Karen Koren: The late guide to comedy

By Karen Koren
Published on Thursday 19 January 2012 15:11

NEXT Monday, BBC One Scotland will air my first television series - Late ’n’ Live Guide To Comedy.

It’s on really late, well, 11.05pm - hardly surprising given the content. However, I am really excited about it and think we have done a good job.

Now all I need is for everyone to watch it. TV is all about viewing figures these days. If lots of people watch, they will let us make more and, believe me, there is a lot more material in the archives.

It has taken more than a year to make this four-part series. I never realised how much red tape has to be gone through to make two hours of television. Dedication is what it takes and I was very privileged to have some great talent working with me to make it happen.

We initially started putting it together last January, watching old archive footage and contacting performers to ask them to be interviewed about it.

It is amazing how young and less experienced many of the performers were, like Jason Byrne who was just a baby (okay around 20), when he first did Late ’n’ Live, and not with great success either.

We have Shappi Khorsandi performing her first ever Late ’n’ Live and she looks very shy and inexperienced. She has blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Stephen K Amos is there with his pleated hair, looking very young and dashing, if a bit sweaty.

We interviewed 45 comedians and didn’t use them all, so, should we be given another series, we can revisit some of these. I do hope you all watch – Late’n’Live is an unique phenomenon and making this series has brought back wonderful memories of standing in the wings watching these talented performers either making fools of themselves or making the audiences love them.

Monday’s show features Russell Brand, Johnny Vegas and Jenny Eclair.

It makes me proud to have been a part of it all.