http://davidmitchellwithpizza.tumblr.com/

Weird but then I like weird. And pizza. Mmmmm….

I wrote a sketch for That Mitchell and Webb Look, where a job candidate is being interviewed by a panel of three, one of whom is there to provide “extreme negative feedback”. As the interviewee (Mitchell) responds to questions, the negative feedback panellist (Webb) reacts with obscene comments and eventually violence. The sketch went down well enough; especially the end, when I threw a rubber typewriter at David’s head. Ding!

A few months later, I was watching a DVD of the first episode of one of my favourite sketch shows of the 1980s, Absolutely. In sheer horror, my nostrils expanded to the size of bowling ball finger-grips as the negative feedback sketch started to play itself out before my eyes. I’d seen it in 1989, loved it, forgotten it, and then “had the idea” 17 years later.

The next time I ran into Jack Docherty who had played “my” part in the original, I explained and apologised. I was both relieved and disappointed to see that he obviously didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. He hadn’t seen my sketch and could barely remember his own. “Still, sounds like a good idea,” he said. “Someone should write that.”

“This series was actually relatively easy in that sense, because we knew we had three episodes that we wanted to do. The first one is the birth of the child – that’s a given. And then the scheduling was very fortuitous – the last episodes are going out at Christmas and New Year, so it gave us the obvious options of doing a Christmas and a New Year’s episode. So half the series was taken care of.”

“I was working at a video shop, and apprehended a burglar and sat on him.”

This one is from the official Channel 4 site. Click  the link for the whole thing.

Prayer & Pint 3: CERN (Drill Hall try-out 26th November 2009 and VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Simon Kane

They’re Among Us 1 (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by David Mitchell & Robert Webb

Lottery Ad (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by David Mitchell & Robert Webb

Arse Store (Drill Hall try-out 26th November 2009 and Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris

Heart and Soul (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Madeleine Brettingham (Talent Dredge sketch)

They’re Among Us 2 (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by David Mitchell & Robert Webb

Didldidi 3 (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris

Behind the scenes: Immortatily (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor & David Mitchell

The Passive Aggression of the Christ (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris

They’re Among Us 3 (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010 and seemed to be re-edited in the Play-In) by David Mitchell & Robert Webb (cameo appearance from Producer Gareth Edwards)

Kat Kat (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by David Mitchell & Mark Evans (rare appearance from The Writer Toby Davies)

After The Event 6 (with audience at TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor and David Mitchell (done in one take)

Behind the scenes: Sorry (Drill Hall 26th November 2009 and VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Giles New & Keiron Self

Conspiracy Theories 3: Diana (Drill Hall try-out 26th November 2009 and with studio audience BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor & David Mitchell

Nursing Holmes (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Toby Davies & David Mitchell

Red Button:
Bachman and Evans dog training

Conspiracy theories 2: Nevada 1947 Aliens (with studio audience BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor & David Mitchell

Funny Fonts (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by unknown writer (saw sign in BBC corridor in this typeface after the show. Oh dear)

Hennimore 6 (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Toby Davies & David Mitchell (landmines)

The final  Producer Gareth Edwards blog is up at the usual place aka here.

Well the Sherlock sketch went down rather well on Twitter. Two rather great writers who I follow on there tweeted about it so deserve a mention:

Tony Lee currently writes the Doctor Who comic and James Moran  has written Doctor Who on  the telly plus some good Torchwood episodes:

Let’s not forget this little gem from the past:

Sketch list is here!

Modern Cyrano (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Chris Reddy

Cleanlinol (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris

Good With People (from Drill Hall try out 26th November 2009 then filmed with live studio audience TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Madeleine Brettingham

‘Making A Documentary’ Documentary (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jonathan Dryden  Taylor and David Mitchell

Behind The Scenes: Moving Ending 1 (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Bonus geek points for “kill off Adric, roll the credits over silence.” (the Blackadder 4 sketch)

The Kingpin Scene (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Simon Kane (noisy club sketch)

Millionth Customer (MassiveYachts.co.uk ) by John Finnemore (Drill Hall 26 Nov 2009 then filmed live with studio audience BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) I wonder where that URL leads to? Fact: There were wig wobble retakes for this one.

