Duo win £10,000 script contest

Two office temps have beaten more than 1,500 aspiring comedy writers to win a £10,000 Channel 4 competition.

Helen Keen, 28, from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, and Miriam Underhill, 29, of Twickenham, Middlesex, now receive the money to create their own comedy show.

And the broadcaster says it was so impressed with the quality of entries to the Comedy Lab talent search it decided to award two second prize of £5,000 commissions.

These went to animation duo Henry White, 26, of London, and Andy Sissons, 27, of Doncaster; plus paramedic Kevin Winch, 30, of Chatham, Kent.

The competition, launched in May, asked entrants to submit a three-minute topical monologue for a Channel 4 show of their choice, and three non-topical sketches.

The winners started writing comedy 18 months ago because they were ‘scared they were going to spend the rest of their lives as temps doing photocopying’.

Keen is also a stand-up, having made the finals of this year's Funny Women contest for new comedy talent.

She met Underhill at Cambridge University, and both now work in London.

Judges included Channel 4 executive Caroline Leddy, Andrew Newman and Shane Allen, plus The Book Group creator Annie Griffin, Smack The Pony's Victoria Pile and Father Ted writer Arthur Mathews.

Published: 1 Oct 2005