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World dossier

The Branch

The register, company and comic machinery to keep beside you while you write.

Overview

Single-camera mockumentary, dry and unhurried. A regional branch of a commercial signage and print company, in a business park, kept open by one good salesman and a lease nobody has re-read. The cameras have been here long enough that people forget them and then remember them at the worst moment. Nobody is stupid and nobody is a villain: the comedy is competence aimed at things that do not matter, and status that moves faster than job title. Small stakes, played straight. A look to lens is a confession, not a punchline.

How this world plays

  1. Nobody is stupid. Every character is good at something; the joke is what they aim it at.
  2. Stakes are small, real, and never ironised. A lost account matters here. The show does not pretend that is silly.
  3. The camera is acknowledged, not performed to. The funniest look to lens is the one someone did not mean to give.
  4. Status moves faster than job title. Whoever holds the key, the form or the complaint has the power for as long as they hold it.
  5. Cruelty is never the joke. Someone can be the butt of a scene and keep their dignity by the end of it.
  6. The third line is the funny one. Let the first two be true.

Cast

Voice lives in the pressure points: what each person wants, where they fail, and the shape their sentences take under strain.

  1. DERMOT FAYBranch Manager, 46

    Wants
    To be loved rather than obeyed — by everyone in the building at once, including people who are currently arguing with each other.
    Flaw
    Mistakes attention for affection, and will burn his own authority to get a laugh he did not need.
    Talks like
    Performs bits nobody asked for and does voices badly. Cannot finish a sentence without checking the room for a reaction. Under pressure he reaches for a motivational phrase he has misremembered, and commits to it harder the wronger it gets.

  2. WESLEY PARRAssistant to the Branch Manager, 39

    Wants
    Formal authority, titled, in writing, acknowledged in front of others.
    Flaw
    Takes everything literally and escalates it within one sentence.
    Talks like
    Declarative and humourless. States his credentials unprompted. Corrects his own job title every single time anyone shortens it. Cites rules with a confidence that does not depend on the rules existing.

  3. NICO BRANDTSales, 33

    Wants
    The one at the front desk, and a different life he will not name out loud.
    Flaw
    Uses irony to avoid ever committing to anything, including the things he wants.
    Talks like
    Deadpan. Sets Wesley up and lets the room do the rest of the work. Says the quiet thing to camera and the polite thing in the room, and the gap between them is the joke.

  4. ELLE MARCHETTIFront desk, 30

    Wants
    Permission — from anyone, ideally herself — to want more than this.
    Flaw
    Waits to be chosen instead of choosing.
    Talks like
    Dry asides and complicit looks to camera. Deflects a compliment by answering a slightly different question. Funniest when she says nothing and the silence does it.

  5. HATTIE OYELOWOSenior accounts, 58, twenty-two years in post

    Wants
    To be left alone until she can retire.
    Flaw
    Contempt is easier than caring, and she knows exactly what it is costing her.
    Talks like
    Six words, maximum. Answers what was meant rather than what was asked. Has not been surprised since 2009 and does not intend to start.

  6. GAVIN SOODRegional, visiting, 35

    Wants
    To be promoted out of this building and never think about it again.
    Flaw
    Cannot read a room, and does not know that reading a room is a thing people do.
    Talks like
    Corporate-fluent and relentlessly positive. Uses 'circle back' sincerely. Compliments people in ways that are audits, and is genuinely hurt when they hear it that way.

Comic Engines

These are repeatable sources of pressure, not punchline recipes. Choose one to govern the scene and let the cast complicate it.

  1. escalating lie

    Someone says something small and untrue to avoid an awkward minute, and then has to build the world in which it was true.

  2. status flip

    The person with the least authority turns out to hold the only thing anyone needs, and enjoys it.

  3. wrong audience

    A conversation meant for one person is conducted, in full, in front of exactly the wrong one.

  4. procedure as weapon

    Someone entirely in the right applies a rule with a precision out of all proportion to the offence.

Exercises

Playable reps set inside this show. Pick one, keep the dossier open, and write toward a single comic engine.

  1. The Fire Drill Nobody Called

    Cold Open from Chaos · Difficulty 2

  2. The Wrong Van

    Cold Open from Chaos · Difficulty 3

  3. The Listening Exercise

    Cold Open from Chaos · Difficulty 4