#tptgw was in 2015

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

hate it when a line i hadn't picked up on before in ppgw completely ruins the timeline i had created for myself.

[heigoeswrong]

The Goes Wrong Extended Universe (GWEU) Masterpost

There’s 3? Maybe 4 people who have a love for Mischief Theatre strong enough to make a fandom so I’m making this for anyone who has been hearing about things like The Play That Goes Wrong! Anyone is free to message me for the TPTGW 👢and BBC recordings for PPGW and CCGW :’) It’s under a read more since there’s a substantial amount of info and links in this, so enjoy!

Background: The GWEU is a term I made up (lmao) to encompass everything related to the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society (Also known on Bway as Cornley University Drama Society and the Goes Wrong Show as Cornley Drama Society), a fictional drama society made up of both inept and unfortunate actors/stagehands/ASMs that put on productions that don’t go according to plan. It was created by Mischief Theatre, and has (at the moment) three theatre productions (one upcoming), two proshot recordings, and one tv show.

Main Characters in CPDS (Actors in Brackets): Chris Bean (Henry Shields), Robert Grove (Henry Lewis), Jonathan Harris (Greg Tannahill), Sandra Wilkinson (Charlie Russell), Annie Twilloil (Nancy Zamit), Dennis Tyde (Jonathan Sayer), Max Bennett (Dave Hearn), Trevor Watson (Rob Falconer/Chris Leask).

Current and Upcoming GWEU Productions (in chronological* order):

The Play That Goes Wrong - Live Theatre (Currently on: Off-Bway, West End, US Tour. Previously on: UK Tour, Australian Tour, Bway)

Trailer

Preview Clip (Royal Variety Performance 2015)

Peter Pan Goes Wrong - Live Theatre & BBC Recording (Currently on: West End (2019 Christmas Season). Previously on: UK Tour, Australian Tour, West End. BBC Recording (2016) cuts around an hour from the play and changes some scenes for time but is a proshot.)

Trailer

Preview Clip (BBC)

Christmas Carol Goes Wrong - BBC Recording (Aired 2017. Moves away from traditional theatre style to a more sitcom-like feel; was still mostly filmed live but you do not see the audience and there is green screen usage/camera SFX.)

Trailer (first few minutes of the show)

The Goes Wrong Show - TV Show (Apparently airing Autumn 2019, and is filming the last episode live in Manchester on the 11th of July. Get tickets here to be part of the audience. Goes back to the traditional live theatre style, with some strategic camera cuts. Consists of six 30 minute ‘mini-plays’ in the same style as TPTGW.)

BBC Article

Magic Goes Wrong - Live Theatre (Opening Dec 14, 2019. I don’t actually know a lot about this one, but it is in collaboration with Penn and Teller and part of Mischief Theatre’s year long residency at the Vaudeville Theatre on West End.)

Preview Clip (HRH The Prince of Wales birthday)

Preview Clip (BBC Comic Relief 2019)

*Mischief Theatre doesn’t care about when their shows are set which makes my life hell and since I don’t have a concrete air date for the Goes Wrong Show it could come either before or after Magic Goes Wrong. Also, from three clips posted Magic Goes Wrong doesn’t seem to actually include members of the CPDS, so I don’t know how it’ll tie in but we’ll just have to see.

I also didn’t include The Nativity Goes Wrong script, since it only concerns two of the characters from CPDS, but you can buy it here from Bloomsbury.

Other Mischief Theatre productions that are not part of the GWEU:

The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End)

Groan Ups (September 2019, West End)

Lights! Camera! Improvise! (No current productions)

Mischief Movie Night (Spin-off of L!C!I!. No current productions)

-

That’s all I have right now that won’t make it boring, but I did make a wiki if you want to dive into Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society lore with me, like how according to the timeline Chris Bean has been at university for nine years because Mischief Theatre never thought anyone was going to put effort into this :)) It’s here and I have four pages up so far but I’ll try and get everything I know up there at some point! I actually just made this for fun but anyone who comes across this goes ‘yo that’s kinda cool’ then great! Join me and my two friends in hell :)

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

okay. gonna go through the members of the cpds one by one and try to figure out why they are in university for a bizarre amount of time. basically just need most of them to still be there in 2016 (ppgw filmed), and at least a few in 2017 (accgw). in my timeline of events, tptgw took place in 2012, and the staged version of ppgw (i believe the staged and filmed versions are two separate things that happened at different times, because it better suits my timeline) happened in 2014.

