This unique 18-month part-time Professional Diploma in Writing and Producing Comedy aims to enable students to develop all forms of scripted and unscripted comedy including sitcoms, sketch shows and panel shows for radio and TV.

"If you are considering a career in comedy, then the NFTS is a fast track for acquiring those career sustaining skills.” Phil Clarke, Former Head of Comedy, CH4.

The course is run in partnership with Channel 4.

Students will hear from regular industry speakers and get the opportunity to develop and write an original show and make a taster tape.

Since the course started in 2014 several students have gone on to write professionally in radio and television. One student, Laura Major, won a year long Bursary at BBC Radio. Six former students have been commissioned to write regularly for Dead Ringers, and others have been invited to attend the writers’ rooms at The Now Show and The News Quiz. Several projects written during the course have been optioned by TV companies, and at least one has been commissioned as a script. Two students have gone on to write and produce a sketch show for Comedy Central and several others have had material accepted by TV, including The Mash Report.

All NFTS students can attend the School’s masterclasses programme, with recent guests including David Fincher (se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network, Mindhunter), Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave), Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), Stephen Fry, Denis Villeneuve (Bladerunner 2049), Krysty Wilson Cairns (1917), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve), Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna, Diego Maradona), and Louis Theroux.