Sected - my new British audio sitcom

 

podcast cover image

Failed projects

Back in 2011 I wrote my first ever radio sitcom called Flat Three. It was about three dysfunctional 20-somethings squatting in a tower block. I drafted one episode and submitted it to the BBC. It got rejected. There was a comment about it being funny, but it wasn't something the BBC believed their audience would be interested in.    

In 2017 I wrote a standalone radio play called Local Patch. It was an off-beat comedy about a vegetable growing competition. I submitted it to the BBC and got the same response; funny, but not interesting to the BBC target audience.

So I thought I'd produce my own. In 2021 I finished my final drafts of six, 45minute long episodes for a audio sitcom called Reputation Mismanagement. I had the money to self-produce it and a talented actor base to work with. It was cast and the studio booked. It was so far along the process that I even commissioned a theme tune.

Then it all fell through. 

We couldn't arrange enough rehearsal time. People didn't seem that keen to dedicate the time to do it. Which is fine, it was all unpaid. In hindsight, the project was too big. The principle cast size of eight was too large for any amateur production, let alone my fist ever radio production.

I learned a lot. Both from the writing side and project scope. 

Sected

That's when I wrote Sected; a radio sitcom about four incompetent souls trying to start their own cult.

I kept it simple this time. Six 20 minute episodes with a cast size of four. I started writing it in April 2023. By September we were in the recording studio.

Me and the cast of Sected in the recording studio.

I funded the project myself. Budgets were small, but I wanted to ensure the cast would be paid for their time and talent. They deserved more, but it's all I could afford.

I knew nothing about radio production and learned a lot on the job. I'm extremely proud of what we produced. My previous radio comedies didn't get off the ground. But with every failed project, you learn and put that knowledge into your next one.

Sected is being released on podcast from November 9th, with a new episode each week until December 14th.

Sected Trailer

You can listen to the trailer for series 1 here:

To listen to the show on your podcast player of choice, see the offical site:

sectedpodcast.co.uk

Brook For Nothing Wins National Play Award

Brook For Nothing winning the NDFA Youth Award, July 2022

On July 20th Brook For Nothing won the NDFA Youth Trophy along with a Best Youth Actor award and two nominations for Best Youth Actor. 

The National Drama Festivals Association (NDFA) is a yearly national competition where festival winning plays from across the country are invited to take part in a week long competition. Awards are handed out to the best productions for one-act and full length plays, as well as a number of individual awards for actors and directors.

After Brook For Nothing’s successful festival tour in 2022, we were invited to take part in the NDFA festival after our win at the Welwyn Drama Youth Festival. I wrote the play specifically for Limitless Academy of Performing Arts who had won best youth one-act play two years in a row at the NDFA festival, and the cast and team were very keen to make it a hat-trick. This did make me a nervous as Brook For Nothing is a little... different. It’s a comedy half set in a virtual lobby of a computer game and half set in the main protagonist’s danky flat. We had some feedback from some older adjudicators that they often felt confused by what was going on. But I was confident the base subject matter was universal, regardless of how familiar an audience was with gaming culture. 

So I was very pleased for Limitless that my niche script didn’t hamper them from getting their much deserved record of three wins in a row. They are an exceptionally talented group of youth actors and deserved their win which highlights the fact that Limitless Academy is one of the best drama schools in the country. 

Full list of NDFA 2022 awards for Brook For Nothing

NDFA Youth Trophy: Youth One-Act Winner

Buxton Trophy: Best Youth Actor - Kyle Gould as Fraginator_69 

Best Youth Actor Nomination: William Muir as Brook

Best Youth Actor Nomination: Theo Brignall as Querous/Willis 

Award Winning Festival Tour For Brook For Nothing

 

WGC Youth Festival in the Welwyn Hatfield Times 23rd Mar 2022

Two years ago I wrote Brook For Nothing; a one act play designed to be performed by a youth drama company at youth theatre festivals. I wrote it specifically for Limitless Academy of Performing Arts after their fantastic production of my play Unlucky For Some which won the runner-up prize at the Welwyn Garden City Youth Drama Festival in March 2020. Brook For Nothing was planned to be performed at a number of youth drama festivals in 2021 but due to the pandemic this never happened. 

At the start of 2022 auditions and rehearsals begun for Brook For Nothing. As Limitless Academy of Performing Arts is local to where I live I went to all the rehearsals I could, as I did for Unlucky For Some. I feel this is an important aspect where you get to learn from the director and actors, and really understand the process of bringing a script to life. I love working with the team at Limitless as they are very talented and very dedicated and the script was adapted throughout the rehearsal process to make it as slick as possible.  

It was a hard six week rehearsal process to get the production ready for three festival performances over seven days. This hard work paid off as we won awards at all the festivals we entered. We won the Welwyn Garden City Youth Drama Festival and we did very well to finish Second and Third at the Waltham Forest and the Totten festivals as we were against adult entries and professional groups. We also won a number of acting awards for Best Youth Actor and Best Supporting Actress. I also won a new writing award. For a full list of awards and winners see the Stage Plays page.

Cast & Crew

BROOK:    William Muir

KRIS:    Mollie Mincher

ALEX:    Oliva Houghton

SCORPION:    Roisin Oshea

FRAGINATOR:    Kyle Goold

PALADIN:    Jay Thomas

TANYA:    Amber Lewis

TONI PONY:    Kyron Lewis

Director: Pete Heppelthwait

Assistant Director: Victoria Okell

Technician/Stage Manager: Archie Paddick

Crew: Theo Brignall