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ITV bans all-male comedy writing teams

Started by Jamesieab, June 18, 2019, 10:29:32 AM

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imitationleather

They seemed to ban comedy writing teams of any description decades ago.

phantom_power

I couldn't really give a shit and in fact think a bit of enforced equality is no bad thing but surely they are breaching some employment laws?

the

I presume this affects the assemblage in writers rooms on panel shows and other throw-shit-at-a-wall type affairs, as distinct from saying "no [established writing partnership], we can't greenlight your sitcom as you have an oversubscribed willy quota".

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: imitationleather on June 18, 2019, 10:31:43 AM
They seemed to ban comedy writing teams of any description decades ago.

Rather than outrage or 'pc gone mad' beakering, this has been the only reaction I've seen to it.


cliggg

So ITV are now the perfect channel to make Peep Show with wimmin'.

Dusty Substance


About time too.

I mean, apart from Monty Python, I'm Alan Partridge, Only Fools And Horses, The Office, Blackadder, Peep Show, The Thick Of It, Father Ted, Yes Minister, Black Books, Inside No.9, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Bottom, Dad's Army, Rising Damp, Reggie Perrin, Hancock, Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Phoenix Nights, League Of Gentlemen, Detectorists and One Foot In The Grave, I can't think of a single decent British comedy show with an all-male writing team.

Chollis


gilbertharding

Quote from: phantom_power on June 18, 2019, 10:41:53 AM
I couldn't really give a shit and in fact think a bit of enforced equality is no bad thing but surely they are breaching some employment laws?

There are allowed exceptions to The Equality Act 2010, including actors and models in the film, television and fashion industries, special employment training programmes aimed at ethnic minorities, ex-offenders, young adults, the long term unemployed, or people with physical or learning disabilities, or political parties who use 'protected characteristics' (age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation) as candidate selection criteria; though these 'Selection arrangements do not include short-listing only such persons as have a particular protected characteristic'--other than sex, which may still be used to prejudice selection in some circumstances (e.g. all-women/all-men shortlists)... so they might be alright.

Funcrusher

Quote from: Dusty Substance on June 18, 2019, 12:18:32 PM
About time too.

I mean, apart from Monty Python, I'm Alan Partridge, Only Fools And Horses, The Office, Blackadder, Peep Show, The Thick Of It, Father Ted, Yes Minister, Black Books, Inside No.9, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Bottom, Dad's Army, Rising Damp, Reggie Perrin, Hancock, Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Phoenix Nights, League Of Gentlemen, Detectorists and One Foot In The Grave, I can't think of a single decent British comedy show with an all-male writing team.

Time that we moved on from dated rubbish like that lot. And at least writing teams can still be all white, so it's not like ITV have gone crazy with this.

BlodwynPig


Icehaven

Quote from: Dusty Substance on June 18, 2019, 12:18:32 PM
Monty Python, I'm Alan Partridge, Only Fools And Horses, The Office, Blackadder, Peep Show, The Thick Of It, Father Ted, Yes Minister, Black Books, Inside No.9, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Bottom, Dad's Army, Rising Damp, Reggie Perrin, Hancock, Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Phoenix Nights, League Of Gentlemen, Detectorists and One Foot In The Grave, I can't think of a single decent British comedy show that's been on ITV.

FTFY.





(Alright Rising Damp was but otherwise.)


Gerald Fjord

Quote from: Dusty Substance on June 18, 2019, 12:18:32 PM
About time too.

I mean, apart from Monty Python, I'm Alan Partridge, Only Fools And Horses, The Office, Blackadder, Peep Show, The Thick Of It, Father Ted, Yes Minister, Black Books, Inside No.9, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Bottom, Dad's Army, Rising Damp, Reggie Perrin, Hancock, Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Phoenix Nights, League Of Gentlemen, Detectorists and One Foot In The Grave, I can't think of a single decent British comedy show with an all-male writing team.

i too would like to point to the historic and contemporary preponderance of all-male writing teams as a reason why this idea is stupid.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Dusty Substance on June 18, 2019, 12:18:32 PM
About time too.

