A comedy sketch show featuring the local heroes of Paisley like you’ve never seen them before.
People of Paisley was produced in partnership with Renfrewshire Council and part-funded by the Culture, Heritage and Educational Fund.
Media Monty set out to reunite the cast and creators of the BBC Blast Award-winning sketch group All the Milkman’s Children. Now, all professional actors with high-profile careers would come together to write, perform, and direct a new show in their hometown of Paisley? Of course, they would.
James Kirk, Leigh Quinn, Mark Rowley, and writer James Cathcart got their thinking caps on, and their creative ideas started flowing.
With Media Monty overseeing the script writing and some pointers for filming (yes, we can film a secret cult in the morning and Mhairi Black in the afternoon.)
To be honest, the writers were too good. They had too many ideas, which sometimes is the case.
In the producer role, David Montgomery from Media Monty worked alongside the writers to find the gems and comedy nuggets buried in the mountains of sketches.
With the writing complete, the next stage was pre-production. This involved:
Casting: Auditions to find the perfect cast
Costume: Preparation and sourcing of the perfect costumes for each character (witches hat and magic necklace included)
Location Scouting: *Cult’s secret headquarters, local farm (with cows who love karaoke and many more).
Crewing and kit preparation.
The filming went smoothly, the edit followed the well-written scripts, and we had a show—magic.
People of Paisley was showcased at a screening in Paisley; you can watch the full episode here:
Also, here are some behind-the-scenes photos from the project.
Thank you to everyone involved with the project, and we look forward to working on the next episode.
If you are interested in creating your own content, whether a comedy sketch, advert, or short film, please do get in touch.