Sunny D on iplayer, a series waiting to happen. But if I hadn’t been told about Sunny D I don’t know how I would have known how to search for it. I’m no television or online expert but it seems to me that comedy online is a bit like the Fringe in its very early days, the wild west, a new frontier. Sure it’s a great way for young comedians to get up and make their own comedy shorts, all you need is a camera and if you haven’t got one, your phone, but in the end of the day whether you are an online comedy producer and a proper company or you are entrepreneurial self-funded performer what you still really want is broadcast. To be picked up online and put onto a channel.
The BBC Trust has said that they are expecting BBC 3 online to lose 80% of its viewers if they go ahead and axe BBC3- the jury is still out. Let’s see them fight to keep those viewers. Let’s see them really embrace online comedy and use the might of the BBC to attract the next generation of viewers. Let’s see them promoting it. I want to see promotion on all the sites visited by 16-34 year olds. What about going slightly further and advertising around the TV reviews in the national newspapers and more promotion on BBC 1 & 2. I don’t believe that proper promotion will break their budget. This is what will make online comedy work and give it a chance to pay off by giving the BBC a series that can go on to BBC2 and BBC1, which is their holy grail.
Let’s also hope that new comedy development doesn’t suffer cuts from other important broadcasters but that they rise to the challenge to develop the next generation of comedy talent. Sky, ITV2, C4, UKTV, Netflix and Amazon show us what you can do and invest in your future audiences by investing in the next generation of comedy stars. We have great comedy talent in the UK – let’s see it developed.
The Comedy Awards are 35 years old this year and congratulations to Bill Burdett Coutts for his 35 years at Assembly and to Karen Coren for her 30 years.
A big thank you to our wonderful sponsors and hosts Foster’s. Where would we all be without commercial partnerships. Please raise your glasses for our annual toast to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and to comedy!"
