Four fresh, funny, female-led shorts from some of Northern Ireland’s newest writing talent. Simon Nelson, Development Exec for ±«Óãtv Writersroom, explains how Lady Shorts were produced.
Today sees the launch on ±«Óãtv iPlayer of Lady Shorts, four comedy short films written by some of Northern Ireland’s most exciting up-and-coming women writers – Diona Doherty, Sarah Gordon, Susannah McKenna and Emma Moran. Several of the writers had previously been members of our Belfast Voices and Comedy Room writer development groups and Sarah has gone onto a place in our current Drama Room Group, and it is particularly satisfying to see them gain broadcast credits.
Lady Shorts: Fresh, written by Emma Moran
Each film is distinct, reflecting the unique nature of each writer’s voice: across the four pieces we encounter poignance, sadness, suspense, affection as well as laugh-out-loud joy. But in each piece the writer displays a unique, authentic view of today’s society and I feel privileged that we were able to work with these brilliantly talented writers, and to make their work come to life.
Lady Shorts: Sorta Stepmum (written by Diona Doherty)
Watch Lady Shorts: Sorta Stepmum
This series of shorts is the result of a collaboration between ±«Óãtv Writersroom and ±«Óãtv Northern Ireland’s Learning Department – as so often happens in the ±«Óãtv Writersroom, we were able to combine our skills with those of another ±«Óãtv department to create something exciting and new. Back in the early days of the pandemic, we teamed up with ±«Óãtv NI’s Gareth Hawthorne and David Monahan to develop several scripts with a view to making some of them for ±«Óãtv iPlayer. After some workshops, a couple of pitch sessions and a lot of hard work from our amazing writers, we commissioned several scripts with a view to taking three of these into production.
Lady Shorts: Shopped (written by Sarah Gordon)
As it happens, the scripts were so good that four of them were produced in the end (thank you to our script editor, the amazing , as well as very our own Hamish Wright & Anna Hinds for their parts in making that happen). But getting them made was no easy feat – Covid was doing its worst and – along with the rest of the UK television industry – we had to quickly find ways to make programmes in a safe, healthy and socially-distanced manner. That task fell to our tireless producer, Chris Martin from Belfast-based and director Jonathan Kesselman.
Lady Shorts: The Catholic Marriage Bureau (written by Susannah McKenna)
Watch Lady Shorts: The Catholic Marriage Bureau
Thank you again to our writers and to our former NI Development Producer Keith Martin for kicking the whole thing off at the very beginning!