chris: presumably on the wealthier side (described as a philanthropist in the tptgw programme, and in a different version of it, he was the one who received a large inheritance from his grandfather, not max) so it’s plausible that he easily did another degree. alternatively, since the polytechnic thank him for said philanthropic efforts, he may have just stuck around, even if not actually studying.

robert: this one’s fine, because it’s said in the ppgw programme that he’s not actually studying at the polytechnic (he’s working as a janitor). so he can be there as long as he wants.

max: only in his first year of studying during tptgw. this means it should last until 2014/2015 if he completed it first try. him being here longer than that is fairly easy to explain though — it’s incredibly plausible that he had to repeat a year or two like trevor did, because we know max isn’t the brightest (affectionate). he also has a rich family, so he could also have easily taken another course, but i believe it’s the first because according to one version of the tptgw programme, this was already his second time at a uni (before attending cornley polytechnic, he graduated from rada).

sandra: this one i’m not sure what to do about. in tptgw programme, it’s said she’s been there for almost 3 years (or 11 seasons) which means by that point, she should be almost finished her degree. i don’t think it’s as plausible to say she had to repeat, since she seems like she’d be dedicated to finishing, and even if she had to repeat one year only once, that’s still nowhere near enough. i suppose that means she took another course, but i don’t know how many more rich members i can handle. she’s a major question mark for me.

dennis: same as max, he’s only in his first year during tptgw, and i would very much believe he had to repeat, probably several times.

annie: kind of figured out? in tptgw, she’s been there for 3 years, meaning she’s getting close to finishing her course. she’s one i definitely believe came back for a second course — it says that she’ll be leaving for an internship at the bolton octagon, so that implies to me that this is after finishing her current course. given that that’s presumably a stage managing job, i’d assume she studied something in that area during those years. by the time of staged ppgw, she’s back, and now studying cognitive behavioral therapy and pottery. if we say her first year was 2014, that plausibly gets her to 2016 at least, probably 2017 (if it’s a four year course). she never gave me the vibe of being a nepo baby, but according to her twitter account, her father owns an oil company, which screams rich to me.

jonathan: another question mark. we don’t know when he started attending the polytechnic, but i’d guess he isn’t in his first year. like sandra, i don’t find it as believable that he’d have to repeat, so that implies a new course again, but cmon how many of them are doing that.

trevor: probably the one we know the most about, in terms of his courses. we know he was on his final year for the third time in staged ppgw. but i’m not sure how he stuck around. do i really believe he had to repeat his final year another two or three times? no not really. in a different version of the ppgw programme, it says he’s studying music production, so ewe could potentially move that so that he did that after finishing engineering, but that doesn’t feel right to me. so i’m not sure about him either.

so really, the main uncertainties are sandra, jonathan and trevor. robert and annie i’m fairly confident in, and max and dennis i believe are sorted. i’m a little unsure about chris, but i think there’s ways to explain him. any suggestions to justify sandra, jonathan and trevor would be greatly appreciated.

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

now that i've started thinking that the tptgw "upcoming events" page can be inaccurate, i have now opened my eyes to the fact that the ppgw one also can be too. because like...

given that ppgw is set at christmas, and given that from what we know about the sheer number of productions cornley have listed that they've previously done, it doesn't feel right that their next show wouldn't be until may. plus, even though the ppgw tour doesn't have a date listed, i'd assume this is in chronological order, and it's weird that the backstage tour of ppgw (at christmas) wouldn't be until after may. idk it could be, but i'd assume the set wouldn't be there anymore? anyway so now i'm thinking that, once again, they published the wrong "upcoming", and this is actually stuff that happened during the same year ppgw was (the staged version, which btw, i consider to be a different thing to the bbc version. obviously this is just my headcanon, but people are free to adopt it if they want). now, the stuff listed above here HAS to be 2015 (because that's the year that the 7th of may is a thursday, the 8th is a friday, and the 9th is a sunday. i checked). therefore, that means that the staged ppgw would be christmas 2015, which honestly works better than it being in 2014 for a few other events (but that's not important rn). anyway it's been a productive day of me reconsidering everything i thought i had figured out about cornley.