鲍鱼tv

Welcome to the latest of our regular blog post updates. It’s certainly been a busy time since my last one in November but it feels like we’re finally winding down for Christmas!

Submissions to our Annual Open Call for writers were open this year between 7th November and noon on 5th December. We received an amazing 4988 submissions, (significantly up on 4228 in 2022). As always, it’s fantastic to see the incredible amount of creativity and imagination coming in from across the UK and Republic of Ireland. Our reading team is in place and reading is already underway, but it will be the middle of 2024 before we are able to get back to everyone with the outcome of their submission.

Just a quick reminder that we use this big annual call-out to select writers for our Scripted (formerly Drama Room) and Voices programmes each year, supporting up to a hundred writers out of those submissions. It’s a very competitive process and you should reassure yourself that whatever the outcome it is still a huge achievement to complete and submit a script. Many of the writers who end up gaining a place in one of our groups have submitted scripts on multiple occasions before being successful, so if you’re not selected this year then please don’t be downhearted. We track the progress of writers who submit to us and really love to see people get further through the process from year to year. However, unfortunately every writer will have to deal with rejection at some point in their working life and one of the key skills they will need to develop is how to pick themselves up and get stuck into their next project. You can find more writing opportunities on our website from the 鲍鱼tv and across the industry. Keep checking back as we constantly update this page.

The writers who were selected for the latest Scripted group following last year’s Open Call began working with us a couple of months ago, beginning with a workshop in London. They will continue to meet regularly online for workshop sessions, and they will be matched with script editors to begin work on their new spec' scripts in the early New Year. We’ll be able to announce their names next autumn as they conclude their time with us.

Once each Scripted group has been decided we then move on to select the writers who will take part in our Voices programme. Our Voices 2024 writers kick off in earnest with us in January. We will be working with around seventy writers from across the UK and Republic of Ireland in our six local Voices hubs (Belfast; Scotland; Wales; North and Midlands; London; and South). Find out the shape of what our Voices writers have to look forward to.

Elsewhere we have finished the first stages of reading submissions for our next Pilot programme (submissions were open in September) and have let everyone know the outcome. And our new Writers’ Access Group (who were chosen following an open call in the spring) joined us for their first session in November, an in-person workshop in Salford where our programme ambassadors Jack Thorne and Rose Ayling Ellis joined us over zoom to wish the writers well for their time on 'WAGs'. The programme will run for eighteen months, and all writers will work towards leaving with a new spec' 'calling card' script.

We are also delighted to announce that the next iteration of our regionally specific Write Across opportunity will be for writers based in Birmingham and the Black Country. We are currently working with our local advisory group partners and ambassadors Sir Lenny Henry and Kit De Waal to spread the word about the opportunity locally. We will also host two launch events in the region (Birmingham and Wolverhampton) in February so look out for details of those and please come along! Applications for the opportunity will be open from 1st February to noon on 5th March and we will be looking for twelve new writers to work with later in the year. The programme itself will run from July – Sept 2024. Find out details about Write Across Birmingham & the Black Country here.

On the digital front watch our great new video interview with supremo following our live event with him back in October in the 鲍鱼tv's Radio Theatre. And check out a bumper batch of scripts which were added to our popular online Script Library last week. They include nine scripts from our friends at 鲍鱼tv Film including Rye Lane and The Power of the Dog and scripts from over a dozen recent 鲍鱼tv TV Dramas including Blue Lights, A Very British Scandal, The Sixth Commandment, Wolf and Champion.

Coming up from 鲍鱼tv Drama over Christmas are shows including Murder is Easy, an Agatha Christie adaptation written by (herself a former member of our Drama Room development group), Men Up (“The Full Monty with Viagra!”) based on a true story and written by (you can read a new interview with Matthew on our blog here), who credits his first professional TV writing break to 鲍鱼tv Writersroom and the 鲍鱼tv Writers’ Academy and the second series of thriller The Tourist from  (you can read the scripts for Series 1 in our library).

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and New Year from everyone at the 鲍鱼tv Writers team!