K.J. Yossman As BBC Studios gears up for its annual showcase, where it introduces its upcoming hot projects to international buyers, U.K.-based Jonathan Blyth, BBC Studios’ director of comedy, and Kelly Miller, BBC Studios’ Los Angeles-based senior VP of scripted strategy, sat down with Variety to discuss what’s on their comedy slate, working with streamers and the biggest challenges they’re currently facing.What do you look for in a comedy?Kelly Miller (KM): It’s all about authentic storytelling, that lived-in experience, a talent who has something to say.
Those are the comedies and the shows that are most resonant with audiences around the world, but particularly here in the U.S.Jonathan Blyth (JB): Talent is very much at the heart — front and centre.
If you look at our showcase slate, we’re working with some of the best in the industry, whether that’s Jamie Demetriou [creator and star of “Stath Lets Flats”], Daisy May Cooper, Romesh Ranganathan. If people are pitching you, Jonathan, in the U.K., are you looking for shows or ideas that are going to travel?JB: Not necessarily. [My team] manage all of our key production partners and work incredibly closely with a lot of brilliant talent, honing and really working those development projects, and helping to get them off the ground in the U.K. [But Kelly and I] speak every day so we couldn’t be more joined up.
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