WRITE A SITCOM
CHARACTERS
The single most important ingredient in any sitcom is the characters. This is what it’s all about. And not too many of them either. Think between 2-6. With 1 or 2 or 3 of them as main characters with the others supporting (think Fleabag. This Country. Absolutely Fabulous) or a much more even, ensemble set-up (Derry Girls. Dad’s Army.)
Very often big, lovable, unwieldy characters who mess up all the time, are who we love to relate to. Miranda, Rosanne, David Brent, Basil Fawlty, Homer Simpson, Jim Royle, Stath, Kerry Mucklowe, Alan Partridge, British culture would be poorer without them. We love them for making us feel a bit better, by seeing how bad things could be. We love them for being vulnerable, for getting it wrong, for being out of control. And we love them for making us laugh.
Here is Simon Mayhew Archer, Producer of This Country, talking about the importance of character and why Kerry and Kurtan work so well. For the full interview see The Masters.
It’s worth mentioning at this point, that characters in American sitcoms are not usually quite such losers. It’s true that Rosanne and Homer Simpson fit this model and maybe that is why we like them so much, but often the characters in American sitcoms are more aspirational: Frasier, both Will & Grace, all the characters in Friends (to a greater or lesser extent). We are not being asked to laugh at them because their whole lives are going badly, more that we are being asked to relate to individual things that happen to them, that get in the way of their aspirations. Either way, it is the characters that make the show.
You will know everything about your characters - their family background, education, whether they ever had a Saturday job, their tastes etc. etc. All of their back-story. The better you know them, the better they will work. But on the page, in the show, comedy characters tend to have a more concisely defined personality. In fact many of the really classic ones can be summed up in one or two words, which some people refer to as their comedy flaw.
All of this has become a bit less cut and dried today of course. The advent of the box set has introduced some blurring of the lines between comedy and drama. When we binge watch we tend to want some ongoing story, and sometimes this now comes in the form of character progression. So, for instance, Fleabag moved over the course of two series from Lost Soul to Finding Herself in fact her character trait at times became the drive of her story. But she still never became a completely fully rounded drama character.
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Here is Lydia Hampson, Producer of Fleabag, talking about the merging of comedy and comedy drama. For the full interview see The Masters.
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EG
Jen from Extraordinary – Self centered
Fleabag – Lost soul (who later finds herself)
Baldrick from Blackadder – Stinking moron.
Manuel from Fawlty Towers – Hapless waiter.
A good test of how well a character is written is to ask someone to describe your characters in two or three words. If they come up with the same description as you, then you’re probably on the right track.
Lead characters need to be more “real” and multifaceted than support characters, of course. Depending how central a role they play in the action, some support characters can get away with only being there for the same laugh each time, sometimes playing the role of a form of Greek Chorus (think Father Jack in Father Ted who often just said things like “Drink! Feck! Arse! Girls! And actually that was a lot for him.) And we loved him for it.
It is vital to have conflict between your characters. Humour is the offspring of conflict. If you have two similar characters who get on very well in a bedsit you will have invented the world’s first sit-bore. Friction makes funny. But you can’t invent this. It needs to arise organically from who your characters are. Then we will believe it. And the more we believe it, the more it will make us laugh.
Think through your character’s relationship with each other very thoroughly. No two relationships should be the same. Tell us who likes who and why? And vice versa. It is not sufficient to say that A likes B simply because you want him to. We must understand and believe their relationship is what it is. The reasons may be hidden in your character’s past history, personality or even inner psyche.
Character: Starting With a Voice
Jamie Demetriou, Writer and star of Stath Lets Flats on how he starts with a voice. For the full interview see The Masters
2015-2017
Relationship Between His Characters
Jamie Demetriou, Writer and Star of Stath Lets Flats on the relationship between his characters.
2015-2017
Characters in The Durrells
Simon Nye Writer of many sitcoms including Men Behaving Badly, How Do You Want Me and The Durrells, talks to us about his characters in The Durrells. For the full interview see The Masters