Grand Scheme Media, the TV development consultancy and training organisation, is running a series of comedy workshops throughout the UK in the New Year designed to give people interested in working in TV Comedy an insider's guide on how to get in.

Titled “Creating Comedy for TV”, the six two-day workshops - expert-led by Graham Smith and Mark Robson - will offer a practical guide to writing and developing cross-platform comedy.  Smith has been an Executive Producer for the BBC and a Commissioning Executive for Channel 4 and Channel Five. Robson was an Executive Producer and Commissioner for ITV. He has worked as a successful development executive, devising and producing shows for  ITV, Endemol, Channel 4, CBBC, Channel Five, Discovery and Disney. He has also run an interactive, multi-platform gaming channel for Sky.

The workshops will enable those who take part to understand the politics of the commissioning process, as well as giving on-the-spot feedback about ideas and scripts. It will focus on writing and helping writers find a platform for ideas, whether in traditional situation comedy, comedy drama or formatted comedy entertainment (game shows, spoofs, new revues, etc.)   

The course will look at different styles of comedy, analyse what works and why it works, discuss dealing with talent and agents, and train how best to pitch ideas.  It will offer practical advice on laying out scripts and script editing, as well as forecasting trends in comedy for the coming years. Delegates will also have the chance to have their work assessed and contribute to group sessions creating comedy material “on the fly”.

The courses will run in London (January 7 & 8), Bristol (14 & 15), Salford (19 & 20), Glasgow (21 & 22), Cardiff (26 & 27) and Newcastle (February 4 & 5). Tickets are £100 and can be purchased via the "Training" link on this page.