WHAT AM I DOING!?

Hello, y'all! So, thought I'd fill you in on what's happening with my other job, as that's something I'd never usually cover on Digitiser2000. 

I'm currently writing episodes for the EIGHTH series of CBBC's 4 O'Clock Club, which is quite remarkable. This series will feature our 100th episode - and there aren't many shows, for kids or otherwise, which reach that milestone. It's all the more astonishing given that CBBC are commissioning fewer series than ever before - and those series which they are commissioning are mostly brand new. Their new approach is "fewer, bigger, better". So the fact that we've been asked to come back for an eighth time is extremely odd. But good.

As always, I'm ostensibly lead writing - which essentially translates to me writing a few more episodes than everyone else, and (if the executive producer is busy) the series bible each year. I don't really feel like the lead writer, to be honest - it's very much led by the exec - but I still love the show to bits.

My other big job for this year - barring Digitiser: The Show, of course - is a brand new series for CBBC. 

Two-ish years ago, the channel put out a tender asking for production companies to pitch for a new music-based sitcom. CBBC described it as wanting to find "Friends meets S Club 7". 

I knew nothing of this until I was approached by one production company, Salt Beef, with a view to developing the idea and writing a pilot script. This was all in early 2016. We were up against a lot of other projects, and gradually CBBC whittled them all down until just two were left. One of which was ours. 

The other potential project was headed up in-house at CBBC by my 4 O'Clock Club executive producer (turns out there aren't that many people out there with experience of writing a musical sitcom for kids...). 

CBBC couldn't decide between the two projects, and so they commissioned a second script from each. Ours was delivered in January 2017. Then it was a long wait until we found out in early summer last year that we were - after a lot of deliberation - successful. Which made things slightly awkward between my 4OCC exec and I for a while! But, well, that's the way it goes. Normally I'm on the unsuccessful side of things.

I expected to more or start writing immediately after the green-light was given. Indeed, I was told as much - to clear space in the latter half of last year. So, I didn't take on any other work, I worked with the expectation of being contracted - and getting paid - imminently... and then nothing. 

The show is going to be a co-production between CBBC and an external investor - but, unfortunately, getting the other half of the funding didn't happen straight away. In fact, I didn't get contracted until December last year - and then it was only with a small percentage of my lead writer fee (the rest arrives once the series has been completed), and for a single episode, as the full budget still hasn't arrived. 

Suffice to say, coming on the back of the expense of Found Footage, things have - as I know I've mentioned - been utterly battering financially. It was a bit of a perfect storm, really, and I'm still paying for it. My mistake. Lesson learned. 

It is moving forwards, though. It has to - as we have to deliver the completed series by the autumn.

It's potentially a huge show for the channel, as the aim is to do the full S Club 7 thing, and launch an actual band off this - one that'll release singles and play concerts, and all of that. We'll be working with proper, established, record industry people to make it happen. I'm not totally sure what to expect from this, to be honest. I've not done anything remotely like it before.

Anyhow, yesterday we began casting. Back when I still had it in me to pitch and write adult comedy shows, I went along to a lot of auditions, but as far as my various CBBC shows go I've never been asked along. They've always tended to keep the writers at arm's length.

Things are. a little different on this music show; I'm much more of a proper lead writer, much more involved in everything (not that it particularly equates to more money!), and so I spent yesterday in a rehearsal studio watching a procession of young hopefuls act, sing, and play musical instruments. Which was a bit weird, and a bit uncomfortable, knowing we could have either changed any of these kids' lives forever... or really, really disappointed them for a few days.

We concluded that it's going to be an incredibly hard show to cast. I mean, they all are... but we're not just looking for funny, talented, teenage actors - but bona-fide rock stars. We need kids who have - for want of a better phrase - the x-factor. And there aren't many of those out there. 

Anyway. There you go. That's what else I've got going on alongside my Digi stuff. It's going to be a busy time, especially with the Digitiser show in the mix, but I seem to work better when I've got a lot of plates spinning, and I'm not left to procrastinate!

It's weird though. Towards the end of Digi's life, I was using it to help support me while I tried to get my TV writing career off the ground. Now it feels as if that's flipped; my TV work pays the bills (well, some of them sometimes anyway), and Digi2000, and my YouTube stuff, is now the real passion. I'm treating it like a job. I hope, in time, it becomes much more of one, in every way that counts.

Paul