Dominated by Submission
On the Channel 4 New Writers Scheme and other future excitements
I’m delighted to inform you that I completed my quest for the week, and submitted to the Channel 4 New Writers Scheme 2025 on Monday night at 11pm!
It’s been quite a week. I didn’t even have my customary Wednesday night break from writing (that being Substack posting day) and used every evening and lunchtime to make notes, write and hone what I had.
Obviously I still watched TV, as you’ll read below, but I don’t really feel like I’ve had any downtime in evenings. But it has been so worth it, I’ve expanded and improved two ideas that needed it, and if that’s the least I get out of this submission I’m delighted.
My downtime actually switched to reading before sleep. I was given Adam Buxton’s new book “I Love You, Byeee” for Father’s Day1. He is a comedy and podcast hero of mine, and I enjoyed his first volume of autobiography “Ramblebook”. I wish the writing style was a little less perfunctory sometimes, but the insight, angst and honesty will always pull you through.
This might mean a dive back into my formative comedy years watching The Adam and Joe Show, which is still all on Channel 4. I came to it in 2007 or so, when I first found other comedy nerds as university was ending, and I worked out what had been missing from my life2. That was ten years after it was first on, and more than five since it ended, but it still spoke to me very directly.
I don’t think there’s any way to capture the sheer delight I used to have listening to the Adam and Joe show on 6Music from 2007 to 2009, and the freedom I had to do nothing but listen to the radio for three hours on a Saturday morning3. But you should give it a try here if you have never listened4. And we do at least get a Christmas episode of the Adam Buxton Podcast with Joe every year. It’s a genuine highlight of Christmas for me.
So thanks Adam, for getting through this week, and many weeks previously!
Shared Work - Title Pages
I’m not sure about sharing any of the script that I’ve submitted for a competition, but title pages and loglines seem fine. You might notice a title change from “The Secret” to “Secrets”, all down to The Televigion Wife and her exemplary feedback.
And “The Accounts” was a one-page pitch of an idea I’ve had floating around since 2019. It’s been a podcast, a sitcom, and is now an anthology drama. Given that they asked for analogies and comparisons to existings shows, I went with
A mix of “The Good Place” minus the Hollywood gloss, “Quantum Leap” for the prestige TV era and “Black Mirror” with more hope for humanity.
Let me know if you’d watch either of these shows!
This Week’s Notebook
In the spirit of this being an open and honest section of sharing, I thought I’d share two extracts from my answers to the interview style questions I had to answer. I think I’m happy that they say something succinctly, but I may just have honed them beyond my ability to see them properly during this madly busy week.
My entire life has been devoted to TV. I laughed at The Golden Girls before I could understand the words, and I can place every major personal event in my life by which TV show I was watching at the time. My earliest memory is pulling an old cathode-ray-tube monstrosity down from the stand and onto myself and my baby sister, just to get as close to the people inside as possible.
This opportunity is the latest way for me to pull that TV on top of me and join in.
This is a genuine story from my early childhood. I didn’t mention that my sister had the imprint of the physical buttons on her forehead for a while afterwards.
I tend to write what I can't find. I see a current trend in entertainment for a focus on realism, and media that wants to show us people in realistic settings. But I always prefer characters in heightened and fantastical situations. They are just as relatable and revealing, but the profundity can sneak in more easily, under the radar. Realism is specific, fantasy is universal.
I believe that is doubly true when there is a lens of comedy on the drama. Laughter lets the message in.
And you’d have gathered this hot-James-take from any post on this Substack. I don’t half go on about it.
Televigion Update
Watching
Beth (Channel 4) - Given I was attempting to write some Channel 4 drama, I thought I’d scroll through their list under that category for anything that piqued my interest. The synopsis “A miracle birth unravels a marriage and rocks the very foundation of humankind” certainly did that. The fact it was less than 45 minutes in total for three episodes was even better. This promotional article from Channel 4 has more info, but I’d say give it a go with just that synopsis. Overall I was captured by the mood they evoked, but I only kept going because of the synopsis, otherwise it might have seemed generic partway through. As a calling card for the creatives involved, it’s a success.
Not Going Out S14 Ep1: House Move (iPlayer) - I’d never have predicted 14 series for Not Going Out. I used to watch the early seasons, as it was an attempt to bring US sitcom style to the UK, and was different to everything else around at the time. But it has always been very stagey and still, and needs more fluidity. But I did snort with laughter a few times in the opener to the latest series, amongst the many groans. It’s like a warm bath, but it’s had someone else in it beforehand. I’m not opposed, but I’ll rarely seek it out. And to waste Mike Wozniak’s facility for insanity is a crime.
Pushers (Channel 4) - A sitcom by the pretty excellent Rosie Jones about a person who loses their disability benefits and uses the world ignoring her and her cerebral palsy as a major advantage in her new venture dealing drugs. Yes, it’s a show about disability and the issues associated with that, but it’s a unique premise to discuss those issues. It’s also very happy to be silly, and guess what, the two leads are genuinely likeable. I recommend this to everyone, after only one episode5.
Intending to Consume
The Bear S4 (Disney+) starts this week6. If you need a summary, I’d have it as “KITCHEN PRESSURE AND PERSONAL TRAUMA”. This is Season 4 of a true cultural phenomenon that much of the world was cooler on in season 3. Not me. This is likely to be a major television event in our household. I’m sad that it’s a full 10-episode drop, for reasons of spoilers and being able to savour and the lost opportunity to have a small world of people connected for 10 weeks in a row, but the Televigion Wife is delighted to have no waiting required.
Deep Cover (Amazon Prime) - A new action comedy film from the comedy duo The Pin, who were interviewed about the film here on BCG. Sounds promising!
Transaction (ITVX) - A new sitcom starting tonight (Tuesday) about a transgender supermarket worker, starring Jordan Gray who I had not heard of, and Nick Frost, who I obviously have7. I saw it mentioned on BCG, and I have nothing to say on it until I watch it. I promise to do two episodes.
The Big Chill (Sky Cinema/NowTV) as recommended by
in the comments last week. It seems to be the sort of writerly ensemble film that gets lost in the endless churn of content these days, if it is made at all. I’ll save this recap article for when I’ve watched it.
Questions/Prompts
Who are your formative influences who aren’t perfect, but perfectly capture something for you (a la Adam Buxton for me)?
Footnotes
My wife very cleverly ordered exactly what I asked her for.
Doing comedy.
I misremembered it as being a Sunday morning, until reading Wikipedia. Or is it a huge global conspiracy and cover-up?
Go back to the earliest dates you can for what’s available and work forwards.
It’s taken Rosie Jones seven years to get it made, so what hope the rest of us?
In the US, you’ll have it on the day this post comes out, here in the UK it’s the day after.
I was worried when he signed on to play Hagrid in the new Harry Potter TV series (boo to JKR), but then he said “She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine, they just don’t align in any way, shape or form”. Doesn’t mean I’ll watch it, but at least he responded from an educated position.