FOLLOWING on from the fab and brill time all concerned had at their Father Ted masterclass during the summer, the comedy heads at Galway Film Centre have just finalised plans for Writing For Sitcom - a year long course in comedy scriptwriting for television, writes Brian Boyd. Sponsored by the Irish Times, RTE and Teilifis na Gaeilge, it's the first course of its kind held in this country and aims to give more than a helping hand to promoting comedy writing talent.

The course consists of four week long sessions, beginning on December 9th and continuing in January, March and May next year. There will be plenty of course work and rewrites demanded of participants between each session. The course director is Billy Magra, whose credits include TV Ga Ga, Nighthawks and The Basement and the resident tutor is Sean Hardie, ex head of comedy at BBC Scotland, who was the originator and co producer of Not The Nine O'Clock News and has also written for Spitting Image.

There are only 12 places on the course and it would help, but it's not absolutely necessary, if you have had some previous experience in writing for TV, film, radio or stand up. Here's the important part: Applicants should send a detailed CV plus a one page story outline of a half hour situation comedy script which should include three short scenes with dialogue, a breakdown of the key character(s), plot outlines for three future episodes and an idea of the target audience for the programme. For further information, contact Fiona Kilkelly at the Galway Film Centre, Monivea Road, Galway. Tel: (091) 770748, fax: (091) 770746.