As promised, here is an audio sample from the recent Sitcom Trials performance of The Riding Officer!

Hope if gives you a chuckle…

Listen to the first part of The Riding Officer

So - entered a competition recently. The Sitcom Trials at The Lass O’Gowrie in Manchester took place last night, and my first complete (well, ten minutes) comedy script got as far as being performed along two others!

Based on the barely-known job of the Riding Officers of the North Yorkshire coast in the 18th century, the script reads and sounds a bit like Blackadder. I don’t quite think that can be helped, and while the script didn’t win, I believe it raised a few laughs.

So that’s a nice consolation.

You can read the script below - I’m hoping to be able to add a short audio excerpt from the performance later this week. Read the rest of this entry »

The great Sid James

So a lot of work has been done over recent months with the aim of positioning myself so basically survive outside the traditional workplace.

By focussing on these income streams, a few sacrifices are having to be made - and one of these is www.quintessentialcomedy.com.

My “great idea” of 2006 was to have a website like Doctor Who site Kasterborous that focussed on British comedy. However interest in that subject is much broader than interest in Doctor Who, and content seemed to favour my own preferred shows and acts.

While I’m happy with some of the things the site achieved, on the whole it has not been a success. Existing posts on that site will be imported here and added to the archive for posterity. Read the rest of this entry »

Balancing study with Brighthub is going remarkably well, although it seems that there is scope to increase my Brighthub output if certain situations change in the near future. We’ll have to see how this goes, of course…

In between having fantasies of reforming bands and entering competitions on Absolute, I’ve been expanding the contirbutor base on Kasterborous - this should give Brian and I all the time we need to complete the additional material and complete the K Book.

I’m also - slowly - looking for a suitable artist for the first part of the Valvestate series of comics. Not sure how this will pan out though at this stage.

Finally, as promised, is my entry for Big Finish’s recent comptition to find a new writer. The idea was to conceive and develop a script for the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa pairing (Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton). Big Finish revealed this week that the winner was someone else - so as a result, here’s the my entry, beginning with a three-step breakdown and ending with a short sample of the script….

Ghost Train

BEGINNING

The Doctor and Nyssa arrive outside a small village in the north of England in the mid 18^th century. The Doctor has been looking for a clear spot on from which to view Halley’s Comet. Noticing a small cottage on the hill they venture up to see if they can view the event from there. Through a window Nyssa notices unusual machinery with what appears to be an ancient scepter mounted in it, but the man living there refuses to open the door, claiming he has the pox. They follow his suggestion and get a room at the local inn.

As they are making arrangements with the innkeeper, they hear of the death of a local man whose frantic wife is beside herself in the corner of the pub.

His body is at the back of the inn, laid out in his cart - investigating, the Doctor discovers a petrified expression etched into his face. The innkeeper, Hindmarsh, says that locals have been experiencing bizarre apparitions for weeks, beasts and dragons emerging from the ground.

MIDDLE

Keen to investigate, the Doctor and Nyssa look outside, but see nothing. Collecting some lamps from Hindmarsh they search for Thompson’s foot prints to get an idea of where he was when the incident occurred.

Confident that it was nothing more than an apparition caused by too much ale, the Doctor has a sudden change of heart when Nyssa’s use of the waveform scanner reveals a high level of silicon in the surrounding geology, coupled with a new, unusual reading. After Nyssa has uncovered the footsteps, they soon find some discarded fresh market goods, indicating the place where Thompson died - and are welded to the spot as out of the side of the valley, a deafening screeching, groaning sound approaches them at breakneck speed.

A train - 50 years too early!

 
END

Throwing themselves out of its way, the Doctor and Nyssa take cover beside some rocks.

Examining the side of the steep hill forming that part of the valley, the Doctor finds no tunnel and no tracks, although there is a faint whiff of soot which he attributes to the overall sensory illusion. He cites Stone Tape theory as the explanation.

The nearest place to find an answer turns out to be the cottage they encountered upon their arrival. Deciding to take advantage of the occupant’s apparent distraction with his machinery, the Doctor and Nyssa break in, but are soon overheard and discovered. Abner is an alchemist, and has devised and built a machine to harness energy from the comet to convert lumps of rock into gold.

Mixed with the high silicon content in the surrounding geology the Doctor and Nyssa agree that the Ghost trains are caused by Abner’s gold machine. Realising that the machine is leaking energy from the comet and causing a rare Stone Tape phenomenon, the Doctor and Nyssa defeat Abner by forcing the Stone Tape effect within the alchemist’s house - displaying visions of a seemingly horrific future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Aha! High time for an update, I think, given the amount of work I’ve been doing lately, it’s time for some sort of proof!

While there remains no update from Big Finish as to who the lucky competition winner was (hope springs eternal, nevertheless) I’ve made several changes to my writing schedule.

With regard to Brighthub, I’m now providing around 30 articles per month. This is to facilitate both some time off, windows for weekend breaks, and so that I can manage my coursework, having recently started a new module in my Web Applications Certificate. Read the rest of this entry »

It has evidently been several weeks since I last posted - in that time I’ve managed to reorganise my free time in order to continue submitting content to BrightHub and prepare myself for the impending Open University course that starts in May.

Meanwhile, my own special project that I will reveal to the world as soon as I can is halfway through its second draft, and I’ve also submitted a synopsis for a short story collection.

The date for the 2010 general election was announced this week. Can’t help feeling a bit helpless about the whole thing what with corporate interests and those of other external elements, but I reckon if everyone votes for what they want rather than one of the three main parties then the ruling classes will have to sit up and take notice.

Oh, also started development of the first Valvestate comic strip, with a couple of comic artists in mind. Don’t know if it will be publish quality, although I certainly hope so. Time Leech part 3 is also set t o go on Kasterborous this week in the run up to the Dalek episode on TV!

Aha - yes I must confess, I’ve been sweating over something for the past couple of days that really hasn’t been pleasant.

I’m just about over the disappointment of being turned down for a gig I was really interested in doing - which happens quite often but on this occasion I was invited to apply.

Getting over rejection as a writer is an important aspect of the job, and usually it is pretty easy. However when you’re asked to apply by someone and there’s a good chance you’re going to get it, losing out is a bit of a killer.

I’ve got plenty of other things to worry about atthe moment of course - I have at least one book in the works - so getting over it has been relatively quick.

I woke up on Sunday morning with a vague recollection that something rather smashing had come my way this weekend.

Due to the intake of wine the evening before, however, I wasn’t quite able to collect my thoughts for long enough for it to really hit home.

(I should add at this stage - I’m cursed with terrible hangovers. A few pints will leave me unable to function for at least a full day, turning me from a workaholic into a cabbaged sofa-dweller in a bad mood. Therefore I tend to avoid booze.) Read the rest of this entry »

Relatives are important - for several reasons:

• They love you Read the rest of this entry »
  

Loads of great stuff to do this week - not least playtesting Napoleon: Total War for either review or walkthroughs or if I’m really lucky - both!

I haven’t been this excited by a strategy game in years, and I’m certain this is going to be great fun.

Meanwhile I’ve got 4 days off work from Thursday through to Tuesday - ample chance to get some Brighthub work completed and to work on The Book…