John’s Newsround – 28/08/04

Ian’s away for a while. Don’t forget to write. You great nancy. Anyway, two nice stories on TOS; firstly, there’s a lovely interview with Comedy Connections producer Toby Stevens and director Angus McIntyre. (With lots of excellent piccies from the show, too.) If I may quote a passage from Toby:

“We also made an early decision to interview insiders only – and the people who really have the inside story are the writers, directors and producers. Actors are interesting, but they’re not often as integral to a show’s genesis as the writers. They don’t see the project through from start to finish like the producers. So we made a policy decision that without interviews with and help from the writers we wouldn’t make the show. Then we found that the actors were as far away from the central story as we wanted to get. That means we’ve steered clear of ‘commentators’. So Comedy Connections is the inside story, from the insiders.”

A producer who knows what he’s on about, there. He also points out that “We had just enough self-awareness to know that we were anoraks, working in a Portakabin, making anorak TV.” Brilliant. Remember: August 30th @ 10:55pm on BBC ONE.

Secondly, there’s lots of info on the extrasless I-IV Just The Shows boxset. (Yep, I’m still sticking to the one word for that. You’ll all be doing it in ten years time, idiots.) It’s out on October 18th, and has an RRP of $