Behind the scenes: Moving Ending 2  (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by David Mitchell and Robert Webb (the “Sod Cancer” sketch)

Up Yours Parents 3 (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Robert Webb and Abigail Burdess (vicar sketch)

Hennimore Christmas 1 (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Toby Davies & David Mitchell (W.H.O.O.P.S.I.E )

After The Event 5 (Filmed live with studio audience TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor and David Mitchell

Too Big To Fail (from Drill Hall 26 Nov 2009 and Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by David Mitchell & Robert Webb (Lap dancing sector sketch)

Behind The Scenes: Moving Ending 3 (BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by David Mitchell & Robert Webb (RIP James)

Red button:
That Bachman and Evans Smell

German Dads Army (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Arthur Mathews

Richard Dawkins’ Next Work (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by David Mitchell and Jonathan Dryden Taylor

Ghost writing.

The weekly Producer Gareth Edwards blog is here.

Sketch guide with official titles and credits is here!

Balloon Abduction (Drill Hall 26 Nov 2009 and VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris

Martin’s Tiny office 2: Sexual harrassment (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by James Bachman & Tom Meeten (all three of these have now been shown)

Reports Mode 1 (Drill Hall 26 Nov 2009 and Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (Sound levels at TV Centre made it hard to hear all the lines so may not have had appropriate laugh track)

Behind The Scenes: Southern Accent (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by John Finnemore

Ku Klux Klan Kouture (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) (Second KKK moment of the series) by John Finnemore

Reports Mode 2: Viewer Reports (Drill Hall 26 Nov 2009 and Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris

A Modest Proposal (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor & David Mitchell (the “kill the poor” sketch)

After The Event 4: Music round (Filmed with audience at TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jonathan Dryden Taylor and David Mitchell who wrote the second half of these six Event sketches (this sketch went on for longer at the recording, featuring Abi as The Entertainment Female who ‘sang’ her ‘song’)

Prayer & Pint 2: Tehran (Drill Hall try-out 26th November 2009 and VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Simon Kane

Unwritten Sketches list 2 (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by most of the writers

Behind the scenes: Gift Shops (VT TV Centre Studio 1 26th February 2010) by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris

Reports Mode 3 (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris

Slightly Drunk (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010 and Drill Hall try-out 26th November 2009) by Mark Evans

Red button:
Intro: Sticker album

The ‘Girls’ and Ian Goodwin (Play-In BBC TV Centre Studio 4 18th March 2010) by John Finnemore (allegedly a bit based on real event)

Hennimore 4: Merry Christmas Hennimore! (VT BBC TV Centre Studio 1 5th March 2010) by Toby Davies & David Mitchell (Mrs Boss’ arse was played by woman although she was a man for the rest of the sketch)

Love the ‘Girls’ sketch and it deserved to be in the main BBC2 episode.

That Mitchell and Webb Touch
“This preceded both the TV and radio show, and it took for its inspiration the ITV police drama The Gentle Touch. In it Rob played a female detective juggling the demands of her son, her career and her hair while fighting against the institutional sexism of the police in the early eighties, played by David…”

It’s about imaginary formats, as the photo above does not point out in any way at all.

Rob did a new TV pilot last month called World Wide Robert which also involved some of the Mitchell & Webb Look (and Sound) writers. According to Digital Spy it is now called Robert’s Web and has been commissioned. Well they wouldn’t give it a name if they had chucked it in the bin. Four 30 minute episodes in  fact, reported alongside this quote: “Channel 4 have wanted to make this show for some time but Gary Internet is never available, so they’ve settled for me.” So there.

I should be doing the TM&L episode 4 sketch guide but haven’t got the writer credits yet. I’ve not abandoned it!

“To be honest, sensationalist headlines like “Robot James Bachman Inferno” made it pretty well impossible for us to use the Robot James Bachman, which is a shame and I think an over-reaction to what was really only a medium-sized fire in a very badly-built gymnasium.”

Quite.

Here are some photographs of those jetpacks in case you need some kind of visual stimulus:

Obligatory green screen moment:

Ah,  the magic of television there.