Graham Linehan: Funny Business

What have classic comedies like Father Ted, Brass Eye, Little Britain, The Fast Show and Big Train got in common? The answer is Dublin-born writer/director Graham Linehan, teenage critic with 'Hot Press', voracious student of laughter and one of the most successful and influential talents working in television today. Offering unique entry into his fascinating world, Graham Linehan Funny Business explores the art, craft and deeply competitive business of creating contemporary television comedy. What is funny? Where does the ability, to make millions of people laugh, emerge from? And how did a young Irishman come to define what is, for many, the classic British sitcom? Starting in January 2007 and going on to film for more than six months, Wildfire Films follow Graham Linehan as he brings a second series of his Channel 4 sit-com, The IT Crowd to the screen. With access to cast rehearsals in Kensington, London, location shoots across the English capital and live recordings, in front of a packed audience, at Pinewood Studios, we document the tough work, painstaking detail and long hours that go into writing and visualising Linehan's surreal yet massively appealing brand of humour. We also interview several of UK television's most successful comedy writers, performers and executives. Contributors include Steve Coogan, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Griff Rhys Jones and Ardal O' Hanlon, as well as executives like Caroline Leddy, Commissioning Editor for Comedy at Channel 4, all of whom have worked with Graham Linehan, all of whom, in their own distinctive way, have broken the television comedy mold. Graham Linehan introduced Little Britain to English television. He co-created Ted and Ralph, the celebrated comedy sketch series about an English Gent, his Irish groundsman and an unspoken love; and with Irish writing partner, Arthur Mathews, Linehan co-created Father Ted. Starring Dermot Morgan, Pauline McLynn and Ardal O' Hanlon, Father Ted became a small screen classic, winning countless awards and voted, in Britain, Sitcom of the Decade.