Make Me Laugh: Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry

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The proposed research project seeks to examine the nature of creativity within the British television comedy industry, via examination of the working practices of individuals and the industrial, institutional and policy contexts which inform and shape such creativity. The Department for Media, Culture and Sport defines the Creative Industries as those 'that are based on individual creativity, skill and talent', thereby placing the individual as the core of notions of creativity from which cultural products are produced. Furthermore, academic work on the Creative Industries similarly highlights the significance of the individual: Richard Florida suggests that creative individuals constitute a particular 'class' (2002) with their own interests, working methods and skills, while John Howkins calls creativity 'a special case of consciousness' (2007: 5). Yet the output of such individuals is necessarily tailored to take into account the needs and impetuses of both the industries within which they work and the broader economic and policy contexts which affect all labour decisions. This tension between the individual and the system within which they work is a ripe site for the analysis of creativity.The British television comedy industry represents a useful case study for the examination of creativity because of the specifics of its industrial structures. Firstly, like many who work on a project-by-project basis in television, comedy writers, performers and producers are required to be repeatedly creative, generating new ideas and formats which might interest production companies and broadcasters, while taking into account the remits within which those institutions function. Secondly, the comedy industry is indicative of a desire by individuals to manage their own creativity and to work on projects which are meaningful to the individual; this is shown by the proliferation of small production companies during the expansion of the independent television sector in the 1980s, a trend which continues to this day. Research shows that individuals' desire to work for small companies and on specific projects is an attempt to 'maintain control' (Mills 2009: 56) and 'autonomy' (Hesmondhalgh 2007: 6) over both output and working practices. Thirdly, the comedy industry is relatively un-professionalised, with a lack of recognised comedy-specific qualifications; the renown and success of individuals is, therefore, reliant entirely on their creativity. Fourthly, the commitment to comedy within British notions of public service broadcasting demonstrate the central role humour and entertainment are seen to play in ideas of the nation which, alongside the British Government's commitment to the Creative Industries, is evidence of the need to explore notions of creativity in more depth.This project therefore assumes that ideas of creativity are best understood methodologically via those individuals who are required to be creative, and its focus is therefore those writers, producers, directors, commissioners and other industry personnel whose livelihood depends on their creativity. The project will therefore undertake empirical investigation, based on interviews with such workers as well as undertaking observation of a range of working practices. The aim will be to follow particular projects from initial idea (usually generated by a writer) through to their successful completion or abandonment, capturing the creative processes they go through via the activities of those individuals involved in their development. By this method, creativity will be placed within appropriate industrial and institutional contexts, and therefore the relationships between those contexts, the resulting product, and the individuals involved will be charted and explored. From this analysis, the project will aim to make an intervention within relevant policy debates as wellas contributing to academic and industrial understandings of creativity and creative workers.