Dabster Productions is an independent production company, based in Edinburgh.  We make radio shows, podcasts, online films and other bits and bobs for all sorts of interesting clients.

We are looking for a couple of enthusiastic people to join our company this summer.

You will join a team that will be producing a number of radio shows, podcasts and live events for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC Radio Scotland, Pleasance and The Stand Comedy Club during this year’s Edinburgh Festival in August.

Your responsibilities will include recording and editing audio, writing copy, generating ideas, talent management, being a social media guru and any other general production duties we can think of.

We would prefer it if you had experience, but we can offer training to the right person if you don’t.

You will be dedicated; a huge fan of comedy, radio and podcasts; handy with a roll of gaffer tape; well organised, probably quite geeky and always early.

To apply you need to convince us that YOU are the right person for the job.  You can do that with a CV, a covering letter, a demo tape, a cake?  Whatever paints you in the best light.  We would also like it if you could offer us some feedback on any recent Dabster Productions radio show or podcast.

The job is for four to six weeks – but the right people have a habit of sticking around for longer.

This is an entry-level position ideally suited to a new graduate or someone looking to get started in media production.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 15th July.

Interviews will be held on Wednesday 22nd July.

Start Date is Wednesday 29th July 

Email Richard if you have any questions.

The best way to keep up to date with all of our broadcasts, recordings, field trips and parties is to sign up to the Dabster Newsletter.

This month there’s details of The John Moloney Show, The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected, Radio 4 Stands Up and exclusive details of a new recording happening very soon for BBC Radio Scotland.

Sign up for our newsletter here.

We’ll not spam you, nor pass your details to anyone else.

Traditionally in radioland, everything shuts down for Xmas and then nothing happens for two months. No one can be bothered, it’s too cold to get the brain in gear and it’s not until the embrace of sweet sweet sunshine blesses our little faces that we can even consider having a productive thought.

Not this year though.

This year it hasn’t stopped at Dabster, and it’s great. We don’t know why, but let’s not jinx it.

Our very own Julia Sutherland makes her BBC Radio 4 debut on the 31st March with Fat Chance, her personal story of how and why she lost six and a half stone in weight – and how it changed her life in more ways than she expected. It’s funny and a little wee bit sad, but she’s rightly very proud of the show.

We’re recording for our new panel show for BBC Radio Scotland. The Good, The Bad and The Unexpected has grown and developed from a podcast two years ago to a six show series, featuring a range of talent from across the UK. Hosted by Julia, with regular guest Jo Caulfield and the likes of Jason Cook, Tiffany Stevenson and Zoe Lyons dropping in, you’re in for a wee treat when the first episode goes out on the 3rd of April.

Julia Julia Julia – there’s more from our queen of prod’ on the iPlayer as she brings you our two parter on how weird families are..

Then there’s Terry Alderton, the Pleasance: 30 Years of Comedy Legends album, John Moloney, Michael….

…well listen to me rattle on, why don’t you hear from the monkey grinder rather than the organ – it’s all in our newsletter which will come out periodically from now ’til we get bored of it. Which will be never. Sign up and we’ll send you our news, broadcasts and comedy you can listen to at your leisure.

Read the last issue here, and sign up for the next issue below. Then stroke my hair and call me pretty – I’m a sensitive celebrity now.

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We’ll never share your details with anyone else, and each newsletter will have some epic comedy for you to enjoy.‹

Clickity here to catch up on Newsletter #01.

]]> https://dabsterproductions.com/radio-tag/we-need-to-talk/ https://dabsterproductions.com/radio-tag/we-need-to-talk/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:00:00 +0000 https://dabsterproductions.com/?p=11331 Read More]]> I‘m so excited that today you will finally get the chance to hear the first episode of Funny Kind of Love, broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland at 13.32! It really has been a labour of love making this show – a follow up to Feeling Kind of Funny broadcast earlier this year.

The idea behind all of the series, is that we take subjects which are either difficult or even taboo – and turn them on their heads by making fun of them! In Funny Kind of Love we look at divorce; coming out and homophobia; the damaging effect of serial monogamy; mental breakdowns; dating again after long term relationships end; gender identity; and we challenge perceptions of the relationships of people with disability.

Harnessing the transformative power of comedy, all of our acts mined their own difficult or dark experiences for laughter – and the next day I interviewed them in the studio, to hear the truth behind the jokes.

