WriteWords interviewees and members Phil Collinge and Andy Lord are the winners of the second series of ITV1s Shoot the Writers, the late-night show where aspiring scriptwriters and actors were given the opportunity to perform their material in front of a network audience.

Shoot the Writers has been a cult success on Late Night ITV1 for the past two years. The second series of the concept show by independent television producer and director, Colin Bennett is about to be rerun on ITV1 from April 6 th . Thousands of scripts were received following the pilot screening of Shoot the Writers in 2003 and ITV1 were happy to fund the first series in 2004 which was
comprised of fourteen half hour episodes. The show was then recommissioned for a second series in 2005, which was even more competitive. The number of slots available for performers was reduced from three hundred and fifty to fewer
than eighty, using a core of nine actors. In each of the fourteen episodes, six contestants performed four original sketches they had written and the audience voted for the winner. The second series achieved more than 11 million viewers and consistently achieved an audience share of 18%.
There were two semi-finals where contestants had to produce new material before the eventual winners, Phil and Andy, were selected. Prizes included sessions with a script editor to develop the script, help pitching to broadcasters
and dinner with a literary agent.

Producer Colin Bennett said: “I was thrilled by the success of the first two series, we now have six writing teams busy at work on the next big comedy breakthrough, including a women's writing team. They are producing a wide range of work from political satire to a new format of script which we provisionally call the Sketch Com.” He added, “It was a real opportunity for those trying to break into the industry. During the course of the last two series, we featured the work of four hundred and ten brand new writers, and, fifty three brand new actors.

That's fantastic news! Congratulations to both.

Emma

Congratulations!

Nik.

Great news - very well done indeed!

A
xxx

Well done both, getting a break in comedy writing is pretty hard.

WW Members interested in this may find the following of interest


Dear Writers

We have good news, bad news and something to cheer us all up!

The good news is that the second series is being repeated post midnight from the 6th April 2006, these will be the re-edits without the voting info.

The bad news is that it seems unlikely that we will get another series unless we can find a sponsor to pay for the programme. That seems to be the way TV is going! Do you know any company that would benefit from this association? It's a long shot, I know, but worth asking.

And to cheer ourselves up, after that bad news, we here at An Acquired Taste TV, joined a syndicate to play the lottery, we have only done it for three weeks, and so far we are in profit and have won each week! I admit that one of the wins was only 0.26p but it proves that the syndicate system works. We are hoping to win enough to sponsor the next series, though we are not holding our breath. Would you like to join our syndicate? If you think you might then just copy and paste this message back to HQ.

'Dear Colin, I would be interested in seeing details of your lottery scam... erm opportunity... so without any obligation and knowing that I will sue you if it proves to be a big fiddle, please let me have some details, best wishes.......'

Copy and paste to AcquiredTV@aol.com

best wishes Colin Bennett.


<Added>

Sorry I should have said this was an email I received. I don't write this sort of stuff but I am on their mailing list.

Len

Well done to Phil and Andy. That's great!

Bloody brilliant. Well done you guys!

JB