>While I'm musing over Radio 4 gems of yesteryear, anyone else hear this little gem?

too many gems - insert Just a Minute joke

i must read my posts before i actually um, post them

http://www.angelfire.com/pq/radiohaha/MARLOWE.html

Thanks Simon. Ged Parsons, it was. Of course. Lovely beardy chap. We worked on a pilot that went nowhere a few years ago.

Only 4 episodes, according to radiohaha, which is odd - 6 being the industry standard.

That was me, of course, that last post. Hey! Why not join in? It's getting boring just talking about comedy to myself!

>http://www.angelfire.com/pq/radiohaha/MARLOWE.html
>
>Thanks Simon. Ged Parsons, it was. Of course. Lovely beardy chap. We worked on a pilot that went nowhere a few years ago.
>
>Only 4 episodes, according to radiohaha, which is odd - 6 being the industry standard.

It's becoming more popular with Radio 4 as a try-out number of episodes. We only did four of the first series of Dead Ringers, for example.

>It's becoming more popular with Radio 4 as a try-out number of episodes.

Presumably, this is cost-induced. It might be a good thing if it means a greater number of new shows can get aired. Do you know if this is the case?

>
>>It's becoming more popular with Radio 4 as a try-out number of episodes.
>
>Presumably, this is cost-induced. It might be a good thing if it means a greater number of new shows can get aired. Do you know if this is the case?

Radio 4 are more likely to say "Oh go on then" and commission you if you're only doing four. That way, if it's an abject failure it'll probably be forgotten, and if it passes muster they can ask for 6 or 8 for the second series.

And yes, if it is a failure it's a less expensive failure.

Oh balls, I'm in the middle of writing a radio comedy about a foppish 1920s private detective, and I wasn't aware of the Marlowe series. Is my project doomed from the outset?

>Oh balls, I'm in the middle of writing a radio comedy about a foppish 1920s private detective, and I wasn't aware of the Marlowe series. Is my project doomed from the outset?

Not necessarily. However, be aware that Chanderlesque laconic private eye stuff is considered very very unoriginal and snooze-inspiring, if I'm remembering my BBC Radio LE writers' guide. But if your idea has the required flair, originality and shedloads of fantastic jokes it might get somewhere. It's still worth finishing if you're writing the pilot ep. If it's good you may well get a meeting with a producer who will encourage you with your writing.

There are some very interesting theories about Marlowe and his untimely death. I think one of them is that he either wrote or co-wrote some plays attributed to Shakespeare and he was killed to silence him.

There's a debate about his death in this month's BBC History about his death. The official line is that he was killed in a brawl over the bill after a meal, but others think he was still working for the government, or another government, or that he was threatening to expose some important people as heretics.

No proof of him writing Shakespeare's stuff (also rumours that it was Francis Bacon), but he was certainly an influence.

>While I'm musing over Radio 4 gems of yesteryear, anyone else hear this little gem?

My God! - a fan!

Lovely sidekick role for Bill Wallis and rather nice plots.

Thanks.

>
>It was written by Jez someone. I am embarrassed at not remembering the guy's name as I have worked with him!

It was Ged Parsons - i.e. me. What did we work on together? - I'm intrigued. Give me some clues, if you don't want to 'unmask,' 'Lance.'
>

No, Martin, I don't reckon the fact that I did a detective series set in the 1590's should adversely affect your detective series set in the 1920's.

As 'Lance Percival' pointed out, the 'Chandleresque' genre does tend to be deemed a tad 'stale' by L.E. Radio - but I'd like to think that if a writer can do something a bit original with the format, then that shouldn't matter - in an 'ideal' world, at any rate!

I'm sure that once 'Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy' had finished, memos flew around L.E. Radio and TV to the effect that 'comedy sci-fi' was now a non-starter - but that didn't stop 'Red Dwarf,' did it?

Anyway, good luck with it.

Ged P.

Well, Red Dwarf took about 5 years to get commissioned, but that's not the point...

>
>No, Martin, I don't reckon the fact that I did a detective series set in the 1590's should adversely affect your detective series set in the 1920's.


Cheers! My concern was less to do with the actual period than the general concept of doing a period detective comedy. And don't worry Ged and Lance, it's not a Chandleresque thing, it's sort of P.G. Wodehouse meets Judge Dredd -- a ridiculous guffawing toff secret agent has to combat horrifically disturbing and serious crimes whilst having to avoid his Great Aunt etc. and the period is a cross between the 1920s and the present day...

OK, what was that R4 series with a 1920s/30s secret agent bloke about 5 years ago? A revival of a contemporary series I think? Sorry I don't have exact TX dates...

Anyway, 'The Shadow' is ripe for a good lampooning, so good luck Martin.

>>
>>No, Martin, I don't reckon the fact that I did a detective series set in the 1590's should adversely affect your detective series set in the 1920's.
>
>
>Cheers! My concern was less to do with the actual period than the general concept of doing a period detective comedy. And don't worry Ged and Lance, it's not a Chandleresque thing, it's sort of P.G. Wodehouse meets Judge Dredd -- a ridiculous guffawing toff secret agent has to combat horrifically disturbing and serious crimes whilst having to avoid his Great Aunt etc. and the period is a cross between the 1920s and the present day...

