Blog posts by year and monthJuly 2009
Posts (14)
C±«Óãtv Masterclass
Yesterday we had our masterclass/workshop with 18 shortlisted writers, where we got to know them a lot better, they brainstormed children's drama, received feedback on their scripts, talked to writer Jo Ho about her forthcoming C±«Óãtv show Bo and the Spirit World, and got to hear from the Controll...
Writers Academy 16
Ta Da The Writers Academy 2009 will be: Tim Price Shazia Rashid Kim Revill Nicola Wilson Simon Vinnicombe Tahsin Guner Stacey Gregg Lauren Klee Big congratulations to them!
The College year is under way
Last week the writers got together by the river at Teddington for an intensive workshop week, intensive because we are running one workshop this year rather than two (the cuts...). It was very full on for the writers, for me, and for our administrator Jane, but we managed to survive, and drama...
C±«Óãtv Competition
There has clearly been a flurry of comments about the C±«Óãtv competition - I'm afraid I haven't been able to reply until today. But rather than deal with numerous individual comments, i'll try to make some more general ones about the submissions - We fully appreciate that it's frustrating to be...
Last Chance Comedy
Dan Tetsell writes about writing for Newsjack over at the ±«Óãtv Comedy blog. It's the last episode of the current series next week, so if you want to submit a sketch or one-liners for the current series you need to do it now. Good luck!
Writers Academy 15
Even Shorter List We're now down to the final 13 who will be interviewed next week. The two workshop days last week were brilliant. Kate Rowland and I met twenty nine writers and they got to find out a bit more about Continuing Drama and whether it was for them. All the writers were good, ...
Jon Plowman Interview
Not one of ours, but while poking about down the back of the Internet I found this excellent interview with Jon Plowman from a few years ago.
Scotland Writes
I'm pleased to announce that we're now able to start taking entries for a new competition from ±«Óãtv Scotland. It's called Scotland Writes, and they're looking for new series or serials from writers living in Scotland, or people born there who've since moved away. We've also just finalised ...
New Roadshow - Birmingham
We've just announced a new roadshow date in Birmingham on Tuesday 18 August to join the previously-announced Norwich date on EDIT: 6 October. As ever, you can find out how we deal with your scripts, ask questions, and even hand scripts in to us in person.
ABBA Results!
After weeks of agonising waiting, we were finally able to put the nine shortlisted ABBA writers out of their misery, when last night, at the prize giving ceremony, we announced who had won the award. So, I'm incredibly pleased to tell you that Chris Wilson, with his play 'Playing the Game' is the winner of the 2009 Alfred Bradley Bursary Award. 'Playing the Game' is a play about a teenage boy who has to negotiate his dad's growing relationship with his aunt after his mother's death, his ambitions to be a footballer, school bullies and his acne. The Radio Drama Commissioner Jeremy Howe called it 'an extraordinary rites of passage play' before presenting Chris with a bursary for £3000. Chris later that evening said that winning the award was a 'huge honour' and that he would never normally have thought about writing for radio drama, but 'ABBA gave me the incentive to send in my play and see what happened'. What has happened is that 'Playing the Game' has now been put forward for a radio drama commission, Chris has received a bursary and will also receive a years mentorship with a Radio Drama North Producer. We very much look forward to working with Chris and developing his ideas. So watch this space! Chris was not the only ABBA winner though. Two scripts came joint second in the award. These scripts were 'God and That' by Tom Wells and 'White Horses' by Ben Ayrton. Both Tom and Ben received £1000 bursary money and will receive a years mentorship with a Producer. One script was highly commended by the judges, 'Maine Road' by Sarah McDonald Hughes and two scripts were commended, 'Faith' by Alexandra Denye and 'Driftwood Something Something' by Paul Buie. Sarah, Alexandra and Paul will all receive mentorship and have the chance to develop their scripts and further ideas for the Radio 4 offers round. We in Radio Drama North are absolutely thrilled by the high level of talent which has come through the award this year, and we know that these very talented writers, most of whom are at the very beginning of their writing careers, have bright and brilliant futures in front of them, and it will be a pleasure to help them on their way.