2019 was a very bizarre year for Team FNA. 
We had to try a new approach after being hamstrung by events outside our control for too long. So we changed our approach, invested time and effort in some new talent and somehow ended up making two BFI/ Tees Valley Screen shorts and four comedy sketches for Channel 4 and the North East Comedy Hothouse. Making comedy has always been our goal - so to finally have an opportunity to do so for a national broadcaster was a dream come true.

Obviously it's too soon to see if this will bear fruit in the longer term, but between this new strand of our work and the fact that the NUFC Fan Film will be released this year, I have to say we at FNA Central have high hopes for the new decade.

Comedy and documentary may seem like strange bedfellows - but really all any of us are looking for is the truth and a way to share it with our audience.

Channel 4 released "Boobs" on their Facebook page last night - and I have to say - we'e been blown away by the response. Over 100,000 views in its first 12 hours on Facebook - overnight on a Sunday! WHOOP!

Our first Channel 4 sketch is LIVE on Youtube. It's part of a batch of three from NE Comedy Hothouse that have been released together - the first is "Gannin Oot Oot" co-produced by Roundhouse Pictures, the second is "Took Proud To Split The Bill" from Couch Potato Films. Our film - "If Boobs Were Like Balls" starts at 6:31 - but you really should watch all of them, as they're all pretty, pretty, pretty good.

We were delighted to be asked to produce more Sparks for NECHH and Channel 4. As mentioned earlier somewhere in these pages, we followed Jen Gallagher's "What If Books Were Like Balls?" with another belter from Jen "When You Think You're Being Ghosted". And this past week has seen us work with another talented female director, Emma Roxburgh, on two more sketches - "Behind The Doors Of Junior Doctors" written by and starring Tom Machell and "When You Have To Organise The Hen Party" written by Cathy McSorley. Once again, we're working with the wonderful Stephen Hedley of Fantomeline Pictures on the edit. Hopefully you'll like them all when we share them with you in the coming weeks - in the meantime, look at these lovely photos. 

Super excited to have "the band back together" for the second of our two Sparks shoots “When You Think You’re Being Ghosted”. It took a lot of people juggling a lot of projects in order to get their schedules to mesh, but on Tuesday we go into production with the legend that is Sammy Dobson, the wonderful Sarah Lewis Obuba and the magnificent Tom Machell. Lots of laughs are guaranteed.

Will post stills etc as the week progresses.

Today brought the amazing news that we've been commissioned to make two of Jen Gallagher's short comedy scripts for Channel 4's new comedy talent development strand Sparks. It's totally amazing for both us and Jen - as "Mansplain" was the VERY FIRST thing she's ever made and the first short we've produced in forever. After a spell stuck in production purgatory with our NUFC Fans Film, it was great fun to be back shooting and producing again.