Going for the funny bone

A man walks in to a bar. Ouch.” Some, me mainly, find that hilarious, while others will hate your living soul for saying it out loud and ruining their lives. In its own humble way, this gag represents the knobbly dilemma at the heart of comedy: it’s utterly subjective, and negative reactions can be fierce. So a hit TV comedy really matters; it can define a career, a channel, an era – and probably in that order.

Some inevitably sniffed at Mrs Brown’s Boys’ Bafta win – but 8 million or so others will have punched the air.

Since dominating last year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, it’s clear that in TV, comedy is on the up. We need laughs but there’s a simpler and more likely reason: competition. With Sky pouring in the kind of money that would make Croesus blush, other channels know they need to get on the case or else all the Baftas will go elsewhere. ITV1 is even changing its schedule – that’s how seriously it’s taking it.

In the past year, Sky 1 has premiered a blizzard of comedies and comedy dramas. Starlings, the latest, launched on Sunday 13 May at 8pm to more than 600,000/2.5% overnight ratings; consolidating to 912,400 and another 221,500 on repeat. Stella averaged 1.2 million/ 4.5% on winter Fridays at 9pm, while August’s Mount Pleasant averaged 862,000/3% for its Wednesday 9pm premiere slot.

Sitcom Trollied piled up 2 million/ 7% for its 9pm August launch; the best performance of all the recent Sky 1 comedies. By the end, however, it was below 1 million. But clearly there was something in that large initial audience that says viewers are searching for a smile, and it won a US network-esque 22-part reorder.

Spy – another Bafta winner – launched in October last year at 8.30pm on Fridays, averaging more than 760,000/3%. The Café began well at 9pm on Wednesdays in November, launching with more than 1 million/4%, but slipped to 400,000/1.5% by the end. All these titles, apart from Starlings, which has only just started, have been reordered for at least one more series and some Christmas specials, despite their varied performances.

With its subscription-based revenue stream, as well as spot advertising, BSkyB can afford to take a longer-term view.

Other channels in the stable are joining in, including Alan Partridge decamping to Sky Atlantic, which will also be home to passion projects from Kathy Burke and Julia Davis, and a John Hamm comedy drama on Sky Arts.

Back into the fray comes ITV1. For some time, its weekday schedule has been very narrow, with the emphasis on the 9pm slot as soaps moved in post 8pm. Wisely, ITV doesn’t publicly bang on about CRR anymore, but internally it will remain a significant factor in commissioning; comedy is expensive and risky and brings the bean counters out in hives.

Under the new Champion’s League contract, ITV1 football moves back to Tuesday from Wednesday, allowing the Thursday 8.30pm Coronation Street to move to 7.30pm on Wednesday, thus opening up a pre-watershed slot for the first time in aeons.

Not since Barbara in the early noughties has ITV1 had a pre-watershed comedy. Its biggest recent hit, Benidorm, began in 2007 as a half hour at 10pm before morphing into a 60-minute 9pm show that averaged more than 7 million/27% last winter. It remains to be seen how successful ITV’s new strategy will be, but it’s heartening to see the creative argument being won for variety in a schedule for too long restricted by having too few prewatershed slots; it’s up to new comedies Naked House and The Job Lot to prove it was worth it.

Without Big Brother, Channel 4 has to find dozens of new shows that appeal to its core young, upmarket audience – and comedy is a big part of that. Ricky Gervais’ Derek has won a series after April’s pilot episode achieved 2.9 million/ 12% (plus a strong 22% share of 16-34s). Launching in March 2011, Friday Night Dinner achieved 2 million/9% with 16% of 16-34s; enough to earn it a second series.

Campus fared less well, failing to capture the same team’s Green Wing glory days and averaging just over 682,000/4% in April last year. But comedy drama Fresh Meat – technically a drama commission but with comic pedigree – proved students aren’t entirely unpalatable, averaging 1.7 million/9% (18% 16-34s) last autumn; series two beckons. Meanwhile, impressions show Very Important People is averaging 1.1 million/ 4.7% at 9.30pm on Friday, a pale shadow of the slot’s 7.5% average.

Recently, BBC1 had a big hit from an unlikely source and a flop from a traditionally more reliable one. The Royal Bodyguard, starring the usually reliable David Jason, launched in a plum Boxing Day slot to 8.3 million/29% – soon, however, it sank to just over 3 million.

Its Monday night companion, Mrs Brown’s Boys, followed the opposite trajectory. Launching in February 2011 with 2.8 million/ 16% at 10.35pm, a year later it was achieving more than 7 million on Mondays at 9.30pm. The final episode, on a Saturday, achieved its best rating: 8.3 million/29%.

As the pre-watershed battle begins to hot up, BBC1’s new autumn offering Citizen Khan will know it has to do better than last summer’s 8.30pm Wednesday show In With The Flynns, which averaged 3.8 million/17%.

BBC2’s Miranda launched in 2009 and achieved 2.7 million/11% on Mondays at 8.30pm in its first series; the second averaged 3.6 million/12%. BBC2 would have sighed into its champagne as it felt the tap of BBC1 on its shoulder; the BBC1 repeat got a high of 4.6 million/18% but new episodes have yet to play on the main channel.

Generally, BBC2 plays comedy post-watershed; series two of Rev averaged 1.9 million/7% at 9pm in December 2011. Episodes returned for its second series on 11 May at 10pm with 1.2 million/6% live ratings, on par with series one.

Elsewhere in the digital world, Comedy Central made a rare foray into UK-originated scripted comedy with Threesome in November 2011, which averaged 200,000/ 0.7% for its Monday night premiere.

On E4 last year, Beaver Falls averaged 630,000/2.5%, earning itself a second series (The Inbetweeners, in comparison, began on 403,000/2% in 2008). BBC3 has canned White Van Man but ordered new series of Him & Her (680,000/4% average last Autumn) and Pramface (530,000/2%on its premiere TX). Newly commissioned Bad Education and Some Girls are en route.

In recent, commercially challenging, times, narrative comedy was seen as a risky venture, but largely due to increased competition, things are picking up. Not all ideas will work, but given time, good comedy will always win out. All of which is good news if you are a comedy writer. But you’d better be funny.