 Some say there are no original thoughts or ideas, everything comes from somewhere else. And if you asked our nominees to justify the following, that's probably what they'd say too.
Does anyone out there have copies of The Hamish & Andy Show, that went to air on Channel 7? How about Radio Karate, which they did for Channel 31? If so, please get in touch, because in 2009 it's all but impossible to imagine what Hamish Blake did comedy-wise before he saw David Brent. He might have dialed down the irony a little - making him a little less annoying - but otherwise his on-air persona is all Brent, all the time. Which means it's a third generation copy of Alan Partridge, except that while Partridge was almost always funny, Brent rapidly became annoying, and Hamish is just...putting on an odd voice. The genre of political comedy is so broad - and the subject itself so narrow - that most of the direct comparisons between The Hollowmen and The Thick of It would seem like drawing a long bow... if it wasn't for the fact that the ABC had The Thick of It scheduled and ready to run in early 2008 only to suddenly yank it from the schedules without comment a month or so before The Hollowmen was announced. If they were worried about the comparison - and clearly they were, as they screened The Thick of It once The Hollowmen was done and dusted so it's just as clear they thought it worth screening - then why shouldn't the rest of us feel the same? One of the first rules of working in the media is that people will steal any good ideas you might have without a second's thought. Brian Nankervis found this out the hard way - though to be fair "let's do a music-based panel quiz show" isn't exactly the kind of lightning strike that only happens once a century. Maybe one day he'll have a second idea the ABC won't steal and turn into a much-more successful version. Maybe it won't be another bloody panel show.
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