Radio sitcom is born and bred in borough (From Thurrock Gazette)

Radio sitcom is born and bred in borough

7:40am Sunday 22nd April 2012 in News

A GROUP from Thurrock are looking to shine a beacon of light on radio entertainment.

The Office, Fawlty Towers and Friends are titles synonymous with the sitcom genre in the UK, but now a quartet from Grays are taking their version of situation comedy to the world, via radio waves.

The Lighthouse is a radio sitcom set within the Lighthouse of Dead Man’s Isle, written by Colin Wade, 38, of Grays.

It tells the story of three keepers, Martin, David and Captain McRoy, responsible for manning a decrepid lighthouse trapped in a timewarp.

Advances in technology have rendered the tower redundant while Royal decree rules that the tower must be manned until it crumbles into the sea.

The fourth character, Ferry Boat Captain Patricia, ensures the Lighthouse keepers are supplied with goods from the mainland.

The characters’ bickering and infighting, coupled with the tower’s bizarre history and various nautical myths, makes for some hilarious situations.

Colin started writing The Lighthouse with a friend about 10 years ago.

He said: “I wrote a lot of sketches and used to do a bit of songwriting. We then got thinking about what sitcoms there have been, such as Blackadder and we thought we would have a go at it, but do something different.

“We took the scripts to a few TV companies who seemed to like it, but we didn’t get much luck so decided to do it as a radio sitcom.”

The team began recording the sitcom in a house in Chadwell last September.

Colin added: “We’re hoping Pheonix FM in Brentwood will be able to find space to play it.”

The first series is available on www.lighthousescript.moonfruit.com