"Is that funny?" - students gear up for final

The eight student finalists have put forward a ten-minute comedy script or video for the competition “Is that Funny?” a challenge created by Director, Producer and Writer Richard, in conjunction with the University.

Richard, himself an English graduate from the University of Exeter, has been involved in television comedies throughout his career. As well as his work on Blackadder and The IT Crowd, he also won a BAFTA for The Sketch Show in 2002 and was Head of Comedy at Carlton and Central TV.

He returned to the University last October to give a talk about his career. He also spoke about this challenge, which is being run with the Centre for South West Writing and the Development and Alumni Relations Office at the University.

Caroline Quentin is a well-known British actress, having played roles in popular comedies including Men Behaving Badly and Jonathan Creek. She has also starred in the ITV crime drama Blue Murder as DCI Janine Lewis. Earlier this year she appeared in the TV documentary Caroline Quentin: A Passage Through India.

Caroline and Richard have worked together on the sit-com Life of Riley which is currently being shown on the BBC.

University English lecturer Sam North and XTV’s Mike Evans make up the remainder of the judging panel.

“Is that Funny?” is being held this Friday June 10 from 6pm-9pm. To book a place, or for further information, contact Claire Panzeri, c.j.panzeri@exeter.ac.uk or 01392 726317.