The live shows we put on were just amazing – all our acts were so honest and open, and the feedback from those watching seemed to show a deeper appreciation of this kind of material – a sense of connection, which acted as a kind of catharsis for both the performer AND the audience.

I really hope that you get a sense of how special these shows were, and how candid all of our performers were with me the next day. It was an honour to have our guests speak so frankly and freely to me – it’s sadly quite rare to have such intimate discussions in our every day life.

Everyone on this episode really shared deeply – Raymond Mearns has an incredibly inspiring philosophy, Bethany Black really opened my eyes to the reality of being transgendered and Gail Porter pulled absolutely no punches.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when on Friday, there was a sudden frenzy of media attention , as preview copies of the show hit the desks of tabloid journalists… as you can see below. I felt kinda weird about our in-depth and personal chat being splashed across the papers, and can’t imagine how Gail deals with this kind of thing, though she told us she’s used to it.

I hope that maybe after hearing this show, you might feel inspired to have a chat with a friend or family member, if there is something on your mind that you’ve worried about discussing. The thing we learned from doing this programme was how powerful the act of even just saying something out loud can be… and you might be surprised by how many other people will share your fears.

Great stand up comedy can really help people to come to terms with difficult situations and difficult feelings, these two series will look at some of the more taboo areas  family life and relationships.We’ve already got Thom Tuck on board, who’s going to talk about how he discovered his real Dad, or more like how his real Dad discovered him.  Deborah Frances White will be talking about her first week with a brand new family.  Rosie Wilby will be looking at the concept of monogamy and whether it’s still worth hanging on to in a modern world and we’ll find out about some of the darker and more difficult elements of long term relationships with Raymond Mearns and Jo Jo Sutherland.  We’ve got a host of other great comedians joining us too, all sharing maybe a little more than they should about some of their most intimate life experiences.

Be in the audience!

We’re recording the live elements of the show at The Stand in Edinburgh on Wednesday 17th September and Tuesday 7th October and tickets are free – but you need to book them via The Stand. It would be great to see you there!

Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Father Ted, I’m Alan Partridge, The Vicar of Dibley, Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous, Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld… Just some of my favourite TV shows EVER and all of them sitcoms. 

I’m guessing you’ll have watched every episode of at least one of those too!

So to say I was excited to get a chance to work on writing and performing in a new sitcom would be a massive understatement. Like saying a date with George Clooney would be ‘alright’. 

Based on the stand-up of Richard Melvin – which in turn was based on his own real life, as a father of two, trying to run a business from home with his best mates, having been a pharmaceutical sales rep in a previous life.

If you know Richard, you’ll know how naturally funny he is on a daily basis, and how fond he is of acting the fool, for the benefit of a good comedy anecdote.  Turns out that’s actually quite useful, when you’re writing a sitcom!

The learning curve we embarked on writing this pilot for BBC Radio Scotland was incredibly steep, but exhilarating. Thankfully we had the hugely talented, and stupidly funny Sanjeev Kohli on hand to help us turn the ideas into the reality of a script… something he has plenty of experience of, having written & starred in 5 whole series of ‘Fags, Mags and Bags’ for BBC Radio 4. We caught him just before he was swept away to revive his hugely popular role as Navid in Still Game, for their unprecedented 21-night run at the Hydro – in front of 12,000 people each time! (I think there are a just a few tickets left – so you should try and make it along if you can!).  Working with him and Richard on the script was just too much fun… I snorted coffee out of my nose on more than one occasion.  Hubba hubba!

We also had a blast down in London, recording with Miles Jupp – a man who can make even just breathing sound funny! You’ll have heard him on The News Quiz, his self penned ‘In And Out of The Kitchen’ (which just made the leap to TV) and lots more on Radio 4, as well as seen him being hilarious and brilliant in Rev and The Thick of It to name just a couple of his TV credits.  He is currently rehearsing for ‘Neville’s Island’ at The Duke Of York’s Theatre in London, and you can see him performing alongside Adrian Edmondson, Neil Morrissey and Robert Webb from the 10th October.

(PLUS Miles was in Hollywood movie Monument’s Men – so that means I now have 1 degree of separation from Swooney Clooney! Result!)

Please have a listen of our pilot on BBC Radio Scotland, on Monday 29th September at 13.32… I really hope you like it – working on it was a dream come true!

