Channel K Makes Its Mark

JUST under 18 months ago, Matt Tiller and Gus Bousfield arrived in Manchester with the remit to set up an independent TV production company in the city, concentrating on comedy, entertainment and factual entertainment programmes.

As the Manchester-based sister company of established London indie, Channel X (makers of comedy shows ranging from The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross through to recent cutting edge shows like Modern Toss) Channel K had a hard act to follow.

But with Matt as Director of Programmes, and Gus as Head of Development, they’ve certainly made an impressive start.

Channel K has managed to leverage support from both the BBC and Channel 4. And with these valuable partnerships in place they were also awarded £50K of Northwest Vision and Media’s Regional Attraction Fund towards their overheads for the first year.

Today, as the company enjoys its second year of operation, it has a raft of commissions and has delivered its first sitcom pilot for BBC 3, Living With Two People, filmed in front of a live audience at Granada Studios.

It’s by relying on home-grown talent, that this Manchester-based production company is really making its mark.

“There’s so much talent in the Northwest, and we’re simply making the most of it!” says Matt, who has been working with Northwest actors and comedians like Seymour Mace, Peter Slater and Gary Morris, and comedy sketch writers like David Isaac, Julian Butler, Bob Priestly and Emma Fryer.

“That is what Channel K is all about, bringing new talent to the screen and on to radio. We’ve got the best comedians on the circuit up here, and we want others to hear that,” adds Matt.

Slowly, but surely, that’s exactly what’s happening.

“Our first commission last year was for BBC3, a comedy called Living With Two People, which was broadcast in early February this year. It went down really well, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we might get a series out of that,” says Matt.

“We’ve had a really busy few months in 2007,” he continues. “We’ve just done a half-hour Comedy Lab for Channel 4. It’s called Swizz Call and is hosted by four comedians, including Manchester-based Seymour Mace and Gary Morris. It’s a kind of satire of phone-in TV quiz shows and members of the public play along with the comedy of it all. Although it’s not actually a spoof TV quiz show, it’s not a real quiz show either.

“There’s lot of ad-libbing and people playing silly games with silly prizes on offer. We record it as live, to give it a really edgy feel, and it’s due to be broadcast on Channel 4 this summer – so we’re hoping it’ll get a great reception,” adds Matt.

In all, Channel 4 produce around ten Comedy Labs a year, and usually take one or two of those pilots on to a full commission. Channel K have their sights set firmly on that goal.

“We’re also doing a show called Where To Mate? which is a series of clips, for internet and mobile phone download. But we really hope it will go a lot further than that because it’s really good!” enthuses Matt.

“There are 23 one-or-two-minute clips, starring Manchester comics Peter Slater and Irfan Nazir and featuring Johnny Vegas among others as they take a ride in a taxi – with some hilarious results.”

Even radio is being targeted by the Manchester operation. Both Matt and Gus had produced radio programmes in the past, but it was while they were pitching a comedy idea to Channel 4 that they were asked to consider Channel 4 Radio.

“We had lots of different ideas, and Channel 4 liked them all, so they asked us to put a sketch show package together and pitch for the Channel 4 Radio slot. We put together a taster of what we could do, pitched for the slot – and we got it!” says Matt.

“Channel 4 Radio is trying to rival the BBC in speech radio, including comedy and current affairs, and they’ve commissioned us to make a 12 x 15-minute series called Comedy Spinner,” reveals Matt.

Although Channel 4 is currently only available on-line and through itunes, the company is bidding for a digital licence, which will further increase Channel K’s presence. “If they get that it’ll be great news for us as Comedy Spinner is their first proper sketch show,” adds Matt.

“We’re also making a Funny Cuts short comedy for E4 and another sitcom pilot for BBC Three. We’ve got lots of things in development with BBC Comedy, including a couple of scripted projects and one of our aims for the future is to take a project through to a series.”

There’s never been a spare moment for the Channel K duo, and there are some major developments planned for the coming months. But neither Matt or Gus would change anything.

“We’ve been so busy this year, and at times it has just been mental, but we’re happy to put in the work and effort because we really believe in what we’re trying to do,” says Matt.