Comedy Control
One of the perks of my job is that I now get a sneak listen to Friday night's edition of Watson's Wind-Up a full four hours before transmission. The programme is recorded in front of a live lunchtime audience at the Glasgow Film Theatre. The producer, Phil Differ, then edits it, calls me in Inverness and plays it to me down the phone. I listen on a special headset that gives me the sense of self-importance you associate with air traffic controllers. Oh yes. Well, that's how it makes me feel...but it actually makes me look like I'm trying to flog car insurance in a call centre.
The idea behind all of this is that I'm able to check that the programme complies with the 91Èȱ¬'s editorial guidelines. Topical comedy is seen as "high risk" in that regard.
The trouble is, I tend to get caught up in the jokes and forget that I'm supposed to be sitting with a finger poised over my computer keyboard, ready to veto anything that's too naughty.
In tonight's programme, for example, there's an absurd sketch about two men sharing a bottle of memory-erasure pills. The sheer silliness of it just tickled me and I was laughing like a drain.
Yet maybe some listeners will think the sketch condones drug use. Who knows?
Tell you what...listen tonight (or all next week on the iPlayer) and pretend you're me. You don't even have to wear the headset.
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