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Created and delivered by Sideline’s Billy McGrath. Every Thursday evening at the Irish Writers Centre, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, from Jan 22nd to Feb 26th, 2026. Six 2-hour sessions in person.

Now in his 3rd act, Billy devoted most of his career to developing, producing, and/or script-editing comedy projects for stage, radio, and screen. As a UCD student in the early 1970s, he was part of Ireland’s first comedy sketch team, The Milligan Machine, whose final appearance was on BBC Radio 4 in London. As well as organising The Falling Asunder Rock Revue (with Bob Geldof), the 1st ever tour of Irish rock bands, Billy was also central to the birth of ‘alternative’ comedy. He opened up new stand-up clubs, offering new talent Dermot Morgan, Michael Redmond, Owen Roe, and Kevin McAleer a stage, and produced Ireland’s 1^st ever live ‘alternative’ comedy LP with MCD’s Denis Desmond. After a successful few years as a TV producer and director for RTE, ITV, and C4, he directed the live version of “Fairytale of New York” (The Pogues, 1988), the Irish soccer anthem “Put Em Under Pressure” (Ireland’s biggest-selling single) in 1990, and the worldwide hit “Harry’s Game” (Clannad). In the same year, he also partnered with the Late Late Show to find Ireland’s next comedy star (finalists included Dylan Moran & Patrick Kielty); devised The Liffey Laugh (Ireland’s first ever live comedy festival) and opened up The Gasworks International Comedy Club on the south Dublin quays that later spawned similar clubs in Galway, Belfast, and Cork. For investing in Ireland’s first-ever professional stand-up comedy circuit, Billy was presented with a National Entertainment Award by Mike Murphy live from Dublin’s National Concert Hall in December 2001. He also co-funded and created Ireland’s first comedy improv team (that still performs today); co-managed Perrier Award winner Sean Hughes, and designed Screen Training Ireland’s first-ever course, Fr. Ted Day (with the writers Linehan/Matthews, director Declan Lowney, and Ardal O’Hanlon). This comedy writer’s course led to a TV sitcom workshop in Galway featuring Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) and Blackadder producer John Lloyd, ending with all 8 scripts performed live with a professional cast. In the late 1990s, based in the UK, his first feature script, Rippling the Moon, won a European Script Award, and the comedy-drama series, RÍ RÁ, was developed via the European SOURCES screen workshops.

But writing ambitions were put on hold as Billy accepted the role in 1998 of Executive Producer of New Programming/Talent for TV3 (Ireland’s 1st commercial station) and, in 2000, after a national competition, was appointed RTE’s 1st ever Commissioning Editor for TV Entertainment, developing new TV talent: Tommy Tiernan, Colin Murphy, Des Bishop, Pat Shortt, and Jason Byrne. The then RTE program controller rejected a proposal to develop the hugely popular Mrs. Brown LIVE stage show into a sitcom.

After departing RTE in 2002, Billy co-created the street magic series Close Encounters with Keith Barry (Midas Productions/RTE). A finalist at the prestigious Rose d’Or Awards, it remains internationally one of Ireland’s most successful entertainment exports. In 2004 he established Sideline Productions (with Gerry Kelly). Sideline was the first (Southern) Irish-based prodco to have a series commissioned directly for UK TV. Both series of Secrets of Great British Castles (Channel 5) are still shown on Netflix around the globe and remain the most successful Irish factual TV export. In 2006, Billy created the stand-up comedy series ‘The Liffey Laugh’ for RTE Two. The live shows were filmed at the 1000-capacity Vicar Street and featured Jason Byrne, Ed Byrne, Andrew Maxwell, Neil Delamere, Deirdre O’Kane, Dermot Whelan, and David O’Doherty, among others, plus the first live Irish performances of John Bishop, Alan Carr, and Rhod Gilbert, who were all then unknown in Ireland.

In 2009 & 2010, Billy designed and taught the Entertainment Masterclass for European comedy producers in Lucerne, plus EP’ed a scripted pilot for The Rubberbandits (Ch4) and a commissioned script with Foils, Arms, & Hog (BBC London). Sideline also emerged as the largest comedy radio producer in Ireland. Comedy Showhouse (RTE Radio 1, 2017 to 2021) won two Irish Radio Awards (PPI); 3 Celtic Media Award nominations (one win); and was a finalist at the NY Radio Awards for Best Radio Comedy. The 1^st series was Ireland’s first ever Radio Comedy Festival and continued for 5 more years. The series included panel shows, sketch formats, stand-up specials, and a six-part series featuring sitcom pilots by female comedy writers. Produced in association with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and RTE, Comedy Showhouse delivered over 80 half-hour original radio comedies. Billy was senior script editor and led various script training workshops as part of the project. BBC Radio broadcast Sean Hughes’s one-man show on the first anniversary of his passing.

In 2019 Billy wrote/co-produced/directed the feature-length film Citizens of Boomtown (the story of Bob Geldof & The Boomtown Rats). The film made its premiere at the 2020 Dublin International Film Festival and subsequently aired on BBC2’s Imagine arts documentary slot.  Keen to revisit the live stage, The Town Hall Theatre in Galway commissioned him (as Magra) in 2019 to write and perform a one-man theatre ‘comedy’ show, GUSTO (https://tht.ie/3452/gusto-with-billy-magra). Due to COVID, the shows were cancelled, but an opportunity arose.

During COVID, Billy finally realised an ambition, gaining a 1st Class Hons in Screenwriting from the National Film School in Dun Laoire, Co. Dublin. In late 2022 he won a Creative Development grant from St. John’s Theatre in Listowel, and at the end of that week he finally performed a reading of his one-man theatre show GUSTO. A passionate advocate that life does not stop as an OAP, this Old Age Punk in early 2023 road-tested GUSTO in The Town Hall Theatre (Galway) and The Record Room (Limerick) before a week’s run at The Project Arts Centre in Dublin in April. The theme was clear—embrace the third act of your life and look forward to what the future may hold.

In 2024 Billy wrote, produced, and directed Ballroom Blitz—a 2-part TV series presented by U2’s Adam Clayton exploring the rise and the fall of Irish showbands. An 85-minute feature-length version (titled Ballroom Boom) was launched at MIP in Cannes in October 2025 for the international market. Returning to scriptwriting, he has completed screenplays for RAGE ACTION and DEAD FAMOUS, the TV drama series HARTE G.D., and is developing a sitcom, SWEET DREAMS, for the live stage. Watch this space!

In 2025 Billy accepted the part-time role as Performance Arts Programmer for BEALTAINE (Age & Opportunity/HSE/Arts Council) and also designed COMEDY/A SERIOUS BUSINESS—a new 6-week course (IN PERSON) with the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin kicking off on Thursday, January 22nd.

Future plans include separate comedy courses for SITCOMS, TV SERIES, and SCREENPLAYS, which will spark the content for the first-ever published book aimed at Irish 2nd/3rd level TV/film students.

Billy continues his lifelong commitment to helping new talent develop their ideas and projects. If there are any regional agencies, arts centers, or colleges interested in exploring a one-day or two-day comedy writing course, please contact info@sideline.ie

irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/comedy-a-serious-business-with-billy-mcgrath/.