In December last year we wrote about the BBC Trust’s hope that the BBC would endeavour to feature more women on comedy panel shows. BBC executive Mark Linsey commented at the time that: "Comedy panel shows are always better for having a good mix of people and of course that must include women. I'm making it clear to production teams that there's just no excuse for delivering all male guest lists."
On Sunday The Observer published an interview with Danny Cohen, the director of television at the BBC in which he was quoted as saying: "We're not going to have panel shows on any more with no women on them…You can't do that. It's not acceptable."
This has reignited, or rather fed the flame of the ongoing debate: Are women funny? Or rather are women funny enough to compete on the BBC’s comedy panel shows? Our answer is a resounding yes, of course.
Twitter is undecided. With tweets concerned about token females and lack of panel diversity. The joke about insisting upon a resident male on Loose Women (not known for being a comedy panel show) in retaliation to any kind of quota got tweeted several times over. Others insisted they could only think of one or two funny females who they would tolerate on a panel show.
Our executive producer and founder Lynne Parker commented: “Over the past 11 years I have seen at least 2000 female comedians and performers, it is inconceivable that there isn’t a pool of brilliant, articulate funny women capable of sitting alongside the men on panel shows.”
We are looking forward to seeing more funny women on our screens bantering with the best of them.
Pictured: Danny Cohen
