James Cary is a British television and radio writer.

Career

Cary is the creator and writer of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

Silver Award-winning comedy series, ''Think the Unthinkable'' (four series) and lead writer on the sketch show, ''Concrete Cow''. Cary co-created and co-wrote the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

series ''

Bluestone 42 ''Bluestone 42'' is a British sitcom about a British bomb disposal detachment in Afghanistan during Operation Herrick, first broadcast on 5 March 2013 on BBC Three. The third and final series began on 9 March 2015 and ended on 13 April 2015. In ...

'' with

Richard Hurst Richard Hurst is a British writer and director of comedy, theatre and television. Biography Born Richard Turner in Surrey, he attended Boston Grammar School and Oakham School before studying at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and training as a directo ...

. He has also written for '' My Hero'', ''

My Family ''My Family'' is a British sitcom created and initially co-written by Fred Barron, which was produced by DLT Entertainment and Rude Boy Productions, and broadcast by BBC One for eleven series between 2000 and 2011, with Christmas specials broadc ...

'' and co-written two radio series with comedian

Milton Jones Milton Hywel Jones (born 16 May 1964) is an English comedian. His style of humour is based on one-liners involving puns delivered in a deadpan and slightly neurotic style. Career Jones has had various shows on BBC Radio 4 and was a recurrin ...

, as well as contributing to a number of sketch shows and children's and animation programmes. His radio comedy series ''Hut 33'' about

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

boffins, starring

Robert Bathurst Robert Guy Bathurst (born 22 February 1957) is a British actor. Bathurst was born in The Gold Coast (British colony), The Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. In 1959, his family moved to Ball ...

and

Olivia Colman Sarah Caroline Sinclair ( Colman; born 30 January 1974), known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Award ...

, ran for three series. He has contributed to some episodes of '' Miranda'', the television version of the comedy show ''Miranda Hart's Joke Shop'' which was nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award. His script editing work includes ''Almost Never'' (CBBC), ''Recorded For Training Purposes'' (BBC Radio 4), ''Gigglebiz'' (CBeebies) and ''Mr Bloom's Nursery'' (CBeebies).

Books

In 2013, he published his first book, ''Death By Civilisation'', based on articles written for the magazine ''

Third Way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

''. A novel, ''Crossword Ends In Violence'', followed in 2014 In 2019 he published the ''Sacred Art of Joking'' followed by ''The Gospel according to a Sitcom Writer'' in 2021. Both are mix of comedy and religious commentary.

Sitcom Geek

Cary has been blogging and podcasting about the mechanics of writing sitcoms, in his blog Sitcom Geek since 2010, and his podcast since 2015, Sitcom Geeks with fellow comedy writer Dave Cohen.

Personal

Cary has a degree in Theology from

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

(

Hatfield College Hatfield College is one of the constituent colleges of Durham University in England. It occupies a city centre site above the River Wear on the World Heritage Site peninsula, lying adjacent to North Bailey and only a short distance from Durha ...

). In April 2017, he was identified as one of the very few pro-

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

comedians in the United Kingdom, noting that other comedians should be wary of suggesting that people sharing these views might be 'backward, nationalistic and patriotic and racist'.

References

English radio writers English male comedians English television writers British male television writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham {{UK-screenwriter-stub