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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/11/tv-editors-panel-shows-sandi-toksvig-tv-comedy-women-natalie-haynes
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| No joke: TV editors cut me out of a panel show – and didn’t even notice | No joke: TV editors cut me out of a panel show – and didn’t even notice |
| (4 months later) | |
| When Sandi Toksvig says women are cut out of panel shows, she really isn’t exaggerating. I once walked into the office of a production company to work on the second episode of a comedy panel show. They’d booked me (and several people who are now household names but will here remain nameless, to protect the guilty) to record a series, the first of which had been broadcast the night before. I hadn’t seen it because I was out gigging and Twitter didn’t exist, which made it harder for strangers to tell you something had gone disastrously wrong with your life and career. | When Sandi Toksvig says women are cut out of panel shows, she really isn’t exaggerating. I once walked into the office of a production company to work on the second episode of a comedy panel show. They’d booked me (and several people who are now household names but will here remain nameless, to protect the guilty) to record a series, the first of which had been broadcast the night before. I hadn’t seen it because I was out gigging and Twitter didn’t exist, which made it harder for strangers to tell you something had gone disastrously wrong with your life and career. |
| So I didn’t know why the producer was apologising until someone explained. There were two women and three men on the show, which was (and still is) unusual. We had recorded about an hour for a half-hour programme. It had gone well. We had made each other laugh. But somehow, between the recording and the broadcast, the editors had managed to cut every single thing I’d said and all but one sentence of what my female colleague had said. They had kept in plenty of footage of us smiling and laughing. But somehow they hadn’t noticed that they had cut out all our words. In fact, they never did notice: the channel controller called to ask what the hell had happened, and only then did they realise what they’d done. | So I didn’t know why the producer was apologising until someone explained. There were two women and three men on the show, which was (and still is) unusual. We had recorded about an hour for a half-hour programme. It had gone well. We had made each other laugh. But somehow, between the recording and the broadcast, the editors had managed to cut every single thing I’d said and all but one sentence of what my female colleague had said. They had kept in plenty of footage of us smiling and laughing. But somehow they hadn’t noticed that they had cut out all our words. In fact, they never did notice: the channel controller called to ask what the hell had happened, and only then did they realise what they’d done. |
| It was one of several bracingly hurtful experiences that week alone. I still cherish the memory of offering an idea for a segment in the pitch meeting the following day. The producer literally ignored me, as though I hadn’t spoken at all, although I was sitting right by him. A few minutes later, one of my fellow (male) comedians made the same suggestion, and the producer leapt on it and said he loved it. To his enduring credit, my friend calmly pointed out that I had said the same thing a few moments ago – but there had apparently been too much oestrogen in the air, so it had gone unheard. | It was one of several bracingly hurtful experiences that week alone. I still cherish the memory of offering an idea for a segment in the pitch meeting the following day. The producer literally ignored me, as though I hadn’t spoken at all, although I was sitting right by him. A few minutes later, one of my fellow (male) comedians made the same suggestion, and the producer leapt on it and said he loved it. To his enduring credit, my friend calmly pointed out that I had said the same thing a few moments ago – but there had apparently been too much oestrogen in the air, so it had gone unheard. |
| You can see how women get silenced in these environments even when our male colleagues are looking out for us, as my friend was. Sometimes it’s careless misogyny, as happened to me: the producers liked the guys and didn’t notice they were silencing the women. | You can see how women get silenced in these environments even when our male colleagues are looking out for us, as my friend was. Sometimes it’s careless misogyny, as happened to me: the producers liked the guys and didn’t notice they were silencing the women. |
| Sometimes it’s a structural thing. If a show has a regular host and team captains, there’s an expectation that audiences are tuning in primarily for them. So anyone hoping to shine on Mock the Week or 8 Out of 10 Cats or Would I Lie to You? has to stand out in less time than is allotted to the regulars. And most of those regulars are men: Toksvig became the first woman to be the the regular host of a mainstream British panel show when she took over QI in 2015. I was the only regular panellist on three series of Wordaholics on BBC Radio 4, and it really takes the pressure off to know you’ll be included. | Sometimes it’s a structural thing. If a show has a regular host and team captains, there’s an expectation that audiences are tuning in primarily for them. So anyone hoping to shine on Mock the Week or 8 Out of 10 Cats or Would I Lie to You? has to stand out in less time than is allotted to the regulars. And most of those regulars are men: Toksvig became the first woman to be the the regular host of a mainstream British panel show when she took over QI in 2015. I was the only regular panellist on three series of Wordaholics on BBC Radio 4, and it really takes the pressure off to know you’ll be included. |
| And sometimes it’s an issue of style. A very brilliant surreal comic once told me that he would make one joke at the start of a recording, and then ensure that virtually everything else he said referenced it. It made it very hard to cut him (unless they silenced him altogether, which he hadn’t thought possible until I told him my experience). | And sometimes it’s an issue of style. A very brilliant surreal comic once told me that he would make one joke at the start of a recording, and then ensure that virtually everything else he said referenced it. It made it very hard to cut him (unless they silenced him altogether, which he hadn’t thought possible until I told him my experience). |
| The solution to all these problems is the same: employ more women – on camera and behind the scenes – so the idea of women talking doesn’t seem weird. And then they’ll keep the gags that work, no matter who makes them. | The solution to all these problems is the same: employ more women – on camera and behind the scenes – so the idea of women talking doesn’t seem weird. And then they’ll keep the gags that work, no matter who makes them. |
| • Natalie Haynes is a writer, broadcaster and comedian. | • Natalie Haynes is a writer, broadcaster and comedian. |
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| Sandi Toksvig | Sandi Toksvig |
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| Women | Women |
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