Julia McKenzie is the Commissioning Editor for Comedy and Entertainment at Radio 4, and prior to that was Creative Director of BBC Studios Audio for 7 years, specialising in comedy and entertainment production.

In this conversation, Julia provides helpful insights for comedy writers who want to understand the audio landscape and find ways to get their work produced.

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:06 Starting in Audio and Comedy

08:11 Working with Producers

13:44 Commissioning Process

19:55 Audio Comedy Landscape

27:56 Pilots and Evaluation

33:36 Audio Formats

38:16 Favourite Comedy Shows

39:44 Recommendations and Resources

40:47 TV Recommendations

41:39 Fresh Take on Narration

43:15 Where to Find More

SHOWNOTES:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning

Jokes feed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tzf5

BBC Sounds app: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/getting-started-with-bbc-sounds/sounds-intro

https://twitter.com/juliaamckenzie

Comedy of the Week: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9x6/episodes/downloads

Friday Night Comedy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9pj

https://twitter.com/dmsareopenbbc