Homework

Costumes

Vyvyen- Jewellery, piercings, baggy clothes, spiky hair. Give clues to his character, as a punk.

Rick-

Neil- Long hair, baggy clothes- shows he is a hippy.

Gestures

Rick- uses a lot of facial expressions as he is talking, which adds character, and also makes him funnier.


Props

each main character at the start of the clip is in bed, surrounded by tissues.

This shows that these characters are supposed to be unwell.

The beginning of the clip shows all the characters doing the same thing, and in time with each other. This gives us a clue to the type of programme this is, it is obviously a sitcom as it is comedic.

Dawn French

I changed my mind about 5 times, but i eventually settled with Dawn French.


Dawn French started her television career on 'The Comic Strip Presents' in 1982. She then moved on to sketch show 'French and Saunders' in 1987. In 2002, French appeared in the comedy/drama mini-series Ted and Alice. This role was not as successful as her previous work, and lasted only two years. Her biggest role so far as been as female vicar Geraldine Granger in 'The Vicar Of Dibley'. In 2006 and 2008, French has played a major role in Jam & Jerusalem. She has also made a guest appearance on 'Little Britain' and 'Little Britain Live' for Comic Relief.




As well as her work on sitcoms, she is a great live comedian, often taking to the stage for charity events.








Dawn French is well known for her size, often poking fun at it. She admits to being a chocoholic which helped get her the part as the face of Terry's Chocolate Orange.
She has her own clothing line, Sixteen47, which refers to the fact that 47% of the population are at least a size 16. She is married to comedian Lenny Henry and they have an adoptive daughter, Billie.



The Vicar Of Dibley has attracted many celebrity guests, including Sting, Johnny Depp and Kylie Minogue.

Radio Comedy

Although without radio comedy, we wouldnt not have any of the sitcoms we have grown to love, I believe the television sitcom has definately overtaken the radio comedy in terms of popularity.

Also, I don't think radio is as important in the development of new sitcoms as it used to be. Many new sitcoms originated on the radio, and with their popularity became television series', but recently there is no need for the leap from radio to television, many now begin straight on the television.

However, there are still many good sitcoms being broadcast on the radio, but as a twist to what it used to be, most of these originated on television and have developed to radio programmes.

Little Britain and Mitchell and Webb are just two examples of the recent comedies being broadcast on BBC7 today. Most of the programmes are much older, with classics like 'The Goon Show' also a regular on the station.

Without radio comedy, sitcoms would not be what they are today, but i don't think they are as essential to the continued development of the genre as they used to be.

Medal Winner

Some good research and for some effort you have been rewarded. However you have yet to post your response to Wednesday's task question. I will want to see this posted on your excellent blog by Monday. I look forward to it!

castt+such

CAST
Edina Monsoon-Jennifer Saunders
Patsy Stone-Joanna Lumley
Saffron Monsoon-Julia Sawalha
June Monsoon (Mother)-June Whitfield
Bubble- Jane Horrocks

PRODUCER
Jon Plowman

PROGRAMMING HISTORY
BBC
November 1992-December 1992 - Six Episodes
January 1994-March 1994 - Six Episodes
March 1995-May 1995 - Six Episodes


WRITER
Jennifer Saunders

DIRECTOR
Bob Spiers



Absolutely Fabulous is popular amongst British women, as the main characters are so exaggerated. They play on the characteristics many people do not find appealing. Edina is so obsessed with the latest fashions, getting botox and spending her money on designer clothes. The fact that these women are wealthy enough to afford these things would usually mean viewers would look up to them. However, in Ab Fab, these women are always drunk or taking drugs, spending too much money and being generally very rude. This means that rather than looking up to these women, viewers will laugh at them as they do all these things usually found annoying in a comedic way. It shows that this aspirational lifestlye is not all it seems to be, these women are as common as the next.

Background Stuff

Set in London, Ab Fab was screened on BBC between 1992 and 2005.

Absolutely Fabulous first aired on 12 November 1992, and ran for three series until 4 May 1995, when the sixth episode of series 3 was billed as the last-ever episode. However, the following year in November 1996, two specials, called "The Last Shout", were broadcast and were also billed as the last-ever episodes. Both 'last episodes' featured end sequences with flashes to the future. However, on 31 August 2001 the fourth series premiered. A further series and three specials followed, the last of which aired on 25 December 2004.


Ab Fab is loved worldwide, being shown in the USA,Canada,Australia,Portugal,Serbia, Czech Republic, the Republic of Macedonia,the Netherlands, Germany,France,Finland, Poland and New Zealand. It also inspired a 2001 French Film 'Absolument fabuleux'.

I found these videos on Youtube

apparently theyre the best bits of Ab Fab, so lets have a look see.

ab fab

Fashion Consultant Edina and her best friend Patsy drive sensible daughter Saffron up the wall with their constant drug abuse and outrageous selfishness.


It came 17th in a poll of the 20 best British Sitcoms voted by the public on sitcom.co.uk





Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone are two immature, prosperous, but preposterous substance-abusing fashion and fad-obsessed Londoners who value fame and style over substance (unless they are controlled substances). Saffron, Edina's daughter, provides the persistently dour voice of Monsoon and Stone's super-ego. Edina and Saffy live in a house in Holland Park (although the house is seemingly very close to Shepherds Bush, much to Edina's chagrin), with Patsy spending most of her time there as well.

The programme circles around Eddy's ongoing struggle to achieve fame, success and a slender figure amidst the disapproval of her daughter and the constant presence of her increasingly senile mother. Throughout, Patsy is at her side encouraging the behaviours that are constantly causing her conflict. Much of the comedy of the show is physical, usually derived from Edina and Patsy's drunken and/or stoned states, with their favourite drinks being Bolly Stolly (a cocktail of Bollinger champagne and Stolichnaya vodka) and later Veuve & Bourb (a mix of Veuve Clicquot champagne and bourbon) or Dom & Bom (a mix of Dom Perignon champagne and Bombay Sapphire gin). The mutual loathing between Saffy and Patsy, as each tries to guide Edina's behaviour, also makes for many comic situations. A recurring gag found new ways for Edina to fall headfirst out of cars, windows, or down her kitchen stairs at least once every series.

Absolutely Fabulous

Lucky for me I got to change from Last Of The Summer Wine to Absolutely Fabulous.

YAYYYY :D

Wednesdays Lesson

In Wednesday's Lesson, we were put into teams to produce our own sitcoms.
We had to draw a setting, character and a plotline and come up with a sitcom for them.
I got a submarine, ambitious snitch and a thief. We decided it would be 30 minutes long, from the point of view of the snitch. It would be slapstick comedy, with the thief getting caught out every time by the snitch.


We did a quick starter on sitcoms, trying to link titles with loglines and dates they began.

We also learnt all about pitches, treatments, synopses and loglines.

A useful website to find out about how to write a treatment is :

http://www.ehow.com/how_2002034_write-a-treatment.html

:)

First Post

Hellooooo to Blogspot :)

WHOOOOT SITCOMS