Read the script or Watch the sketch!

The Secret Policeman's Ball is all about using comedy to raise awareness of the work Amnesty is doing, so who better to shake a fist at illegal detention and torture using the international medium of laughter, than the budding comedy geniuses at 4Laughs?

Amnesty set a theme of 'Human Rights Abuses', and offered up the opportunity to have the winning sketch performed on the night by an international comedy star. All the users had to do was come up with an idea in less than 140 characters, and then develop a sketch.

I have to say we were slightly worried when we opened this competition. The idea was brilliant - challenge people to get Amnesty's message using comedy, but exactly how funny is the death sentence? Do we really want people to laugh at the fact one in three women in the world suffer serious sexual abuse? *Is* that, *can* that ever be funny? We spent several nights tossing and turning uneasily in our liberal bedrooms...

...But we needn't have worried at all! The users of 4Laughs did us proud with thousands of brilliant ideas. After several days locked in a darkened room sifting the entries (which itself should be reported to the authorities), Symon Parson's entry took top honours:

"A family on holiday confuse Morcambe Bay with Guantanamo Bay. They are less than impressed by the amenities and resort staff." (126 characters)

With the idea in place, the game was afoot to write a script fleshing out Symon's winning idea. Again, the office was flooded with entries, which you can read here, with Scott Mitchell's winning sketch only decided on by an extended game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

We had an idea, we had a script and finally we had our stars as on the night - and it was the ONLY thing he performed - Chevy Chase, and Seth Green helped Shobna Gulati and Nitin Gunair check into the Guantanmo Bay Holiday Camp!

You can read the script here, or better still watch it here