Oh yes, indeedy. Ribs loves sitcoms. She’s kind of going off this third-person lark now, but she’s committed to it and she is nothing if not consistent. Here’s what she’s written so far. She’s started a whole heap of others ones, but they are not finished yet. You know how it is.
STRANGE TOWN, 2017
30-minute sitcom series for children co-written with Michele Sheldon.
Premise: Kav and her brother Luke move to a tiny island when their social worker mother lands a new job. But the asylum seekers Liz Sullivan works with aren’t human – they’re creatures from another dimension.
Pilot Episode:
Kav, 14 and her brother Luke, 11, move to a tiny island in the middle of the English Channel when their mother, a social worker, lands a new job. Unbeknownst to them, Liz Sullivan works not with human asylum seekers, but with strange creatures from another dimension arriving through a fault line. In this episode, a hairy yeti-like Ruffleflump seeks sanctuary from the incredibly annoying Sweatminers. When the Ruffleflump becomes ill, the children realise he needs the Sweatminers to survive. They recapture the Sweatminers, employing them in a crazy money-making scheme along the way. Meanwhile, local beautician Bunny Binglington discovers the Sweatminers’ magical rejuvinating powers and hatches a plan.
Episode Two:
The residents of Strange Town become mesmerised by the incredibly cute and fluffy Mi-Mi’s who are claiming aslyum because they are being hunted for their luxuriant fur. Kav and Luke realise something is amiss when their Mi-Mi, Geoff, purposely gets them in trouble with Liz. Just as the islanders prepare to move their children into tents so their Mi-Mi’s can have their bedrooms, Kav and Luke discover the Sweatminers at the spa. Before the children can ask what they’re doing there, Geoff comes in for a blow-dry and the Sweatminers start trembling, telling Kav and Luke that the Mi-Mi’s are, in fact, ruthless fur and skin hunters, travelling across dimensions to collect pelts. Kav and Luke reveal the Mi-Mi’s for the conmen-furballs they really are by unpeeling Geoff’s fur suit in front of a church full of Mi-Mi worshippers, including Liz.
Episodes 3-6: plotted
Full script for Pilot Episode available on request.
KRASS, 2016
30-minute sitcom series co-written with Michele Sheldon.
Premise: Working mum looks for love in an unlikely place – a historical re-enactment society.
Pilot Episode: New Member Drive
Kate takes her son to the school fete which is being held in conjunction with the Kent Roman and Anglo-Saxon Re-enactment Society (KRASS). KRASS is on the lookout for new members, to swell their ranks for a filming contract they have won with a big name director. Transfixed by a handsome gladiator, Kate decides to join up.
Episode 2: Toga Party
Dom has invited Kate to dinner. He answers the door dressed in a toga and talks about his love of the dictator Emperor Domitian. He is very different to the handsome gladiator Kate met the week before. Faced with bizarre variety of stuffed animals, an offer to suckle his snails, and seeing chopped up mice on his kitchen work surface, Kate flees to Antonia’s house. Antonia is getting ready to go out and is reluctant to let Kate in. She relents, but there is a long wait for Kate’s taxi to arrive. Antonia shares her own surreal experience of visiting Dom’s house in the form of a flashback. The doorbell keeps ringing and Antonia answers it each time, but no one ever comes in. Kate sees a naked man running across the back garden being chased by a miniature pony and calls the police. It’s Lee Cranshaw, Bob’s arch enemy.
Episodes 3-6: plotted
Full scripts for Episodes 1 & 2 available on request.