Event prevew: The British Comedy Awards

IT’S that time again. Jonathan Ross, clad all in look-at-me threads and self-satisfaction, will take to the stage for some expensively scripted celebrity “banter”, a little chummy backslapping with the usual suspects and the handing over of the British Comedy Awards.

This, quantitatively at least, is comedy’s “time”. Over little more than the past couple of decades, television comedy has gone from a broadcast stand-off between the DJ and bowtie-wearing old school and the great unwashed Alternatives, each kept in their own “pen” in TV’s limited comedy corral, to a laughter love-in between the alumni of comedic schools old and new, producing a tsunami of programming that hasn’t just flooded the existing schedules, but has its own dedicated channels. Barely more than a decade ago, new and mid-league stand-ups had almost nowhere to go on the box and eight out of ten cats were still only being asked about their tinned food preferences.

But now, comedy has become TV’s magic bullet. The “C” word works magic. Panel show? No. Comedy Panel Show? Yes please! Slightly soft format? Get a stand-up to present it. Gap in the schedules? Stick in a big comedy name chatting to his mates. Slightly dodgy sociological premise for a show? Get a comic to make it “ironic” (did you see Jack Whitehall on Lower Class People Do The Funniest Things?). And for all you comics who really don’t have a stand-up set worth sticking a camera on… welcome to our panel shows.

Big comedy management companies have sprouted production arms ensuring their own acts will never be out of work – no matter how irritating or talentless you are you can always pick up a spot on your own management’s show. And so, of course, as the genre de nos jours, we have to have our own awards.

There are 22 judges on the panel including eight “Comedy Heads” from various broadcasting companies, four journalists and six performer/writers. They will decide everything except the Fosters King/Queen of Comedy Award. The gift of that, dear readers, is in your hands. The nominees for Comedy Deification were announced some time ago. You may or may not have already voted. Your choice is between David Mitchell, Graham Norton, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand, Miranda Hart and Sarah Millican. Miranda Hart was last year’s Queen of Comedy and if large women with the social skills of a four-year-old are still the ne plus ultra of modern comedy then I suppose she might be Queen of Comedy again. Public votes are unpredictable things. And not always best. It was a public vote that gave us Clegg and Cameron.

Looking at the nominees from last year it strikes me as a little unfair that Ant & Dec – TV’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee – were jointly nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment Persononality, while, this year, Miranda and Sarah Millican get separate nominations for Queen of Comedy when the two of them combined don’t add up to one decent comic.

The rest of the nominations are out today. So, to whom will they go? I dread to think. Best Comedy Panel Show will be interesting in a year in which TV has opted to keep several formats which they obviously regard as shatterproof and simply drop in new presenters/team captains with scant regard for suitability. One has to hold out little hope for the British Comedy Academy Outstanding Achievement Award, given that last year it went to Russell Brand, a man outstanding in only one way that springs to mind. The male and female Comedy Breakthrough Awards (otherwise known as the Right Place Right Time Awards) might be interesting, although if Russell Kane’s name is even in the cloakroom, let alone the hat, I shall give up on comedy entirely and apply for a job on The Scotland on Sunday sports desk.

Most of the individual awards (Comic, Actor, Breakthrough Artist) have separate categories for male and female. Perhaps just following in the footsteps of other Academies. Perhaps just making sure that the girls get a look in. Having said which, the Best Performance in Film has only one award. And surely it has to go to one of the impressive chuckle of comics in the cast of Holy Flying Circus – the film about the making of Life Of Brian.

I hope the panel vote with passion for comedy and not for ratings. I wish I thought that having these big, glitzy awards helped make comedy better. I expect I will watch ... if only to howl at the telly. Dear SoS Sports Desk ... I suspect my CV will be on its way.

KATE COPSTICK

The British Comedy Awards: The awards ceremony is on Channel 4 on Friday at 9pm.