Chat Ed : Let's begin, hello Graham!
Graham Linehan : Hello, let's get started!
fut : hi graham. GREAT show
Uncle Steve : Yeah, that episode was superb.
Mr White : what inspired you to write such a beautifully crafted comedy programme?
Graham Linehan : Well the idea was originally Dylan's. He had Bernard and Manny as characters... and when I came onboard I saw in it an opportunity to write something that was similar in structure to Seinfeld, which is one of my favourite sitcoms. So Dylan and I sat down and watched loads of Seinfeld's and we tried to emulate the way they tell about four stories simultaneously. I can't really speak for Dylan in this because his reasons are different to mine, but that was the thing that appealed to me, to do a sitcom that was very structurally designed. I still think, as does Dylan, that we didn't quite manage it. Maybe next time.
mrghoul : every other comedian in the UK has tried to make a show like Seinfeld but Black books is the only one which is any good...if you don't mind me saying so.
Guy : Graham, congratulations, I cried laughing two weeks running. Funniest thing in ages, er, EVER?
Graham Linehan : Brilliant mrghoul and Guy! I don't know what to say! Thank you for not watching Tomorrow Never Dies!
ryano : isn't the little book of calm brilliant?
Graham Linehan laughs
Graham Linehan : We used some real things from the Little Book of Calm and we made up one or two. It kind of is, I like it, Dylan doesn't. I'm a fan of that simplistic self help stuff... it can work sometimes. For instance I gave up smoking thanks to Alan Carr's book 'How to Stop Smoking'. Even though it's simplistically written and it had a lot of stuff that I wouldn't accept in a novel or a newspaper article. I still haven't smoked for two years because of it. I'm a little worried that I took that question too seriously!
Chat Ed : chuckles
ingrid : How is it that Black Books makes every other sitcom seem patronising/insults your intelligence? BB is in a league of its own. Did you know that when you made it?
Graham Linehan : No we thought that... It's hard to explain but when you write something, you start off thinking it's brilliant and then when you start making it, there are so many compromises that you have to make you start to think it's not so good, and then by the time it comes out you think you've really screwed it up! So when we started to see the good reviews for Black Books, I think we were all very very surprised. We felt that we had got away with murder!
Chat Ed : Lost of people asking about film scripts - so :
eamon : it's probably only a metter of time until you write a movie any scripts you're sitting on at the moment???
Graham Linehan : I am writing an adaptation of a book by Magnus Mills, called 'The Restraint of Beasts'. I am also writing a period comedy set in France. The period being around 1930.
Chris Jones : any chance of celebrity cameos in black books - like the brilliant Richard Wilson episode of Father Ted?
Graham Linehan : Aah thanks very much Chris. No I don't think so, Dylan has a strict rule about putting references to modern culture in the show. He feels, I think with some justification, that they date the show.
Crys chuckles
Graham Linehan : So, unless we come up with a very very funny idea involving a modern star or whatever, I don't think so.
Chat Ed : And a whole ton on this theme:
Eden : Are you planning on any future series?
reggie : will black books return after this series?
Graham Linehan : At this point, it's too early to say.
kirsten : what is the relationship between fran and bernard?
Graham Linehan : It's the kind of relationship that I hope people recognise... and would certainly have echoes in Seinfeld, of a man and woman who may have had sex at one point in the past and want to remain friends, but don't want to have sex again.
Dust Brother : Do the cast of Black books stray from the script (i.e Bill Bailey) and improvise (or add) their own lines/jokes?
cold_hands : You are all writers, how much of the script is altered by Dylan & Bill?
Graham Linehan : Dust Brother, generally no. What we have is that people who know how to do lines in a very funny way. They are very good to Dylan and I, in that they only suggest a new line if they really believe the current one isn't working. But, it should be said that there is a lot of stuff around the line, eg physical gestures, bits of blocking, facial expressions and so on, without which the show would be completely flat.
jenny thorp : Hello Graham my lovely, another spanking episode. Simon has gone into Newcastle to see Terry Jones with the rest of the boys from the office, I was sitting supping my, not £7000 bottle of wine, and thought I would say hello, and isn't it about time that you ventured up north to see us?
