FAQ OFF

This is a tricky one, if I’m supposed to answer from my own experience I’d have to say wait until your best friend at drama school is offered her own tv show and she will ask you to write for it.  As this won’t suit everyone I would say think what kind of script you have (if you’re asking me this question I assume you’ve written a comedy script) and then send it to a television production company.

No, I’m a writer, not a reader.  But seriously, I get asked this all the time and I’m afraid I have to say no; I don’t have time to read all the scripts people want to send me.  Anyway, I’m not the right person for you to give it to.  You need to send it to a television production company, one who might want to make it.

Think of your favourite tv shows, watch an episode (or fast forward to the end if you’re impatient) and the end credits will tell you who makes that programme.  Send your script to them, or at least a treatment/synopsis of what your intended show is about.  Or you could send your script directly to the BBC, check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/

I started with a sketch about middle aged swingers.  The sketch was set in a suburban living room, I thought this was a bit boring so I set it around a swimming pool on holiday.  Then I imagined who else might be sitting around the pool.  I wrote two episodes of the show before I actually visited Benidorm.

As well as writing for Catherine Tate I’ve written comedy for a number of people and a few other shows including Harry Enfield, Barry Humphries, John Sullivan, Lee Mack and others I can’t remember right now.

When we shoot Benidorm we are on location there for 3-4months.  During that time some days we needs extras, some days we don’t.  Extras have to be Benidorm residents as we may need to reshoot a scene we filmed 2 months ago; difficult to do if the people in the background we need to match have finished their holiday and are back in the UK.  Most of the time extras are called up the night before to see if they are available and sometimes canceled the night before.  We have built up a network of local people in Benidorm that work as extras over the last few series who are now used to the conditions…  They get up about 6am, start before everyone else and finish after everyone else, they are the last to eat at lunchtime and get paid very little.  Am I making this sound too glamorous?  But the bottom line is you need to be a Spanish resident.

ITV choose the transmission date.  If I had to make an educated guess as to when they will show it I’d say probably same as series 6 and series 7 which both aired in early January.  But until ITV make an announcement we don’t know.

Let’s get series 8 out of the way first shall we?

http://www.spotlight.com/ : Enter the performer’s name in the “search” field in the top right hand of the page.

I’m currently working on a book about my experiences making the tv show Benidorm and co-writing a comedy with Simon Carlyle.  I’m also writing a one off script for the BBC and a musical with Grant Black & Murray Lachlan-Young.