Second Guesting... Martin Returns to Blog!

Scripts, or 'Beer Mats'? Nope, mark the table!

Ok, so second part of my Blog on the writing and I have a confession to make – I care about the scripts a great deal. I know Steve has said on this very Blog that he can’t remember which bits he wrote and which bits I did, I find this as incredible as if I’d said I couldn’t remember who made the puppets. I can still go through each script and highlight exactly which bits I wrote, which jokes are mine and what I was thinking when I wrote it. It is probably for the best that I get the final say on the scripts, Steve is nice enough to take it very well when I cut out lines he wrote and re-work his ideas, I’d sulk for a week if he cut out my favourite joke. It just shows that it helps to be passionate about different parts when your working with another person.

I always knew what feel I wanted for the stories; anything mean or cruel wasn’t going to work with the characters we had, so it needed a softer centre. I’ve often been accused of having a brain that works in a slightly different way to other people, I like maths and logic, but have huge love of words. I tend to follow a string of logic, but end up in illogical situations – this is why my DIY skills are terrible. Even to this day, I refuse to try to sweep my own chimney as, years ago, I saw Paddington Bear try to do it on TV with disasterous results. I remember watching that episode and thinking to myself ‘but that’s exactly how I would do it’. The moral I took from this was ‘never try to do anything that can’t be done by a bear in a duffel coat’ this is a life rule that is yet to let me down.

The Martins, considering Pooh.

I was aware that I didn’t want anyone to be the butt of too many jokes. Much like the Winnie the Pooh stories, I wanted everyone to be a bit dumb in their own special way and comedy would come from the way these very personal lines of logic intersected. The great thing about the A.A. Milne stories is that only Pooh is aware of his own limitations, everyone else ambles along thinking they are much smarter than him.

JP and Wally

With this in mind, I wanted our stories to come from a logical place – in one episode James wants a pet, sees a brick in a pet shop, buys it and takes it home as a pet – a logical set of steps that brings him to the result of having a pet brick or ‘geometric hampster’. For me, it wouldn’t have worked if he had just found the brick or had it given to him, it had to come from a series of logical-to-him steps that puts him at odds with the rest of the band.

Mark & Chris in space. Totally Logical.

The challenge going forward is to maintain a level of quality and not to mess about with anyone’s characteristics just to wedge in a joke or a plot.

It’s a challenge I’m looking forward to.