I knew it! Fucking hell...

>OK, what was that R4 series with a 1920s/30s secret agent bloke about 5 years ago? A revival of a contemporary series I think? Sorry I don't have exact TX dates...
>
>Anyway, 'The Shadow' is ripe for a good lampooning, so good luck Martin.
>
>>>
>>>No, Martin, I don't reckon the fact that I did a detective series set in the 1590's should adversely affect your detective series set in the 1920's.
>>
>>
>>Cheers! My concern was less to do with the actual period than the general concept of doing a period detective comedy. And don't worry Ged and Lance, it's not a Chandleresque thing, it's sort of P.G. Wodehouse meets Judge Dredd -- a ridiculous guffawing toff secret agent has to combat horrifically disturbing and serious crimes whilst having to avoid his Great Aunt etc. and the period is a cross between the 1920s and the present day...
>
>

>>While I'm musing over Radio 4 gems of yesteryear, anyone else hear this little gem?
>
>My God! - a fan!
>
>Lovely sidekick role for Bill Wallis and rather nice plots.
>
>Thanks.
>
>>
>>It was written by Jez someone. I am embarrassed at not remembering the guy's name as I have worked with him!
>
>It was Ged Parsons - i.e. me. What did we work on together? - I'm intrigued. Give me some clues, if you don't want to 'unmask,' 'Lance.'
>>
>
Nice to hear from you, Mr P. I've met you a couple of times - once at a BBC writers do at which I was quite pissed (where I think I may well have mentioned the Christopher Marlowe Mysteries) - the other time was at a meeting with Aled Evans and Gez Foster about a pilot script we were working on. It was a horror anthology thing (not unlike the concept Steve Coogan is involved with currently). You wrote a segment about a pirate ship, I think. I'll have to dig it out.

>I knew it! Fucking hell...
>
>>OK, what was that R4 series with a 1920s/30s secret agent bloke about 5 years ago? A revival of a contemporary series I think? Sorry I don't have exact TX dates...


Martin - I think the series people are referring to here was 'Richard Barton, M.D.'
which, I vaguely recall, featured the doctor son of the 30s/40s stiff-upper-lipped hero, who emulates his dad by encountering adventures set in the present, i.e. mid 1990s, when the series went out.

I seem to recall it was, rather neatly, written by the son of the guy who used to write some of the original 'Dick Barton' progs (some family relationship like that, anyway!)

Doesn't sound like it would impinge on your idea, though, Martin. Keep at it!

Best wishes,

Ged Parsons

>Nice to hear from you, Mr P. I've met you a couple of times - once at a BBC writers do at which I was quite pissed (where I think I may well have mentioned the Christopher Marlowe Mysteries) - the other time was at a meeting with Aled Evans and Gez Foster about a pilot script we were working on. It was a horror anthology thing (not unlike the concept Steve Coogan is involved with currently). You wrote a segment about a pirate ship, I think. I'll have to dig it out.

Yes, 'Lance' - a dim memory stirs. I, too, was reminded of our 'Dr. Terror's House of Horror' (or whatever it was called), when I heard about Steve Coogan's idea which, as is in the nature of this sort of thing, will probably be called 'Dr. Horror's House of Terror.'

In Aled's pilot, the theme was 'creation of life' and the bit I did was a spoof Darwinian voyage - I'll no doubt re-vamp it at some point! Gez F. did some sort of witch's curse frog-child thing - and I don't think I saw what you did!

Best wishes,

Ged P.

I did a segment about a couple purchasing a genetically engineered baby, and was also writing links to tie the whole thing together. The pilot script is mouldering away in a drawer in my parents' house in North Wales. I'll have a look next time I'm there. The vague 'pirate ship' recollection came from the fact I think you had a captain in your script who had a parrot with a wooden leg!

The title me and Aled eventually settled on was 'Dr Victor's House of the Strange'. I originally wanted to call it "The Cabinet of Dr Cupboard".

Aled co-produced a sketch I wrote for Comedy Nation featuring the Dr Victor character - but I can't remember whether this was before or after the horror-anthology idea.

At the risk of turning this into a comedy writer's chatroom - what are you up to these days?

All the best

not Lance Percival

Hello, not Lance -

>At the risk of turning this into a comedy writer's chatroom - what are you up to these days?

HIGNFY, Room 101, Big Breakfast (but much less since JV left), and the usual (almost obligatory)pilots, novels-in-progress, embryonic screenplays, etc., etc.

Yourself?

Best wishes,

Ged P.

>Yourself?
>
>
Series 2 of me & my co-writer's radio sitcom is being recorded soon.

I've also got a couple of virtual fingers in the Zeppotron comedy pie, a silly full time job and, of course, the usual plans for high-concept failures festering away on my hard drive.

Nice to hear from you, Mr P.