Adrian Poynton, the acclaimed stand up comedian and writer of BBC Three's White Van Man posted a blog in the BBC Writer's Room about creating comedy characters that last.

An extract from the blog is below, visit the BBC Writer's Room for the full blog post:

It's the most commonly stated and in my opinion (so therefore must be true) most correct thing ever said about sitcom. "It's all about the characters". That's it, right there. The secret to writing a good sitcom. The characters. Not the location. Not the amount of laughs per second...  It's about characters that an audience will invest in and want to watch whatever they do. The Office isn't really about office life. It's about the characters who inhabit that place and how they interact with each other and deal with that weeks 'story of the week'. Take Dawn, Gareth, Brent or Tim and pop them in the setting for the Royal Family and you'd have an equally funny time watching them. Same could be said of The Royal Family, Open All Hours, Bread, Modern Family and hopefully my show, White Van Man.

But that brings us to the elephant in the room of a question... "How do you make comedy characters that last?" Well, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I have a conclusive, all out, follow this and create the next Basil Fawlty of and answer... I don't. If i did I wouldn't be sat here typing this, I'd be too busy polishing my golden Jet Ski collection (which isn't quite as cool as it sounds. Gold is kinda heavy and tends to sink).

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In this candid insight into the writing process, the creator and writer of White Van Man discusses the series in depth, revealing his approach to characters, developing story ideas and how series two has progressed from series one, as well as his perspective on production.

This clip is an embedded flash video courtesy of The BBC. Flash videos may not play on certain Apple™ devices.

Continuing this candid insight into the writing process, the creator and writer of White Van Man discusses the series in depth, revealing his approach to characters, developing story ideas and how series two has progressed from series one, as well as his perspective on production.

This clip is an embedded flash video courtesy of The BBC. Flash videos may not play on certain Apple™ devices.

White Van Man on the road for second series.

Written by Rob Smyth on Thu 16 Feb 2012.

A FORMER Barton-under-Needwood schoolboy has spoken of his ‘delight’ as his television show prepared to start its second series — with an American remake of the hit programme in the pipeline.

Writer Adrian Poynton spoke to the Mail just days before the second series of his sitcom ‘White Van Man’ hits the screen on BBC3 next week.

He said: “I am really excited for this second series, which replaces the nervousness and apprehension from the first time round.

“Everyone involved was so thrilled to learn that we had got a second series — the show was the highest-rated sitcom debut in BBC3’s history.

“But despite having strong ratings throughout, it was still no certainty and we did really, really well to get where we are.”

The series follows Will Mellor — with whom Adrian became friendly while working as a warm-up comedian on the actor’s previous hit BBC3 show Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps — as an aspiring chef who reluctantly took over his father’s painting and decorating business after the older man suffers a heart attack. The show focuses on the ups and downs which follow.

He also revealed US television giant ABC is currently prepping a pilot version of the show which will see the concept Americanised by veteran TV writer Bobby Bowman, who has previously worked on shows such as My Name Is Earl and Family Guy.

Adrian, who attended Barton’s John Taylor High School, said: “It is such an honour that the show is being remade in America. I was asked to write the script, but decided not to, but I have been out to the states to talk to those involved and also talk regularly on the phone and exchange ideas with Bobby.

“A script has been written and I think a pilot will be shot next month — the reaction that this gets will decide whether a full series will be made.

“The whole situation is quite bewildering, and the show will hopefully retain the name White Van Man.

“Who knows, I could be the man who helps the phrase cross the Atlantic.”

The remake will feature J K Simmons who is well known for his portrayal of J Jonah Jameson in the Spiderman films.

White Van Man begins its new series on BBC3 on Thursday, February 23 at 9.30pm

Original article here

The Burton Mail recently interviewed Adrian Poynton (the writer of White Van Man) about the show and his ambition to write for Doctor Who.

In the interview, posted on 15th March 2011, Adrian spoke to Rob Smyth:

Adrian Poynton spoke to the Mail just days before his sitcom ‘White Van Man’ hits the screen on niche digital channel BBC3 next week.

The 32-year-old said: “I never normally get worried about things like this but as the day approaches I am getting nervous.

“I began my love affair with comedy while I was at college in Leeds — I tried stand-up comedy but died on my feet.

“But I was bitten by the bug and eventually started getting paid, and at the same time was writing and writing all the ideas that kept coming into my head.

“After finishing college, I moved to London and I eventually won an award for a short film I made and started writing for children’s television.

“I just kept writing and writing and trying and trying and then I finally got this sitcom green light.” The six-part series follows Will Mellor — who Adrian became friendly with while working as warm-up comedian on the actor’s previous hit BBC3 show Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps — as an aspiring chef who reluctantly takes over his father’s painting and decorating business after the older man suffers a heart attack.

