Wednesday, June 02, 2010

No more Last Of The Summer WIne

I was always quite fond of Last Of The Summer Wine, particularly the one where Compo saw a poodle and said 'By 'eck, someone's made a right bog-up of shearing that sheep!' which may have been the first and last time my dad and I have laughed at the same joke.

When I entered the sitcom-writing competition in 1999 that got me into the crazy business of show (sorry), a proper actual sitcom writer gave us a bit of a pep talk about how writers are treated within television. Once the great cloud of depression had lifted, she did perk us up a bit by telling us that once a year, the BBC had to write a cheque so large, the only person authorized to sign it was the Director General of the BBC himself. And that cheque went to Roy Clarke, the writer of Last of The Summer Wine.

I still have no idea if this was true or not, but it make you think.

*thinks*

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I heard the same story about John Sullivan being the BBC's highest earner...

James Henry said...

Ah, clearly they like to dangle the 'biggest paycheque EVERRRR!!!' in front of all comedy writers, just to keep us keen.

David Nobbs is on Twitter, we could always ask if it's him.

Tim F said...

Clarke also gave us Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances.

Er... thanks, Roy.

James Henry said...

OPEN ALL HOURS WAS BRILLIANT.

You're on notice, Footman.

Tim F said...

I remember when they had that strange show trying to determine the best sitcom of all time, and each contender in the top 10 had a sleb champion. Armando did Yes Minister, which apparently is what inspire him to create The Thick Of It. For Open All Hours they had Clarissa Dickson Fatcooklady; as far as I could judge, she'd never even seen the bloody show. Lucky woman.

Only Fools & Horses won, and I think The Vicar of Dibley came second, which demonstrates if nothing else that the Great British Public should all be drowned at birth.

d f mamea said...

your pep talk reminds of one we got at film school from a graduate and industry industry that, besides equally inspiring and depressing us, included the wonderful career barometer, When you start your day by spitting in your boss's coffee, maybe it's time to move on.