Main content

How we sought out young people's funny ideas on the independence referendum

By Gerald Strother, Producer

What do young people think is funny about the Referendum on Scottish Independence?

We wanted to find new, young writers who could give us their perspective on the Indyref. People who would have different ideas about the event. Who would take inspiration from and make us laugh.

What’s Funny About the Indyref? is the response to an we put out earlier in the year to attract new young comedy writers. With help from , and a host of other supporters we got the message out and pretty much instantly started receiving material.

A reasonably long process followed, of refining the most promising sketches and jokes simply due to the volume of quality work we were sent. It was brilliantly encouraging but a bit of a challenge to scale down to a manageable amount.

The writers room

Some of the new writers attended a writing workshop in the early stages of production.

Once we had what we felt was the strongest material, we worked with the writers to develop and refine their ideas. Some we met face to face in a writers workshop we put together, some we worked with remotely via email. All of them benefitted from feedback on their work from the production team and three brilliant script editors - Niall Clark, and , who between them have worked on programmes like , and . So we had quite the talented bunch.

What we now have are some brilliant sketches which are airing on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Two Scotland and iPlayer. They showcase some exciting new, young talent who are all getting their first credit on a TV show and hopefully the work will be a calling card, leading to more writing gigs and further opportunities. I for one am positive that I’ll be working with many of them again in the future.

And hopefully the show demonstrates that there IS a bit of fun to be had around the referendum. That doesn’t mean not taking it seriously - just engaging with it, with a wry smile.

...but don’t just take my word for it! Here’s what some of the young writers themselves had to say about the experience:-

Joe Daniels

I love it! The acting is great and really brings the script to life. The changes you made to the sketch made it a lot sharper, and funnier as a result!

The experience means a lot for the simple reason that it shows my writing must be fairly decent! It opens up new opportunities now that I'm a proper credited writer as well. As for what's next... I'm always writing films and TV shows so it's really just a case of writing and creating new things and just hoping for that big break to come along!

Stuart McPherson

I like how the sketches turned out. Seeing words come out of an actor's mouth that I wrote on a train months before is quite a surreal experience. I thought the performances were really good, all of the actors have great comic timing, which is important. I like that the scenes (what's the word for background stuff? dressing? I know 'Mise en scene' but I'm not saying that- I'm from Fife) have been kept quite simple, nothing is in shot which doesn't need to be, which means that the sketch only relies on the words and the actors' performances.

The experience has been great for me. Writing comedy for television felt like something other people do so to be invited into that world has been an invaluable experience. It was good to meet like-minded people who are my age and trying to learn how to write comedy. Receiving the feedback of Niall Clark (who was a lovely guy) was great as he's been writing comedy for years and has worked on many great shows which I love.

I come out of this experience with a greater self-belief, a greater understanding of how writing comedy for TV works and a legitimate TV credit- which is amazing.

Alexandra Kirk

It's amazing to see the final result, considering I wrote in my cramped little student bedroom back in between doing essays back in April. It isn't how I imagined it would be but I really like that it isn't: it has developed so much since the initial idea, after having so much input and help from the team at Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Scotland and the script editors. This whole process has shown me how good collaboration is; in the writers' room, sketch ideas were much easier to come up with because we were getting direct feedback from other writers - which makes your work better.

The feedback given was really helpful and gives you the ability to alter your material yourself rather than just handing over the basic draft to a team of experienced editors. The writers' room was one of the best experiences I have ever had - I loved being able to throw ideas around - and more importantly, everyone was so encouraging of all the ideas.

I've always known that I wanted to work in television and after the experience I've realised that comedy is where I would like to end up. As a result, I'm meeting some talent producers to advise about what to do next; I'm also writing a lot more, and would like to focus on working in television comedy after I graduate.

Alexandra's sketch

Politics Class

A not particularly inspiring lesson on Scotland

Matthew Sweeney

The pub sketch started out a little bit differently. When it was first submitted it was based around the idea of learning key phrases to get out of conversations on the referendum. As part of the process the script editor for the programme gave us notes, for this sketch he told me to focus on the people who can only talk about the referendum and nothing else.

I’m really happy to see how it has turned out. It's odd seeing things you’ve written being spoken on a screen, but really exciting too. When I submitted this it was a way to kill time while writing my dissertation, now it’s going to be on TV.

I’m not sure what I will do next, I’ve been doing lots of comedy writing about Independence, for my blog, I would jump at the chance to write more political comedy anywhere with a wider audience.

Matthew's sketch

A typical conversation in a bar in August

A night in the pub. But what to chat about?

Jennifer Blyth

Since my sketch is wordplay, the actors did so well to know what to stress and I'd like to apologise to them for writing what was probably a nightmare sketch to perform. I also like that the script editors decided to torment the actors some more by extending the wordplay from the original draft. Part of the original sketch was set in the Bahamas, but I suppose last-minute budget cuts stopped this from happening.

Meeting so many funny young folk at the writers' room filled me with self-doubt, low self-esteem and the feeling that I was actually horrifically ancient. But other than that, it was quite cool. It was wonderful, for example, to receive feedback from Niall Clark, whose doubt about the inclusion of a sad polar bear in another of my sketches will stay with me forever.

I currently have the niche occupation of writing questions for quiz shows. I'd love to progress in my writing career by "asking the big questions" instead of writing lots of sentences with question marks at the end. Getting experience and a TV writing credit in the genre in which I hope to work has been invaluable.

Jennifer's sketch

Ayes and Naws

But who won the referendum?!

Continue your journey