Julia Davis slams broadcasters

Nighty Night creator Julia Davis has slammed over-cautious broadcasters for trying to ‘sanitise’ comedy.

She said too many meddling executives were diluting the visions of talented writers, ‘crushing originality’.

Earlier this year, the BBC buried a sitcom pilot that Davis made with Jessica Hynes called Lizzie and Sarah, airing it at the unappealing time of 11.45pm.

Now, in an interview with actors’ newspaper The Stage, Davis complained: ‘I think commissioners are trying to sanitise everything.

‘Instead of letting people be creative, they try to tell them comedies have to have certain elements, which crushes any originality.

‘In America, they have teams of writers and they really respect what writers bring. Here, you go through so many processes, with lots of executives getting involved, and there are so many people it just gets confused.’

She also accused commissioners of playing it too safe, offering plenty of family comedies but not enough of a ‘varied menu’ for other viewers.

The interview will appear in next week’s edition of The Stage.

Published: 4 Nov 2010