Iona McTaggart and Rosie Turner are Taggart and Turner, a comedy double act and writing partnership that has recently been working on a variety of scripts, short sketches and live routines.
The duo met at a performing arts course held by The Roundhouse in 2017 where they found out they both went to the same university at the same time and never crossed paths. I was lucky enough to catch them together for an interview about their new radio comedy sitcom at Transmission Radio – Room For Two.
Mariana Feijó: What is Room for Two about?
Iona: Room for Two is a four-part comedy sitcom about two friends living in Catford. Their scheming landlord Ron is kicking them out in order to turn their flat into a knock off cat cafe. Soon drowning in a rapidly rising population of manky moggies, the girls then find themselves flat hunting in peculiar places with odd-ball tenants.
MF: How did the idea for it come about? Any real life inspiration?
Rosie: We’ve both gone through the ridiculous task of trying to find a house in London and we have many odd stories of people we’ve met along the way. We wanted to write something which allowed us to take a light hearted look at the current and unfortunately crippling renting market for young people in London (because if you don’t laugh – you’ll cry).
I: Room For Two draws influence from people we’ve met but the characters are exaggerated. Although Rosie did meet a man in Hackney, who offered her a room in exchange for 10 long haired rabbits.
MF: How did you start the collaboration with Transmission Radio?
I: We’ve both been working with Roundhouse for a number of years. Rosie had a radio show at the station previously and I’ve been working with the Roundhouse Choir and Poetry Collective.
R: It’s such a wonderful creative hub stuffed with talented people and we’re thrilled to be collaborating with them again for our Room For Two sitcom.
MF: What are the differences in writing for the radio as opposed to stage or screen?
R: The challenge with writing for radio is the need to explicitly explain the setting and the visuals without the listener being able to see anything.
I: Sometimes you feel like you’re over explaining the action in the scenes, but once you close your eyes and listen to the words, it all starts to make sense. Comedy so often relies on a look or a funny action, so condensing the funny into words and sound alone is a huge challenge, but has taught us both so much!
MF: What would your advice be for anyone wanting to follow your example?
I: Find good people to collaborate with and champion your peers. Work really hard, don’t compare yourself to anyone else and make things because you want to see them in the world.
R: Get a really good pillow, you’ll need it for when you are exhausted from all the writing!
MF: Do you have plans for more radio comedy?
I: We’ve really enjoyed the challenge of writing for radio as it’s allowed us to learn new skills and fast! There’s something magical about connecting one on one with our listeners and audio is such a personal medium
R: We’ll definitely be back to radio scripts soon because you can’t turn up to recording in your pyjamas if you write a script for film or television!
MF: Any other exciting projects on the horizon?
I: We are planning a trip up to Edinburgh for the Fringe festival in August which is going to be great. Deep fried pizza ahoy!
R: We have lots of fun ideas for characters and sketches and can’t wait to get started on these over summer. Autumn is going to be a really exciting time for us so stay tuned for more info!
Room For Two launched on Saturday 16th June and is available to listen on Transmission Roundhouse Mixcloud and Room For Two Comedy.
You can follow Taggart and Turner on Twitter and Instagram @taggartandturner.
