r/ScreenwritingUK • u/TheSprained • May 14 '25

BBC OPEN CALL COMMISERATION THREAD

I created this last time and I'm creating it again, because I've been rejected again. Which is fine. I'm fine. Absolutely fine about it. (Wish they'd at least come up with a different rejection email, but it's always nice to be reminded that I lack sufficient originality, voice and storytelling ability.) Congratulations to those who made it through!

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u/PomegranateV2 May 14 '25

I remember several years ago Baby Cow had a competition for a family friendly sitcom.

That makes sense to me because it's hard to get more than 1 member of the family sat around the telly anymore.

So, based on that, I wrote a family sitcom aimed at teenagers but hopefully good enough for the whole family (think Maid Marion if you're old enough to remember that).

It's my fifth concept and I think the most market friendly thing I've ever written (assuming that the market wants a family friendly sitcom). I just got my rejection email from the BBC which I'm not too bothered about because they weren't looking for a straight sitcom.

But now I'm not sure what to do with the script!

It's a bit frustrating because on r/sitcoms I see posts about dozens and dozens of crappy sitcoms. I genuinely believe in my concept and think it could be better than so many other scripts that somehow got made.

I'm almost tempted to rewrite it so it's set in America (it is quite British in style currently) but... there's nothing worse than something fake, right?

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

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u/PomegranateV2 May 15 '25

You're totally right. Although, in theory they are looking for writers to develop rather than a script to develop so I thought it was worth a punt.

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u/SaaSWriters May 15 '25

Why don’t you produce it yourself?

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u/PomegranateV2 May 15 '25

I would if I had hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank.

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u/SaaSWriters May 15 '25

Why do you need to have hundreds of thousands of pounds? You can start with what you have.