Jan Etherington has it all Pegg-ed Up

Etherington's workshop at the Riverside Arts Centre will cover everything from structure and stereotypes to pitching and plot, charting how a hit comedy makes it from first script to small screen.

There will even be a guest slot from fellow Sunbury resident Alan Simpson, the legendary co-creator of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son.

Fresh from a walk in Sunbury Park with her two English etters, Etherington tells Nancy Groves why she is so keen to spread the comedy word.

What made you want to run a comedy course?

It's probably because I'm an older sister and former games captain. Bossy is the word my sisters use! But I've been doing this for a long time so it seemed sensible to put together what I wish I had been told when I started out. It's not about teaching people to be funny - either they are or they aren't. But I can save people time and help them gather their thoughts. It's like cake mix - you need to know what to put in to get the right results.

What was your big break?

I started out as a journalist and most of my features were first person humour pieces. My husband and writing partner Gavin were watching TV one day, thinking we could do better. So we entered the Radio Times Comedy Award 1987 and won with a piece called Two for the Show. It didn't get made but our script for Second Thoughts got picked up and ran for four series on Radio 4 and five on LWT.

Are journalism and scriptwriting very different?

As a journalist, you've got to find a gripping opening paragraph, a hook in the middle and a pay-off line at the end - quite similar to the half-hour sitcom. The problem comes with radio. You have to write dialogue that makes the audience work for themselves, not: "This gun in my hand is loaded" stuff. Then again, you can do a lot more on radio because it's all in the imagination. We had James Bolam propose to Linda Bellingham in the bath on Second Thoughts, and all we needed was a studio assistant with a bucket of water and a duck.

So, what makes a good comedy?

Comedy requires wit and warmth. We've always written for pre-watershed primetime slots and I just do not believe you need to compromise comedy with carelessly rubbish language and crude behaviour. Writers as good as John Sullivan and the Frasier team are able to create fantastic, sensitive comedy that the whole family can watch. And that's the holy grail as far as mainstream programming is concerned.

Who have you most enjoyed working with?

Linda Bellingham is a great actress and I know exactly how to write for her because she and I have very similar speech rhythms. She's taking me to lunch at The Ivy this Friday actually! But our huge success story is the wonderful Simon Pegg. He played Julia Sawahlha's lovesick admirer in Faith in the Future. Then came Spaced and off he went. He was never one of those actors who swanned in saying: "I'm the new star here." He always listened hard.

What happened to the great British sitcom?

In America, sitcom writers are treated with respect - it's an aspirational job. Here, it's the poor relation to drama. When Tim McInnerny was asked why he didn't make more Blackadder, he said: "In the end it's just a sitcom." But the biggest problem is money. Reality, cookery and property shows are taking the slots that used to be filled with sitcoms because they are cheaper to make and still deliver audiences for the advertisers.

Do you and your husband work together easily?

Gavin used to be my editor at TV Times so when started writing together he still thought he could get out the red pencil. I had to explain with a loud voice that we were now on equal footing. We work together at the top of our house in a room overlooking The Thames. People ask how we can concentrate and we say: "Well if we don't concentrate, we won't be able to afford the view."

Jan Etherington's Comedy Writing Course, Riverside Arts Centre, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex, Saturday, February 23 and Sunday, February 24, £130, call 020 8133 0110 or email comedycourse@hotmail.co.uk