So, this was a really ill-thought-through plan to create a British, team-writing situation. The people behind it thought that, to do a team show, you got six people (in this case who didn’t know each other) in the room with a producer and a one-line idea–which was, “What if there was house that was squatted and these people all lived together.” We wrote the script between the six of us. Each taking, one sixth of the script and we came up with this horrible, kind-of “Frankenstein’s monster” as anyone would imagine. Anyone with any knowledge of the US system knows that you still have a show creator who writes the pilot, sets the tone.
So, that was disastrous, but we went into it not knowing David [Mitchell] and Robert [Webb] and came out knowing them quite well, as we sniggered behind our hands and went, “Oh, god. This is terrible what we’re doing, isn’t it?”

A new interview with writer Jesse Armstrong on the Maximum Fun website…

The Poetry Season continues…
“I wanted to be a comedian, and the comedy I enjoyed wasn’t poetry, it was all telly. Writing poems obviously served a purpose, but I really wasn’t tortured. They were just something I did.” There’s an interview with Rob on The Times website.

From Radio Times:
My Life in Verse: Robert Webb
Friday 05 June 9:00pm – 10:00pm BBC2

Robert Webb goes on a journey to find out more about the poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock and the poet who captured his imagination at a young age, TS Eliot. He returns to the Lincolnshire classroom where he first heard Prufrock and visits the school hall where he made his first forays into comedy, as well as travelling to Paris where he discovers that the young TS Eliot shocked his respectable American family by spending a year in the famously decadent city.

About bloody time!

That Mitchell And Webb Look Ep 1/6
Thursday 11 June
Time to be confirmed BBC TWO

David Mitchell and Robert Webb return with a new series of That Mitchell And Webb Look Robert Webb and David Mitchell return to BBC Two for a new series, which opens with sketches, including the difficult home life of Santa Claus, Mrs Claus and Santa’s troubled brother, Russ, who refuses to get a job: “I’m not going back on the assembly line – not with the elves.”

The duo also show off Jan Hankl’s exciting new technique for finding books and car keys simply by patting your thighs; explain the best way to discover a murderer – get all the suspects together in a Twenties drawing room and wait until one of them starts doing an evil voice; and reveal an argument between Queen Victoria and Lord Palmerston about things you definitely can’t mention if you’re Victorian.

Among returning characters, there’s Hennimore and his boss, who work in an office that is destroyed each week by completely unpredictable accidents. This week, there’s a tragic mix up involving a set of golf clubs, a bottle of Scotch and a bitter hatred of Jack Nicklaus.

A policeman explains to a Community Support officer why he can’t commit police brutality, only “Community Support brutality”. There’s part one of a thrilling new quiz show coming just after the end of civilisation, where contestants compete to win top prizes like food and fuel. And the lazy writers return with the least-researched-ever series about spying: “My wife suspects I’m a spy” “How?” “Too many unexplained buttons on the dashboard.”

And, on top of all that, a genius explains why firing a dog out of cannon is better than a doorbell.

That Mitchell And Webb Look is simulcast on the BBC HD channel – the BBC’s High Definition channel available through Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media.

Hmmm…

By the time it comes on telly (in June I presume) I will have forgotten some of the sketches from the recordings (last August), which is not a bad thing as I do enjoy surprises but why the delay?

Oh no… funny British actor goes to America and is cast in a “you don’t say”* style studio sitcom with mad levels of canned laughter…

*copyright Mash & Peas, sometime a while back.

Yes, Sophie Winkleman is the lead in NBC’s 100 Questions.

All of my 100 questions involve the word “WHY?”

If you’re looking for something to pass the time on this bank holiday weekend you could do a lot worse than make your own paper Peep Show…

Another reason to love that Mustard magazine.