FROM THE ARCHIVES: Murder on the Titanic - Part II (28/6/10)

Welcome once again to From The Archives, as we continue our seemingly endless trek through my student comedy writings. This week we have the second and final part of Murder on the Titanic, the second solo adventure of Battenberg and Schnepps.

In last week's post, I spoke about how much fun the writing process was for Murder on the Titanic. Although we had much less time for writing as a unit, there was never really a point where Tom and I (and Seb) were tearing our hair out over continuity errors or trying to come up with jokes. We'd had more time beforehand to work out all the things that had slowed us down on The Case of the Brown Ruby, and as a result we felt confident about pushing the story to its ludicrous limits - which is this episode in a nutshell.

Having set things up very nicely in Part I, we had the freedom in Part II to be as silly and absurd as possible. Knowing we would have to bring along the murder aspect to justify the title, we made the explanation totally and hilariously inconceivable, mining the conventions of Agatha Christie for a great deal of humour. We also sought to challenge a couple of stock character portrayals, with Captain Bluebeard being largely suave and cheerful (until he gets angry).

This whole episode really makes me smile, especially the sequences involving Battenberg and Schnepps time travelling to save their skins. I love the way it continues to escalate, so that every time you think we've hit a peak, we pull something else out of our pocket and keep on going. I can't say much more without spoiling the episode, but suffice to say we're all very proud of it, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it.

Here, then, is Part II of Murder on the Titanic. You may work out whodunnit, but how they did it is a whole other matter...

Next week we enter the home straight on From The Archives, as Battenberg and Schnepps embark on their third and final journey together. Tune in next week for the world premiere of The Final Slice...

Daniel