I mean, apart from Monty Python, I'm Alan Partridge, Only Fools And Horses, The Office, Blackadder, Peep Show, The Thick Of It, Father Ted, Yes Minister, Black Books, Inside No.9, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie, Bottom, Dad's Army, Rising Damp, Reggie Perrin, Hancock, Steptoe And Son, Porridge, Phoenix Nights, League Of Gentlemen, Detectorists and One Foot In The Grave, I can't think of a single decent British comedy show with an all-male writing team.

Quite a few of those written by transvestites, to be fair.

Sebastian Cobb

A lot of those were partnerships rather than teams weren't they?

Gerald Fjord

some of them are written by one person.


notjosh

Would have been more sensible to announce a raft of brilliant female-led comedy commissions, rather than declare that they will continue to be irrelevant but in a more diverse way.

Twed

The only issue for me is that this precludes some teams that form organically. Imagine if you had Armstrong and Bain and had to add Cathy Tate to the mix to meet the rule. Ruined.

Moot point with ITV anyway, they're just a tripe factory. And would the above happen or is it only for "teams"? I refuse to read the information.

gilbertharding

The closest ITV have come to comedy in the last 20 years (oh - apart from Hardware, which I liked - especially when it became Gervais's target in Extras) is the turns Ant and Dec do to pad out IACGMOOH and BGT.

lb99

Surely this just applies to comedy entertainment shows where they have teams of writers, not sitcoms. They don't even make sitcoms anyway.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: gilbertharding on June 18, 2019, 02:16:57 PM
The closest ITV have come to comedy in the last 20 years (oh - apart from Hardware, which I liked - especially when it became Gervais's target in Extras) is the turns Ant and Dec do to pad out IACGMOOH and BGT.

I remember Dead Man Weds being okay, but I was young and innocent back then.

Keebleman

I think it's a good idea.  Any decent writing team needs someone to make the tea.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: gilbertharding on June 18, 2019, 12:29:37 PM
There are allowed exceptions to The Equality Act 2010, including [...] the long term unemployed [...]

Wait, what?  Sorry to go off topic but you're saying that a company can say "we're not going to employ you even though you're the best candidate because you've been unemployed longer than X amount of time"?

I mean apart from anything else, why would they?  Surely they'd just reject on grounds such as "You failed the interview as we thought that you wouldn't be a good fit" or "We feel your experience is no longer relevant"?  Who would actually explicitly say "You haven't had a job in so long that we're not going to give you one either?"  Seems weird.  I guess it just means they can reject CVs out of hand without giving a reason why... but then companies do that anyway.  I'm very confused...

How long's X by the way, do you know?

Twed


gilbertharding

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on June 18, 2019, 03:33:04 PM
Wait, what?  Sorry to go off topic but you're saying that a company can say "we're not going to employ you even though you're the best candidate because you've been unemployed longer than X amount of time"?


Not me. But I think you've misunderstood. Probably because I copied and pasted, then trimmed a lot of context from, the wikipedia page.

The act says you (an employer or service provider) are not allowed to discriminate against people for having any of 9 (at time of writing) protected characteristics (which include age, disability, gender, sex, race etc).

You MAY BE ALLOWED to discriminate for certain defined jobs - for instance if you are operating an employment scheme aimed at helping various groups (including ethnic minorities, ex-offenders, young people, and long-term unemployed). Eg - if you are aiming to specifically help young people into employment you have to, by definition, exclude old people.

mippy

Quote from: Gerald Fjord on June 18, 2019, 01:15:25 PM
i too would like to point to the historic and contemporary preponderance of all-male writing teams as a reason why this idea is stupid.

Especially when 90% of those examples are a good two or three decades old.

mippy

They've 'banned' them in the same way that Radio 1 'banned' Status Quo from the playlist in the early 90s ie. not very much.

Pinball

Have they banned all-female writing teams? Sexist cunts. The future of comedy.