Comedy news: Graham Linehan reveals secrets of successful sitcom writing ahead of new IT Crowd series

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Comedy writer Graham Linehan has revealed some of the secrets to comedy writing in advance of the new series of the IT crowd.

The comedy sitcom impresario, who is responsible for some of the most famous comedy sitcoms of the last decade popped into BBC 6 Music to chat to Lauren Laverne about the new series, which starts on Channel 4 this Friday.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne, Linehan revealed that the new series has benefited from a critic who was brought into the writing team after posting a review of the previous series online.

“On this series I had a new script editor who wouldn’t let me get away with anything.” Linehan said.

“He was a reviewer of the show who was critical but not insulting. I thought wow, if I knew this before we went into production last time things would have been a lot different.”

Now in its fourth series, the IT Crowd follows the daily working life of a three-strong technical team situated in the basement of the fictional business Reynholm Industries.

Alluding to some of the more recent comedy shows to appear on TV in the past couple of years Linehan also revealed how critique of comedy writing is essential for any creative process to be a success.

“There was a sitcom on recently which had five funny people on it, and it wasn’t any good. I found out later that the writer wouldn’t take any suggestions from any of the actors at all.

“In the IT Crowd, the cast are all funny, and they all have good ideas all the time – and we try and use them as much as possible.

“A comedy writer who can take criticism, you have to take criticism. If you think that writing is about fighting against any change that people want to make you’re wrong, you have to act on people suggestions.”

Linehan was also asked by the presenter whether new forms of communication such as social networking have helped writers.

“It is a dream for writers, because writers don’t really perform well in a people situation, but give them a few minutes to compose a sentence and they come up with something great.”
In fact, it is actually better to meet many writers [online] than it is meeting them in real life.”