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Applications for this year's College of Comedy close at noon on the 24th, and the volume of submissions is increasing as the deadline approaches. Last year, as the clock ticked down, we watched entries arrive in the in-box as fast as it could handle them, a sight that may or may not be repeated this year, since the more stringent entry qualifications have led to a lower number of entries so far, albeit that many are of a very high quality. While we have come across some of the writers, the majority are from people new to us, and that is exciting in itself.

As we did last year, assessment will be in the form of an inverted pyramid, with more people being involved as the shortlisting progresses, ending with the most promising being read by the head of comedy, the creative director of the writersroom, and my executive colleagues in the comedy department, which will lead to interview invitations and then the final six.

Meanwhile, I've been doing an evaluation of the first year, looking at what worked and what might have worked better, drawing on the views of the first year 'students'. As a result, this year will be more rigorous in some areas, with strict script deadlines and parameters for how many characters and settings the scripts should involve.

There are plans to take the college on the road, with workshops in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and given that we will be running one workshop for the college writers rather than two, there will be some individual events. We also plan to link more with radio.

But first we have to find the six, a process to which I'm very much looking forward.

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