“To get a show on TV is so hard – it’s like winning the lottery,” said Kerrigan, who lives in Cramlington, Northumberland and admitted to knowing nobody in television when he first put pen to paper. Winning the Writers Room Trans Comedy Award took the writer from his “bedroom to the BBC”.
He continued: “It changed my life and I’m really grateful – if it wasn’t for the Writers Room, God knows what I’d be doing.”
The classic sitcom no longer rules the TV schedules in the way that shows such as Fawlty Towers, Open All Hours and Porridge did in the 1970s. Or does it?
A panel of TV practitioners attempted to tease out the answer last month at an RTS early-evening event, “No laughing matter: how does comedy fight back?” This stimulating debate made one think that we could be living through another golden age of TV comedy without necessarily knowing it.
BBC’s India season continues tonight in this two-part series exploring the Far East’s exotic range of wildlife. In tonight’s episode, wildlife expert Liz Bonnin travels to the Gir Forest, home to the world’s largest Asiatic Lions.
Alongside Bonnin, Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto and mountaineer athlete Jon Gupta climb the Himalayas and roam India’s natural wonders. Look out for roaming lions, dancing tigers and even singing gibbons…
BBC Two sitcom Boy Meets Girl will be the first UK programme to show a transgender person in a lead role.
It is a conventional love story where transgender actress Rebecca Root who plays Judy, a transgender woman, falls in love with Leo, played by Harry Hepple.
Together the couple battle any prejudice against their relationship.
The economic arguments for diversity came under the microscope at a lively joint RTS/BBC session held at New Broadcasting House last month. The panellists agreed that, following years of inaction, broadcasters are finally making an effort to boost black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) representation in television.