‘Terry Alderton’s All Crazy Now’ presents us with a unique set of challenges as we attempt to capture the comedic genius and chaos that Terry bring to all of his performances. Think stand-up comedy meets the ‘Numbskulls’ – and you’ll have as much of an idea as we do of what that show’s going to sound like!

We’re also very pleased to be working with relative newcomer to the scene – and Dabster’s very own – Julia Sutherland. ‘Julia Sutherland’s Fat Chance’ is her brutally honest comic account of losing 6 stone in weight. Expect stand-up, sketches and a few surprises, as we discover the reality of Julia’s new life, in her new body.

This summer we watched loads of comedians performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, and realised that the really good ones don’t just rely on their talent – they quite simply work harder than everyone else. These new commissions give us all the opportunity to work harder, and to try our best to take what we do to the next level.

The most prominent project that I’m working on at the moment is without doubt the Host Broadcaster Training Initiative for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. We’ve been attached to the project for the last couple of years, and now with mere weeks to go until the opening ceremony, the focus is on Glasgow to see what she can pull off.

The HBTI is a joint venture between Creative Loop and SVGTV, training over two hundred students in television production and placing them into the arenas and stadiums of one of the world’s biggest sporting events. When you watch Usain Bolt at the 200m, there will be about 14 students involved directly in that broadcast, then there’s the boxing, gymnastics, cycling, hockey, lawn bowls…ye canny miss a bit of green action.

The Games aren’t just two weeks of sport, it’s genuinely an investment in the people of Scotland and Glasgow. Legacy 2014 strives to improve the lives of ordinary people through skills development, through exercise and activity, through community structure and by improving environmental practices throughout the country.

I recently covered the Legacy 2014 Celebration Event at Murrayfield stadium, and whilst the title may suggest some bias on the success of Legacy 2014, from talking to each of the organisations and charities that have taken part I could see the passion and belief that each person had for their individual project and the change that it could make to Scotland.

In the HBTI, students from the further and higher education institutions of Scotland have been on an incredible journey. A year ago just one of the lecturers in Scotland had heard of EVS – now there is a small army of media students fully trained in the highlights/replay/statistics package that is the cornerstone of modern sports coverage. These skills are sorely needed in Scotland for future sports coverage, BT Sports and Sky Sports have increased their commitment to football north of the border for the next three years, and as a direct result of the HBTI people will be walking out of college into a professional position, an amazing start to their careers.

Dabster has been with the students every step of the way, documenting and publishing the highs and lows of the initiative. The most successful HBTI training event so far has been at the Queen’s Baton Relay event in Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh. A crew of fifteen students rigged and operated a six camera shoot for the family fun day. Under the guidance of director Guy Tassle the crew shot live coverage for three hours under broadcast conditions – and nailed it. Even the arrival of First Minister Alex Salmond didn’t phase them, with student Caitlin McLelland interviewing him with style and confidence.

It’s been a fantastic project to work on, seeing the reward of success is a great thing to witness in students, and being so entrenched with them has led to some great content to inform and inspire others on the project and beyond. Now – you got any tickets to the opening ceremony..?

Radio goNORTH is our live, online pop up radio station that has broadcast from the annual goNORTH Festival in June over the last 2 years.   In 2013 we were lucky enough to be nominated for a Kieran Heggarty Award for Innovation in The Celtic Media Awards.

Thanks to Amanda Millen, the goNORTH Festival team, Screen HI and a number of other dedicated professionals, we’re bringing this unique and highly valuable training course back for 2014, delivering a fortnight’s end-to-end training in how to run a radio station, culminating in the team of trainees delivering the live station throughout goNORTH. Trainees will learn how to research, script, record and edit packages and produce a live show.  They’ll even be presenting on air so that you get a full picture of how it all fits together.
 
This is not for the feint hearted – it’s intensive, hands-on and a fantastic opportunity to gain experience using modern digital equipment led by industry professionals.  The course runs from Monday 26th May until Friday 6th June in Inverness.

I think the deadline for entries might have passed.  You can check here on the goNORTH website. 

If you’re super keen to get involved, drop me a note soon and I might be able to have a word with the bosses and see if we can squeeze you in.  The course is for people from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland – but if you have a compelling case, you might be considered.

You can see the sort of things we got up to over the last couple of years here at radiogonorth.com and this video that Tom made last year kind of sums it up nicely.