Four places on offer

Comedy writer Andy Riley has launched his annual mentoring scheme for   people of colour who are new or newish to his profession.

He says: ‘The comedy writing business doesn’t yet represent the ethnic make-up of the UK… This scheme is a small effort to move things along a bit.’

 Riley will be joined by fellow writers Sarah Morgan, Tim Reid and The Dawson Brothers in offering help to those accepted this year.

He told Chortle: ‘There are four places this time and we helped the last intake quite a lot, helping them to bag script commissions and for one of them a three-month job on Avenue 5’

Those who have been given mentoring previously include stand-up and Taskmaster contestant Sophie Duker, pictured.

This year, production company Objective Media is also giving all the writers being mentored the option to write a treatment for a new comedy show, for which they will be paid £750 for.

Riley’s credits include Veep, ear of the Rabbit, Black Books, Gnomeo and Juliet, Radio 4 panel game The 99p Challenge and a long list of other TV shows.

Visit his website for more details of the scheme.

Published: 19 May 2022