A new crowdfunding platform for scripted audio comedy has launched today, offering listeners the chance to back original series directly.

Smelt allows fans to purchase comedy shows they want to hear before they are made, to ensure writers, actors and producers are paid upfront for their work.

Those hoping to get projects off the ground include Ghosts star Ben Willbond, comedians Andy Hamilton, Deborah Frances-White and Alice Fraser (pictured), viral duo Larry & Paul and Bleak Expectations creator Mark Evans.

Each creator is hoping to raise around £70,000 to £80,000 in advance sales to get their series made. It a show doesn’t reach its goal, it won’t be made and pledged money refunded.

The initiative comes from Lead Mojo, the production company behind podcasts NonCensored  with Rosie Holt and Sound Heap with John-Luke Roberts, has created Smelt, a platform where fans pre-purchase comedy shows they want to hear while ensuring writers, actors and producers are paid upfront.

Producer Ed Morrish said he wanted to recreate the magic of classic radio comedy for a new generation. 'I grew up listening to scripted audio comedy like The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The Goon Show and Old Harry's Game, and I love making it,' he said. 

'The thought and planning that goes into scripted audio makes it so much more re-listenable than conversational podcasts, and I hope we can find 5,000 people per series who value the craft of writing, recording and editing comedy.’

The initial line-up includes:

• This Conversation Never Happened by Outnumbered co-creatorAndy Hamilton  – imagined conversations from key moments throughout history
• Tamworth by  The Thick Of It's ‘swearing consultant’ Ian Martin  a period sitcom and political satire set in the late 8th Century
• Undoable by Deborah Frances-White  – a sitcom about an impossible situation of sexual chemistry in a small town
• Shadow Rabbits by Philomena Cunk co-wrtier Joel Morris and Ghosts’ Ben Willbond  – a spy spoof about the team behind health and safety forms for jet packs and insurance for underwater cars
• The Inn by Alice Fraser - a fly-on-the-wall comedy set in the starting location of fantasy adventures, pieced together from overheard snippets
• Broken News from Larry & Paul – treating the absurd minutiae of modern life with the urgency of a global crisis
• The Least Bad Of All Possible Worlds by Eddie Robson, creator of the Radio 4 sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully – a sci-fi comedy about residents of a Lancashire boarding house who have fallen through gateways from parallel worlds
• Randomly Selected by Amna Saleem creator of Radio 4 sitcom Beta Female  – a romcom set in the chaotic purgatory of an airport
• Missing History by Bleak Expectations creator Mark Evans  a spoof history podcast filling in gaps: events repressed by rulers, lost documents and incidents too embarrassing to discuss

Morrish explained: ‘Currently, it is extremely difficult for independent creators to fund scripted audio comedy. No matter how popular a series is, the gap between series 1 and 2 means advertisers tend to favour interview podcasts that can run every week instead, so whether the creators have self-funded the project or have found someone to fund it, the advertising revenue to recoup that money simply isn’t going to add up. 

‘This means creators can end up signing away their intellectual property and rights in exchange for funding, or else end up out of pocket on the show.’

If enough episodes are commissioned, the series will all be made available in one podcast feed, which should be more appealing to advertisers, because it will feature a new episode every week.

Ian Martin said: 'I love the idea of having a paying audience. So much more rewarding than writing for a miserable bunch of moaning cheapskates. I love you all, in advance.'

Amna Saleem added: 'As a Scottish Asian writer I'm not often given the opportunity to write nuanced, funny and colourful stories that can still sit inside the mainstream world instead of being quickly waved away as too niche. Romcoms belong to everyone!' 

Once produced, the series will remain available to buy offering more income for  the writers, producers, and cast.

Back projects at leadmojo.co.uk/smelt.