The Inn Mates

well...

the cat is out of the bag, I have been bursting to say something, but I am very happy to say I have been commissioned to make a pilot for the script - cuirrently called The Inn Mates, which I developed as part of the College of Comedy.

Click here for the story in Broadcast

I'll let you know more on casting and the like as we have it, but for the moment a little bit about the idea.

I grew up in a pub, a very small pub on the edge of a council estate from the age of 4 to 21. I started work behind the bar when I was 16. The characters I met when I was there still inform my comedy writing to this day and I think they always will.'

I always wanted to write a sitcom about a pub, but was always a bit too terrified to try as Craig Cash and Phil Mealy did it so bloody well in Early Doors, and Al Murray did it studio-style in Time Gentlemen Please. Tony Roache did the hyper insane World of Pub and with pubs playing various roles in various sitcoms throughout the ages I was struggling to see how I could come up with anything new.

Then I had an idea... pubs are all about the people who go there. what about a sitcom set in a pub where you never see the bar. So after a lot of brainache I set it in the dining area of a harvester style pub where people go for their Sunday lunch.

It's moved on a bit since then. It's not just going to be in the pub, but the pub did give me the focus to create the characters and I'm now having a lot of fun taking them outside.

It won't be anything like Early Doors. I'd never dare try to imitate something I love so much. It's just a world full of characters I love who make me laugh. I just hope it does the same for everyone else.

There's a long way to go and this, now, even after all this time, just feels like the beginning of the journey. If you want to know what happens along the way then I'll keep you posted. Fingers crossed.