The Complete Scripts...

I’ve enjoyed reading TV series scripts for a long time. At a time when seeing the episodes on demand was not an option I avidly devoured Monty Python’s Just the Words. Later, I enjoyed in my small collection the complete Royle Family, the season 1 of Green Wing and Karl Pilkington’s shows with Ricky and Steven for the radio. These have been great especially to relive the shows. Over the past few months, another series I enjoy very much, Inside Number 9, has been coming out with their scripts, three seasons a volume. As a rare case of longevity for a British comedy show, the fact is I had only watched the show up to season 6. My cable provider stopped handling BBC Prime and I was left without a legal, simple, way to watch it. Thus the last volume of the book of scripts, season 7 to 9 proved a revelation. I was able to enjoy episodes I was not familiar with in a way I did not think previously would have been possible. Images started forming in my mind just like I was watching a show. I had a lot of fun with it and I would consider pretty much an equivalent to watching the show. It’s true you may miss something with the cinematography, but the mind’s eye, as well as the keen writing puts it in a different league. You may lose something but there’s something to gain that can’t just be shown on screen.

This revelation enthused me to pursue more book scripts. I got the Fawlty Towers one (quite familiar with the show) and now the complete Black Adder and the complete Alan Partridge (only sporadically familiar with either). It has to be said, while both Rowan Atkinson and Steve Coogan are great actors, they’re great writers too, and they were also abetted by other great writers like Richard Curtis, John Lloyd, Ben Elton, (for Black Adder) Peter Baynham, Armando Ianucci and Patrick Marber (for Alan Partridge).

I have to recommend these sort of books as a great way to relive favourite episodes or discover unknown ones. They all seem to also have a bit of “flavour” text or commentary that makes them that little bit more worthwhile (over just watching the show). In a time of increasing digitalization and lack of ownership or artistic media this has been, to me, an affordable way of enjoying my favourites, in a way that is also collectable.