No laughing matter
Alex Smith, creative director at Big Boys and Stath Lets Flats producer Roughcut, considers the challenge of moving into drama when you’re known for being funny as the company launches Channel 5 thriller Coma.
Comedy writers often tell me, ‘I’d love to write drama, it’d be so great not to have to be funny every scene.’ And drama writers will say, ‘I’d love to write more comedy – no obsessing over tension and plot, just write pure character.’ The grass is always greener, for producers and commissioners too.
Drama people will see shows like Fleabag and In My Skin (both commissioned via comedy) cleaning up at awards ceremonies. They’ll see the low cost, quick turnaround and think, ‘Why are we doing this £2m, CGI-heavy battle scene when we could be grabbing headlines with a joke about anal?’ And you’ll have comedy folks looking at shows like Succession, Killing Eve and The White Lotus thinking, ‘We could be sitting on a tropical beach with an £80m budget – or even £8m – shooting sexy rich people talking about money.’
Indeed, many are crossing the sacred line into the ‘other genre,’ often with real success. But it’s not easy, and it takes time to change perceptions when you’re good at doing something.
Roughcut TV is good at comedy. We’re funny! Established 15 years ago by self-proclaimed ‘funniest producer in the biz’ Ash Atalla following success with The Office and The IT Crowd, Roughcut reached commercial success with returning series Cuckoo and Trollied, and critical acclaim with Bafta winners People Just Do Nothing and Stath Lets Flats.
Scope and scale then expanded with big glossy ambulance comedy Bloods, followed by the recently RTS-nominated ‘comedy drama’ Big Boys, grown up rom-com Smothered and issue-based comdram We Might Regret This, coming to BBC2 later this year.
The progression into more drama-leaning comedy is a natural one, but these are still comedies. Getting taken seriously in drama is another issue. A few years ago, Roughcut launched a dedicated drama department. We hired an experienced development producer and built a slate in the image of our comedy – bold British characters, irreverent in tone but relatable stories, with something to say about how we live.
The luxury of being a true indie meant we were able to approach this in a boutique fashion at first, being instinctive and picky, as we built the right brand. One of our approaches was to work with ambitious, story-savvy comedy writers who wanted to expand their range.
Ben Edwards was one such writer and we developed an idea for talented cross-genre actor Jason Watkins. That idea is now Coma, a four-part domestic thriller launching tonight and airing on consecutive nights this week on Channel 5. Ben had just had a strange true-life moment – a fight in a park with some ‘youths,’ but it was essentially comedic. No one was hurt, no one was arrested, nothing came of it. But we identified the inherent threat in the situation, the potential for a spiralling, dramatic character piece.
What if Ben had made contact, landing a punch? What if the kid had fallen down into a coma? What if the kid’s father was a dangerous man, who thought Ben had saved his boy’s life? And from there we built out a domestic thriller.
Developing for drama and developing for comedy isn’t a hugely different process. With comedy, you’re often looking at writing talent (stand-ups, online, sitcom) with a character they’ve created, stuck in a situation. You have a central dilemma, and you build a world around it, but the first thing on the page is the character.
With Roughcut drama, we want to take that same approach. Drama writers often start by pitching plot. I don’t blame them – our juiced-up industry is in such competition to keep viewers that shows need a twist every five minutes these days. But this can cause some writers to forget the central story engine – a human being, an often flawed person who drives the story because they’re unable to change themselves. That’s where a comedy producer can be useful to a drama writer, by bringing it back to character.
In Simon (Watkins), Ben has created a flawed man, a beta male, who is scared of life, scared to stick up for himself, and as such tries to cover his tracks the moment he dares try to change it. It’s funny, in places, but cautiously so. We wanted the drama to be taken seriously and for it to deliver thriller. Laughs can undermine that tension.
Coma is skilfully directed by drama heavyweight director Michael Samuels, who guaranteed the pace and the thrill, but also recognised the inherent comedy in the situation and the range Jason offers. Michael wanted to emanate shows like Fargo, which are both witty and gripping without negating one or the other, and we believe that has been achieved. We’re confident that, as a calling card, it seats us firmly in the drama world and tees up our second commission – a six-part thriller – due to be announced soon.
Roughcut Drama now has developments with most major platforms, and our team, as well as our slate, has expanded boldly under head of drama Marianna Abbotts, who as well as sourcing the best of the drama world continues to look for those comedy writers who want to expand their range. We’ll always make comedy and always pride ourselves on being market leaders in this genre. The world needs laughs – especially now. But with our first drama out the door, we can now be taken seriously while still being funny.
tagged in: Alex Smith, Channel 5, Coma, Roughcut TV