Graham Linehan : Oh my god!
sarzyb : jenny's a bit familiar isn't she?
Graham Linehan : I can tell you that that's from the Viz people!!
Chat Ed chuckles
Graham Linehan laughs
david h : viz rules
Graham Linehan : Hello Jenny! She's terribly nice as are all the Viz blokes and... the women!!
Karen Reid : How long does it take you to put together an episode?
Graham Linehan : Well Karen, that's a bit of a difficult question, but in terms of writing we would do a first draft in a week... and then just re-write it dozens of times, because the first draft is always terrible! If anyone ever read it, they would wonder how on earth we were given permission to work in television!
sarzyb : How much wine goes down whilst you're writing?
Graham Linehan chuckles
Graham Linehan : A lot! A very great deal, we are both wine drinkers, so we've had some very nice 'writing' lunches.
Dust Brother : are the characters that you use, based upon people that you know?
Graham Linehan : Bernard is based on Dylan's stand up persona. Which is a very loose, cynical, drunk man - who doesn't know anything about the modern world, and also doesn't care. Whereas Manny, is a bit like me. Except I don't have asthma.
Horsham : Are you writing another series of 'Big Train'?
Graham Linehan : At the moment we're not. But, perhaps sometime in the future.
david h : i loved big train
Tristan : Big Train rocked!
Graham Linehan : Thanks david h. The only worry about Big Train is that we don't want to repeat ourselves, so we have to think about a new direction to take the show in.
david : what else makes you laugh, graham?
Graham Linehan : I laugh in no particular order at; Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Friends, Doctor Katz... erm... ooo what else... Futurama, Larry Sanders, and basically anything of quality. I like a lot of episodes of South Park, especially the recent Pokemon parody.
justice of the peas : was that your real beard in the black books cameo? it was bushtacular
Graham Linehan chuckles
Graham Linehan : It was yes! All real! But from the future!
Chat Ed is impressed.
Graham Linehan : I'm looking forward to it.
justice of the peas : good lord - well done
Graham Linehan laughs
Graham Linehan : It is very impressive isn't it!
JK : I think you're brilliant and the best comedy writer since woodhouse, bless you and may you never get prostrate trouble.
crackle : what music or books or tv shows was important to you when you were growing up?
Graham Linehan : Oh god bless you JK!! You have hit on one of my worries! The Woodhouse thing is unmerited but terribly flattering. Thank you. And crackle, I liked Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, The Police, Talking Heads, Jesus and Mary Chain.
Tristan : YOUNG ONES! YEAH!
Graham Linehan : The Pixies, Dinosaur Junior.
paul_case : TALKING HEADS!
Graham Linehan : I still have a huge interest in films and music, so to be honest I see it as one continuous line.
Hmmmuiop : Is it true that channel4 are aiming to have only things with the initials BB on by 2005....good news for Big Breakfast, Big Brother, Black Book, Billy Bailey, even....
Graham Linehan : Wow, I've never noticed that!
HolyMackrel : at last my masterpiece Big Bottom will be screened
Graham Linehan : I loved Big Brother, and I still want to convince Anna to change teams, and become a heterosexual!
justice of the peas : bad news for the 'golden girls' then
neilt : Maybe you should rename Big Train to Big Brain?
Graham Linehan chuckles at Holy Mackrel
Karen Reid : When did you start writing?
Graham Linehan : When I was about 16, with a few short stories. I've just continued since then.
neil82ukw : how did you get recognised?
Graham Linehan : If you're talking about how we got into TV - it was through writing sketches for Smith and Jones.
Chat Ed : Last one folks, Graham has to run....
Igor : Wouldn't you rather write porn scripts?
Graham Linehan laughs
nanook : LoL
Graham Linehan : Only if I could meet the people involved!
Chat Ed chuckles
Chat Ed : Thanks Graham! Hope you enjoyed it! That's it everyone - thanks for taking part.
Graham Linehan : Thanks very much and goodbye everyone.
Eden : BYE!
paul_case : cheers graham
Erin-Laura Girling : Bye.
HolyMackrel : Bysie bye G
Graham Linehan leaves the room
