Bosses At Various Artists Talk Working With Jesse Armstrong In The Post-‘Succession’ Era, Teaming With A24 On ‘Such Brave Girls’ & The Return Of The Sitcom
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Since being launched in 2017 by a quartet including Jesse Armstrong, Various Artists Limited (VAL) has made shows ranging from Michaela Coel‘s I May Destroy You to Julia Davis’ Sally 4Ever,but bosses now see the comedy landscape heading in a somewhat different direction.
Fresh off the back of Sunday’s BAFTA win for Kat Sadler’s BBC comedy Such Brave Girls, head honcho Phil Clarke and comedy boss Jack Bayles are talking up the return of the sitcom in a landscape beset by budget woes and risk aversion that is nonetheless continuing to birth breakouts. “The word we are getting from broadcasters is they want more traditional sitcoms with ‘A, B, C’ storylines and bigger characters,” Bayles tells Deadline. “We’ve been through this amazing era of drama and people have got so used to seeing that scale and ambition but trying to compete with that in half-hour, lower-budget comedy is impossible.
Instead, we can provide escapism, a connection and can reflect people’s lives back at them.” Bayles cites the likes of hit BBC comedy Ghosts – “done with panache,” he says – or Channel 4‘s The Change, as prime examples of what British networks might be seeking in the near future.
Finding creatives to spawn sitcoms has become tricky following years of a comedy landscape that has been defined by auteur-driven shows and dramedies, Bayles says. “It doesn’t feel like there are as many of them as there were,” he adds. “Maybe people need to feel that shift or the messaging needs to float down.” He goes on: “Sometimes big comic talents are scared of doing [more mainstream shows like sitcoms] due to fear of failure but for the overall health of the ecosystem you need these shows to make sure comedy is still celebrated as a
Read more on deadline.com