How an online master's in comedy writing can help you excel in the industry
09 August 2024
There aren’t many people who know more about comedy scriptwriting than multi-award-winning producer Simon Nicholls. With an illustrious career that began in the BBC’s radio comedy department, Simon progressed into Armando Iannucci’s BBC TV team where he developed and produced many TV and Audio comedy shows.
Today Simon lives in Cornwall and is a freelance producer. He also runs Falmouth’s online master’s in Comedy Writing, alongside an award-winning teaching team who nurture writers to hone their skills into successful careers.
We chatted to Simon about the industry-focused approach of the Comedy Writing MA, alongside what it takes to forge a sustainable career as a professional writer.
What makes this course stand out from other script writing courses?
The Comedy Writing MA came about when I was working as a TV and Audio producer – latterly Exec Producer - for BBC Comedy. I regularly saw new writers making the same key mistakes in terms of the scripts they wrote and how they approached producers.
General scriptwriting courses are great at teaching theory but can sometimes lack the industry connections, and so students graduate without knowing how to get their writing seen by the people that matter. We solve this problem by having a team with extensive industry experience: developing students’ writing skills and arming them with the street smarts to succeed professionally.
I’m a Course Leader and producer (I produce French and Saunders’ hit comedy podcast Titting About for Audible, Sue Perkins’ award-winning BBC comedy Nature Table and have a feature film in funded development with Screen Cornwall). I’m lucky to work with an excellent teaching team made up of writers, with professional credits across Film, TV, Theatre and Audio. Between us we’ve written hit plays for the Royal Court, won Broadcasting Press Guild awards, ‘Best Comedy’ awards at the ARIAS and RTS-nominations for TV writing. Our team’s professional backgrounds, combined with us recently scooping a Falmouth Staff Excellence Award, means the Comedy Writing MA has a rich academic and industry-focused approach.
To have a long sustainable career as a writer, you need to be skilled at writing across different platforms. Our team’s broad experience across different media – Film, TV, Audio, Online and Theatre – means we can confidently teach everything from developing a broad portfolio of writing, to identifying different paid opportunities and how to best grab them. I know our students appreciate the unique industry guidance and expertise we offer.
How does having those direct links to industry actually support students and graduates on the course?
Our industry connections directly inform what we teach and how we teach it. Much of what we teach in terms of the mechanics of scriptwriting comes directly from my years working with Armando Iannucci. That and a passion for making the work fun: in my experience, writers do their best when they feel supported and confident (and have plenty of chocolate).
Another positive industry link are the masterclasses we run with leading writers, producers and commissioners. At these online events, our students can directly ask the guests questions. Previous industry sessions (the recordings of which all students have access to) have included Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders, Holly Walsh (co-creator and writer of BBC’s Bafta-winning Motherland), Bafta and Emmy-winning screenwriter Simon Blackwell, Bafta-winning producer of This Country Simon Mayhew-Archer and Liam Williams, award-winning comedian and star of BBC Three’s Ladhood.
Much of what we teach in terms of the mechanics of scriptwriting comes directly from my years working with Armando Iannucci
We also have an annual in-person event with a programme of masterclasses with leading industry professionals, which is marvellous for networking with industry folk.
When it comes to our alumni, the door is always open. We offer guidance after the MA and, when appropriate, use our industry links and contacts to support. But we also teach students how to be independent, so they can create their own professional opportunities. They learn how to best approach producers – a vital part of getting ahead in this industry.
How does comedy writing differ from other forms of script writing?
As a comedy scriptwriter, you’re looking to do the exact same things as a drama scriptwriter: come up with an intriguing idea, build a distinctive world, create a strong group of nuanced characters and develop a juicy plot full of surprising twists. But where comedy differs is you’re also trying to make people laugh. Comedy is subjective: people are super vocal when they watch a comedy they don’t like, whereas when a boring drama appears, people just shrug and carry on. So, I (and many comedy writers before me) maintain that writing a strong comedy script is much harder than writing a drama. But it’s the complexity of writing comedy that makes the challenge much sweeter; there’s no better feeling that writing a script that grabs people emotionally and makes them laugh.
Today, the lines between drama and comedy are becoming increasingly blurred. For example, HBO’s Succession won a barrel of drama Emmys. This was a TV drama written by a team of mainly comedy writers; an impactful drama filled with funny lines and comic moments, it brilliantly juggled drama with comedy. And likewise, strong comedies aren’t afraid to feature hefty moments of drama. The truth is, in real life we’re never 100% serious the whole time, and I think good fiction reflects this.
On the MA we teach comedy as a rich varied spectrum. Some of our students lean towards writing sitcoms, like Bafta-winning Motherland or US classic Frasier. Others are more in tune with comedy drama – or ‘dramedy’ - like Fleabag or Fargo. And that’s fine – comedy is a broad transferable church. If you learn to write comedy, you can write drama, too.
What are some of the biggest graduate success stories from the course?
The Comedy Writing MA is still young, but our students have already had a bunch of success.
Many of our students have secured their first professional writing credits off the back of the MA, writing for BBC comedies. This is a huge achievement for them to build upon. In fact, one of our students secured the highly sought-after one-year BBC comedy radio writing contract. Previous winners of this prestigious contract include award-winning writers like Georgia Pritchett, Tony Roche and Simon Blackwell.
We have a number of students developing scripts with production companies. One of our recent graduates was a finalist on Bafta’s eminent Bafta Rocliffe writing competition (with a script they developed on the MA). As a result of this, the graduate has secured industry interest and is meeting with production companies.
It’s the complexity of writing comedy that makes the challenge much sweeter; there’s no better feeling that writing a script that grabs people emotionally and makes them laugh.
And in a wonderful example of looking beyond ‘the traditional’ for paid writing work, one of our students has been commissioned to write a Halloween puppet show for Legoland! I’ve never been, but hurray for Legoland!
I’m not saying that breaking into the industry is easy: it isn’t. But I believe our many students who have gained their first success as professional writers have done so because we’ve built them up creatively and taught them how to showcase their talent; seizing the professional opportunities that are out there.
How is the comedy writing industry changing, and how does the course equip students to excel?
The industry is evolving at a great pace and I’m keen that our students are prepped for that, in a way that’s current and relevant. On the MA, we have a specific module focused on the industry and how to successfully navigate it.
A good example of how things are changing in the comedy writing industry is the power of social media. Specifically, writers can use social media to hone their comedy writing skills and promote their talent. Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan, who co-wrote the multi-award-winning Channel 4 and Amazon comedy drama Catastrophe, first met when Sharon read the jokes that Rob regularly put on Twitter (now ‘X’). Sharon was taken with Rob’s posts, they started a dialogue and Catastrophe was born.
Similarly, actor and writer Michael Spicer started posting his Room Next Door sketches on social media. Michael’s material went viral and consequently he secured his own BBC sketch show, a UK tour and book deal. Equally, many series of the award-winning podcast sitcom Wooden Overcoats was produced with no broadcaster funding: they did a kickstarter and a massively popular hit sitcom was born.
Today, with the advances in affordable technical equipment and social media, you don’t have to wait for permission from a commissioner to get your work seen. On the MA, we guide our students specifically through the different non-traditional ways a comedy writer can take control, so they can build up their professional profile and have a career doing the best job in the world.
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