Comedy scribe offered £25 a day

The BBC has been accused of exploitation and hypocrisy, after asking comedy writers to work on Radio 4’s flagship topical show The News Quiz for free.

The programme – now in its 76th series – has attacked the government’s 'workfare' scheme, in which the jobless have to undertake unpaid work experience, giving major companies such as Tesco access to free labour.

But now the BBC has also been charged with taking advantage of unpaid workers, with an experienced freelance writer revealing he rejected an offer of ￡50 for two full day’s work on the long-running show.

Producer Victoria Lloyd told him that the proposed fee was ‘just expenses’ and that there was no prospect of the show’s contracted writing team expanding in the near future.

Although guests on the show contribute their own material, host Sandi Toksvig's script is written by Andy Wolton and Ben Partridge, plus three from a pool of freelance writers.

Additionally, each episode has a ‘trial writer’ who is paid ￡50 regardless of whether their jokes are used.

‘You’d be writing alongside writers in the writing room who are being paid a fee, perhaps getting several minutes of material on. But you’re still only getting expenses,’ claims Chortle’s source, who has 16 years of high profile radio and TV credits. 'That’s not right.'

'When Have I Got News For You asked me to come in, I was paid and paid well. I know it's television, but still...

'The News Quiz is a good programme and I’ll look anywhere for work. There’s not much work around, so you’re always looking for ways in . But I’m not going to sit in a room with people who are getting paid more than me for doing the same job. I’m not 19-years-old and just out of Cambridge or Oxford and willing to do work experience.’

A spokesperson for Radio 4 said: ‘The trial writer’s slot gives emerging freelance writers the opportunity to work alongside The News Quiz writing team. While writers are paid ￡50 and credited in the programme if their material is used on-air, the real benefit of the trial writer’s slot Is giving up-and-coming writers invaluable experience which will hopefully lead to further writing opportunities.

‘An individual is not able to join the trial writer’s slot more than once per series to give more writers an opportunity to take part – and the maximum commitment is two days.’

Both Wolton and Partridge – who are each week joined by one of John-Luke Roberts, Lucy Clarke, James Kettle, Rhodri Crooks, Simon Littlefield, Gareth Gwynn and Jon Hunter – started off as trial writers.

In The News Quiz’s most recent episode, broadcast on February 10, guest Phill Jupitus joked that the word ‘mendacity’ sounded like ‘one of David Cameron’s social welfare programmes’.

And last Friday, The News Quiz’s replacement in its slot, The Now Show, mocked the coalition government’s controversial workfare programme, with Steve Punt offering a satirical perspective from a North Korean news channel: ‘in Great Britain where youth is forced to work for nothing to make profit for supermarket and newspaper listen illegally to citizens, everybody happy because pretty lady marry bald man who one day rule country.'

Later in the same episode, Mitch Benn sang a song with the lyrics ‘workfare ... ‘cos every wise employer knows the secret of success is a workplace of employees where they’re unpaid and under duress ... put your backs into it you dogs, faster typing speed!’

‘They’re doing it themselves, the bastards,’ Chortle’s source complains. ‘I remember when writers used to get paid for meetings. Nowadays, the rates have gone down drastically and you’re not paid for screentime or airtime but according to how much experience you have.’

To the accusations of hypocrisy, Radio 4 responded: ‘The writing team does not censor the news stories it covers in the programme – delivering quality and entertaining satire remains at the heart of the programme.’

Meanwhile Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy show Newsjack operates an open door policy for non-commissioned writers, who do get paid.

But Chortle’s source suggests that some writers are becoming disenfranchised because a ‘trustafarian’ culture is developing, where ‘comedy is only for people who’ve got money, for rich kids who can afford to start off working for free.

‘If you look at the credits for all these panel shows, the reason they’re pretty tedious is because it’s all the same people writing and they have the same voice. Ann Widdecombe is ugly, Posh is thin, Becks is thick, John Prescott was fat, now it’s Eric Pickles. The same gags trotted out. ‘They’re are about 10, maybe 15 people who write most of the comedy in this country. People who get paid proper money, Ged Parsons, Shaun Pye, Pete Sinclair – nothing against those writers but producers always seem to go back to the same people. There is some great stuff in 10 O’Clock Live for example, but also a lot of the same old rubbish.

‘People are always going on about “when are we going to get our version of The Daily Show?” When I was on The 11 O’Clock Show, back in 1999, the producer showed me a clip of The Daily Show and said “This is what we’re aiming at.” Within two weeks, we’d gone back to the Posh ‘n’ Becks jokes.

'I don’t think many producers have got it within themselves to commit themselves to do something different. Broadcast comedy is very conservative and pedestrian, it’s probably the last media you want to go into to make a satirical show.

'We won’t get our Daily Show if you keep letting even good writers get away with murder, writing the same old jokes for ￡400 a day.’

– by Jay Richardson

After this article appeared, writers said the trial scheme offered them invaluable experience. Click here to read the follow-up.