Guest Author - Lauren Evans
If you despise hoodies and sloppy English, then beware! The next few weeks on the Beeb are all about teenagers, in one form or another.
On Thursday 1st October, BBC Two kicks off a brand new comedy drama called ‘Beautiful People’, which is apparently based on the comic memoirs of Simon Doonan. For those not in the know, Simon is an ex-Brit who sailed across the Atlantic and became creative director at Barney’s in New York and a style columnist for the New York Observer. He also made a guest appearance of cycle 2 of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ coaching the young models on style (and yet I’m ashamed to say that I still haven’t a clue who he is!). Growing up as a Reading teenager left him yearning for adult life among those fashionable New York types, and also chock-full of anecdotes, now handily re-packaged for the small screen. ‘Beautiful People’ is shaping up to be fairly interesting, featuring top British comics Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me) and Olivia Colman (Peep Show) and written by Jonathan Harvey of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ fame.
But some teenagers don’t wait to grow up before they begin making their mark on the world. Tim Dawson is just 19 years old, and after writing an episode of ‘Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps’, he took the leap into writing his own series, called ‘Coming of Age’. After a successful pilot show in 2007, the first series has been commissioned and is set to launch on Tuesday 30th September at 10.30pm (on BBC Three). The theme of the series is fairly self-explanatory, and the programme follows a group of sixth-form students on their journey to adulthood. While BBC Three’s history has been somewhat hit and miss, they have a great reputation for developing and supporting new comic talent, and if Tim Dawson and his cast do half as well as the ‘Gavin and Stacey’ team did last year, I’m sure they will all be very very pleased with themselves.
The next teenager to watch out for is a busy girl indeed. Dani (or Danielle) Harmer is probably best known for playing the wilful main character in the TV series ‘The Story of Tracy Beaker’ (based on Jacqueline Wilson’s book). Dani is launching her very own series on BBC One (Friday 26th September at 4.35pm). Imaginatively titled ‘Dani’s House’, this series will follow the adventures of a 17 year old Dani as she struggles to look after her younger brother and his mates. The programme looks to be a slightly grown-up ‘Clarissa Explains It All’ with a slightly surreal edge and lots of celebrity guests. While this will certainly keep the after-school brigade entertained, it’s a shame that Dani has not been able to reprise her pilot role in ‘Coming of Age’, presumably due to the commitments of filming both ‘Dani’s House’ and the third series of ‘After You’ve Gone’, the Nicholas Lyndhurst/Celia Imrie sitcom.
And a word to the wise, which has absolutely nothing to do with teenagers. Charlie Brooker’s new series Dead Set should be coming our way in October and it appears to be a Big Brother zombie-fest. Reality TV meets the living dead – my idea of telly heaven!
