Episode 1 - Know Thine Enemy on iPlayer

For the next week, you can listen to Episode 1 of Series 3 of Hut 33 on iPlayer - here. This episode is actually about codebreaking, which sounds obvious given the premise of the sitcom, but it much harder to do that you might think. I've had one or two people quite indignant that, as a sitcom, we don't concentrate on the codebreaking anywhere near enough. Of course, sitcoms are about characters and people, not ideas. Hut 33 is not about the war - well, it is. It's about class war. It's about the clash of world-views between Archie, the common man, whose time is coming, and Charles, the posh don, whose time is passing. Gordon is stuck in between as the peace-maker. And the war is what pushes this unlikely trio together, as was the case in the war. It is often given as the reason for Churchill's astonishing defeat after the war; Britain, for the first time, really saw how the other half lived, and they didn't like it. Anyway, hope you enjoy the episode.

Know Thyne Enemy

For some reason, this episode is called Know Thyne Enemy. I don't know where the 'y' in 'Thyne' came from, but there it is. Anyway, this is episode 1 in the new series of Hut 33 - details of which can be found here.

This episode is an attempt to actually do a story about codebreaking - which is about as hard to do as it sounds. Stories about codebreaking that are comprehensible are quite hard. To do them on the radio makes them even harder. To make them funny on the radio, well, that's a bit of a tall order. But that is, after all, the premise of the show, so it's my own fault. You can be the judge of how successful I've been with this episode. Have a listen anytime from 11.30am on Wednesday 14th October.

Series 3 sorted

So we recorded four episodes of Hut 33 in the last few days - two on Friday 25th and two on Sunday 27th. We recorded two in May. So that's the whole third series in the can. The series starts on BBC Radio 4 on 14th October at 11.00am (or thereabouts).

I'd like to dwell briefly on the writing process - especially in relation to the results on the night. On Sunday night, we recorded two episodes that took highly varying lengths of time to write. The Big Machine took weeks to produce and ended up going to five drafts. It was an obvious area for an episode - building a computer - but the plot took a long time to come together. Despite a lengthy outline that seemed okay, it didn't quite come together in the first two drafts. But eventually, a script was done. And then dusted.

Because of this, there was limited time available to write the final script, Unlucky for Some, an episode about superstition and luck. It only required two drafts to get across the line, which was fortunate as that was all there was time for! I was a bit worried about going for this topic for an episode as I'd looked at it a number of times and couldn't quite find a story from it that worked. But something came along and it zipped along fairly well. And any concerns about the lack of time on the script were swept aside on the night. Unlucky for Some went extremely well - and probably better than the heavily worked and rewritten Big Machine.

On balance, it wasn't the time spent, but the source of the plots. The Unlucky for Some plot stemmed from the characters and became a clash of world-views - Archie being a rationalist, Gordon being superstitious and naive, and Charles being a Catholic - whereas The Big Machine was more about the concept of technology. Both had plenty of jokes and the audience seemed to like them, but if I had to chose one, it would be Unlucky for Some.

As it happens, both episodes recorded on Friday 25th went even better - the matinee audience were very appreciative. Naturally, the cynics will complain that the laughter is canned. But it isn't. It really isn't. People really do have a nice time at the reocrdings.

So you want to be a comedy writer...

There is an opportunity for new sketch-writers here. Follow the instructions carefully...

The Unthinkable on iTunes

I probably knew this already, but Think the Unthinkable Series 1 is available on iTunes for £5.95. Do please pester the BBC to release Series 2-4. There seems no obvious reason why they can't be released digitally if not as CDs (remember them?). Concrete Cow is also up there on iTunes too (it's a pound more, probably because there are six episodes - and only five of Think the Unthinkable).

Think the Unthinkable was recently chosen by Barry Cryer on BBC7 as one of the best shows of The Noughties. Which is nice. I've only got a few months left to get Hut 33 onto that list...

Wired

The tickets for the Bloomsbury Boffoonery gig have been selling briskly to say the least. About half of them sold on the first day, so don't hang around - especially after an honourable mention in Wired magazine online here.

Boffoonery - Tickets Now on Sale!

At last, you can buy tickets for Boffoonery! - a night of comedy celebrating codebreaking, cunning and computing cleverness in aid of Bletchley Park with Robin Ince, Richard Herring, Robert Llewellyn, Laurence and Gus and lots more tbc. It's on Tuesday 3rd November at the Bloomsbury Theatre and it will be a great night. So buy your ticket online today from the Bloomsbury theatre here.