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Adrian Poynton | 17:59 UK time, Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Okay, so this feels weird. After four years work, a silly amount of writing and god knows how many litres of tea, White Van Man is going to be shown on the TV. It doesn't exactly seem real and I'm still not totally convinced it's actually going to happen... and here's why: I had two dreams as a child.

1. To write a TV comedy series and
2. To write an episode of Doctor Who.

Apparently, I've just done 50% of that. Yikes.

It turns out, the idea and all the characters for the show had been in my head for years, I just hadn't realised it at first.

The show, really, is about two things:

1. Me and my Dad
2. The place I grew up (Lichfield in Staffordshire).

My Dad (who just so happens to be called Tony and has a little white moustache - just like the Dad in the show) is from a very different generation of people than me. He grew up in a working class household, didn't do great at school and started working at a very early age. He did a lot of manual labour jobs like building, plumbing, painting people's houses etc. You know, the sort of jobs that make you want to say 'Grrrrr' a lot.

Me on the other hand, I'm a numpty who spends half his time prancing around on stage trying to make people laugh and the other half sitting in front of a computer, having delusions of being some grand storyteller.

I mean, my Dad single-handedly built the extension on my Mum and Dad's house, whereas I got in a huff this morning because we were out of green tea. We're very different people.

One day I started to wonder what it would be like if my Dad couldn't do any of that stuff anymore. Would I have to step up? And boom! Just like that, the idea for White Van Man was born. I'd sort of been living it for years.

Although let's be honest, that 'boom' could well have been the result of me trying to rewire a plug. We may never know.

I also suddenly realised, I'd grown up living in the setting for the show too.

I grew up in the Midlands, but it doesn't matter if you grew up in the north or the south or wherever, so much of the experiences people seem to have of their hometowns are surprisingly universal. That's why I made up a town name for the show.

To me Maplebury is Lichfield. I know to Will Mellor, it's Stockport. I hope for you, it's where you grew up. Believe me; you might even meet some characters in the show you already know from home. You might even see yourself in there. In which case, if you do - sorry.

That's been the real joy creating this show. Everyone who has read it has seemed to get it. They all just seemed to understand the world because they had, in someway, grown up in it.

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For ages after I told my friends that I was writing a series for BBC Three, everyone would ask the same few questions: 'Who's in it? Can I come and be an extra? When will it be on?' And the question they asked above all - 'Are you going to be in it?'

It's a sensible question I guess. Most of them knew me as a stand up comedian and comedy performer as much as they did a writer, so of course they assumed I'd be in it. Truth be told, it wasn't until they started asking that I even really thought about it. I'd just been writing the thing and putting words in these character's mouths. I hadn't really thought about who would actually be saying them, let alone if one of them should be me. And was it even that easy? Just because I was the writer didn't mean I could just go - I want to play so and so - and that would be that.

I'd toured in plays and stuff, and worked my whole life as a performer... but I hadn't really done it in a few years and I don't really want to end up the guy surrounded by really amazing actors, screwing up his own script. Personally, I like to have someone else to blame.

But the question kept getting asked and I started to think, yeah, maybe I should do something. I even knew the part I should/could play. Martin the Policeman (I wont tell you his surname because it's a joke in the show - let's just say this. His surname is awesome).

So then, one rainy day over a coffee in the production office I decided to 'put it out there' and I mentioned it to the producer. Bless him, he just smiled and said - 'Good. I think you should'.

He however wasn't the only one to convince. The Execs and more importantly the director had to give me the okay. Iain (the director) did something I love him for. He asked me to audition. And so he bloody should. He didn't really know me at that stage and although he knew I could write, when it came to acting, I might well have been a plank of wood.

Now, when I say he made me audition, he made me audition. I think Iain hoped I'd be good (mostly because he didn't want to have a very awkward conversation if I wasn't), but he made me audition properly, in front of him, the producer, the casting director AND then sent the tape to the Execs for approval. And so he should. It's not fair to anyone otherwise. You can't just point at a character you made up and go 'That's me that is.'

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White Van Man - Adrian Poynton's new comedy starring Georgia, Will Mellor and Clive Mantle - will air on BBC Three and BBCHD on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 at 22:30. It will be followed directly by Episode 2 at 23:00.

In a BBC Press release (below) the first episode has been named as "Ollie's First Day", the second entitled "Turf". Gavin & Stacey's Joanna Page guest stars as Kat in the second episode.

Will Mellor plays Ollie, Clive Mantle plays Tony, Joel Fry plays Darren, Georgia Moffett plays Emma, Naomi Bentley plays Liz, Blake Harrison plays Ricky, Vicky Longley plays Joanne and Ricky Grover plays Terry. White Van Man also features guest appearances from Gavin & Stacey's Joanna Page, Hotel Babylon's Dexter Fletcher, Psychoville's Debbie Chazen and, making her first ever television appearance with her daughter, Georgia Moffett, actress Sandra Dickinson.

• Interview with Will Mellor
• White Van Man Gallery
• Interview with Georgia for The Radio Times