Make Me Laugh: Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry

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.

The project will have a number of demonstrable policy, industrial, economic and social impacts.

1. Primarily, in its engagement with members of the British television comedy industry the project will offer such workers the opportunity to reflect on their working practices and the contexts which impact upon their labour. As the Case for Support shows, the comedy industry is relatively unexplored and my previous research with its workers demonstrated the fragmented nature of such labour. In encouraging such workers to discuss working practices and relevant contexts with one another, this project will have an impact upon the industry and those who work within it, leading to improved communication and subsequent developments in working practices.

2. As one of the outputs of the project will be a report summarising findings and containing participants' responses to discussions concerning the industry, the project will impact upon a range of policies relevant to broadcasting and the creative industries. As this report will be disseminated amongst broadcasters, regulators (OfCom, BBC Trust), broadcasting organisations (Royal Television Society, BAFTA, PACT, Thinkbox, BBC Knowledge Exchange), and policy and education bodies (DCMS, Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network, Skillset) its impact will be wide-ranging.

3. In the long term, the project's impact upon the comedy sector of the creative industries is likely to have a social impact due to the ways in which the output of that sector develops. As the Case for Support shows the British partly define themselves in terms of humour, and comedy is seen as a vital part of the British definition of public service broadcasting. In encouraging taking the comedy sector seriously, and in encouraging its workers to reflect on their practices and producing data which will aid this sector's development, the project will have an impact upon the kinds of comedy being produced in Britain and the social role that comedy plays.

4. As the comedy sector of the television industry makes a significant economic contribution in the UK and overseas, the opportunities this project gives workers to reflect on their practices will inevitably have an economic impact. In encouraging dialogue between workers, and between those workers and those responsible for the industrial and policy contexts within which they work, the project will facilitate the development of working practices which will lead to demonstrable economic impacts.

5. While the primary impacts of the project will be UK-centric, the international context within which the comedy industry works means there are possible international impacts too. That is, the findings and reports will be of relevance to a wider range of international broadcasting industries and associated bodies, as well as international interest and policy groups (for example, the UNESCO World Forum on Cultural Industries, Americans for the Arts, the World Observatory on the Social Status of the Artist, and the Creative Industries Innovation Centre). In encouraging reflection and analysis of creativity in the comedy industry, the project is therefore likely to have international societal and economic impacts.