Sitcom Trials finalists announced

The 20 finalists of The Sitcom Trials 10th Anniverary Season have been announced.

380 budding sitcom writers entered sitcom scripts, hoping to be chosen to head to head in competition in the Sitcom Trials shows which begin at the Leicester Square Theatre on October 19th, 20 have made the cut.

I'd like to congratulate James and his readers on their script selection. I didn't read any of them until James emailed me the finalists yesterday, and I spent last night reading them all while the entrants were on tenterhooks waiting for the results. There are some very good scripts in there and I look forward to some entertaining shows with some very tight voting decisions to be made.

One thing you might have noticed, and I'm not sure James has mentioned, is that there are 20 finalists, not the 16 you were expecting. Because the Sitcom Trials format has been adhered to closely by the writers we've got entries short enough that we can fit five scripts into every 90 minute show, and we've moved the start times to 6pm and 8.30 to give us extra time if necessary. So that'll be 4 heats showcasing 20 sitcoms, 10 scripts should then go through to the semi finals, and 5 should appear in the final (this is again subject to James leaping in and shouting "No you've got it wrong again you idiot, do you never listen?").

Of course this is scant consolation for the 360 out of 380 entrants whose scripts didn't make the cut, but the good news there is that Sitcom Saturday takes place on a regular basis in London, and Declan & Simon (producers of the last 2 Sitcom Trials competitions) will be looking for entries for their new Sitcommission project very very soon.

Tickets for the Sitcom Trials 10th Anniversary season, beginning October 19th, are now on sale at:
http://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/events.asp?eventid=220&categoryid=3

The BSG Forum or sitcomtrials.co.uk will be the places to catch the running order every week, and the results, which will be announced at the end of the second performance of the show every week (as part of the show), and be Twittered afterwards.

Those 20 finalists scripts are, in alphabetical order:

* "Alan Pob - Writing Wrongs" by Saul Wordsworth
* "Assemblage of Evil" by Joe Deacon
* "Baby, it's cold outside" by Peter Higgins
* "Bumboy" by Andy Crick
* "Don't Murder the Messenger" by Allan Payne
* "End to End" by Matt Holt, Steve McNeil and Sam Pamphilon
* "Future Proof" by Elise Bramich
* "Life as a foreign language" by John Barron and Olly Allsopp
* "Long Term Sick" by Mark Brotherhood
* "Lovely Rocks" by John Seymour
* "My Sister" by Robin Bailes
* "PR a History" by Graeme and Nicky Knowles
* "Prodigies" by Alex Kirk and Simon Messingham
* "The Bar Boys" by Ben Glassman
* "The Johns" by Hugh Travers
* "The Not Gots" by Malcolm Duffy
* "Therapy" by Tom Carter
* "The Second Best Job in the World" by Chris Gilgallon
* "The Spy who Wrapped up Warm" by Jim Speirs & Simon Bristoll
* "Weathermen" by Ken Cheng