��tv Writers Feed

The Verb Dramas 2024

2024-03-25T11:09:37+00:00

The ��tv Writers in collaboration with Audio Drama North and ��tv Radio 3's The Verb, offered writers in our development groups the opportunity to gain a short audio drama commission. Listen to the four resulting dramas and find out more from the writers.

The Verb is a weekly "Cabaret of the Word", featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance, presented by Ian McMillan. The Verb is a longstanding collaborator with ��tv Writers, offering the chance for writers from our development groups (including Scripted, Writers' Access Group, and Voices) to garner a short audio drama commission - and also the opportunity to appear on the show.

Once selected, our alumni writers underwent an intense development process with a ��tv Audio Drama North Producer. Below, you can listen to their final audio drama productions, as well as read their experiences of the process.

The ��tv Writers alumni selected for the most recent Verb audio dramas are Amy Arnold, Alan Flanagan, Matthew Smith, and Karen Featherstone.

Listen to Kissing with Tongues, written by Amy Arnold.

"I was so happy to have my radio play selected for The Verb – KISSING WITH TONGUES was the first thing I’d ever written for radio, and I really wasn’t sure how my writing would translate given that I have mostly worked on television scripts before now. Once I got started, I found the loose brief – to simply ‘celebrate language’ – and also the tight 7-8 minute timing really focused my brain, getting me to think hard about the purpose of every word (I can sometimes tend towards verbose when left to my own devices!)

"My script editor Pippa Day was brilliant in helping me hone the finer story details, and I loved the day I spent in the studio with her and Lorna Newman, who directed the play with so much energy and enthusiasm. Hearing the actors performing my words was really special – for me it was the first time I’ve experienced that, and it gave me a renewed excitement for radio as a storytelling medium. Listening to the final edit felt so intimate and romantic - the perfect way to dive into the inner thoughts of my two characters as they mull over their feelings for one another. I’m so grateful I got the opportunity to create this piece through being part of Writersroom, and look forward to writing more for radio in the future!"

- Amy Arnold

Listen to the full episode of The Verb including Amy's introduction to Kissing With Tongues (at 44 minutes)

Listen to Something Borrowed, written by Alan Flanagan.

"Anyone who's spent more than five minutes in an Ann Summers knows that it's the fate of humanity to eventually fall in love with machines, so I decided to pitch 'Something Borrowed' -- about a dead relationship resurrected by some ungodly combination of AI and wishful thinking. I love writing for radio because there's this inherent weirdness to it, the audience with an ear cocked to their wireless (slash bluetooth headset) will pretty much sign up for anything, so it feels like a great space to explore genre stories. After getting the initial pitch accepted, I faced the agonising uphill battle of bringing an idea to life -- only kidding (I don't work down a mine), it was all smooth sailing with the wonderful producer Vicky Moseley guiding me through several drafts.

"The main challenge was getting so much story into about 8 minutes while still keeping the characters intact and interesting, but Vicky was the perfect collaborator the whole way through. Recording radio is always so much fun, and (after getting over being star-struck by meeting a former Corrie star) I was bowled over by the performances of Jenny Platt and Andonis Anthony. Andonis found the slowly growing humanity in this artificial-intelligence-turned-spurned-boyfriend, while Jenny achieved the impossible by doing an Irish accent that I, a curmudgeonly Irish person, found flawless. I can't thank Vicky, Jenny, Andonis (and Lorna Newman, and others who worked on the project) enough for allowing me to have so much fun bringing this story of literal "it's PC gone mad" to the nation's earholes."

- Alan Flanagan

Listen to the full episode of The Verb including Alan's introduction to Something Borrowed (at 32 minutes, 40 seconds)

Listen to No Smoking in the Ground, written by Matthew Smith.

"Radio is a visual medium. Well, no. But hold on...

"When I think about audible storytelling - like a podcast, radio advert or interview - the bits that stick with me are the moments where I can visualise the scene. So this was my mission throughout the writing process: write visually. Sure, write well, but for the love of God write visually.

"I committed to an idea which is specific and absurd. On the very first page of my script, a Huddersfield Town fan transforms into a donor kebab. This set the tempo. The rest of the story must evolve from this foolish imagery to keep the listener guessing and, ideally, bewildered.

"My commitment to ensuring the story was populated with lush yet unfamiliar imagery led me to expecting higher standards from my writing. It's all well and good to imagine bizarre illustrations, but none of this imagery is worth spit unless it actually means something. Therefore I interrogated the story's characters, themes, language and structure much more than I usually do; ensuring the ambitious visuals are complimented by ambitious storytelling.

"What I'm trying to say is, more radio dramas should open with a kebab mutation in the John Smith's stadium."

- Matthew Smith

Listen to the full episode of The Verb including Matthew's introduction to No Smoking in the Ground (at 13 minutes)

Listen to Ghost in the Machine, written by Karen Featherstone

"My play GHOST IN THE MACHINE was my third attempt to have my work included as part of The Verb, so I was thrilled when it got selected. In a way, having being rejected before helped, I think, as I stopped second guessing what I thought the team would like.

"I just wrote about something which had been bothering me (my increasing claustrophobia in MRI machines; I’m a disabled writer and have had a lot of MRI scans). It was a happy coincidence that the weird noises an MRI machine makes meant they were going to contribute to a rich soundscape. I’m told the sound designers got quite excited at the challenge.

"Developing the piece with the wonderful Pippa Day, and then being invited to the recording were huge factors in me feeling that this piece was going to turn out very close to how it had played in my head. There was a slight delay when we had to find the correct pronunciation of the word ‘parapharyngeal’, but the patience and dedication of Pippa, the actors and tech team paid off. It was really one of the best experiences I’ve had of my writing being produced."

- Karen Featherstone

Listen to the full episode of The Verb including Karen's introduction to Ghost in the Machine (at 22 minutes, 30 seconds)

My Reflections on being part of the Drama Room group

2023-10-19T09:00:00+00:00

Amy Arnold is just completing a year as a member of our Drama Room writer development group. We asked her for her reflections on the experience, including any highlights and top tips that she could share.

Meet all the 2022/23 Drama Room writers

The Drama Room writers 2022/23

On a Thursday afternoon two years ago, my now-husband was quietly minding his own business when his AMY-PANIC radar began twitching. Opening the bedroom door, he could hear me downstairs, my voice clambering up an octave as I struggled to answer a question in an interview for the ��tv Writersroom's Drama Room group.

I knew Sam, my partner, was listening in because I started to receive a flurry of random text messages to prompt me (yes, he’s a good egg). Despite this lovely softball question from a panel of friendly, brilliant people - the panic had bedded in like a weed and I choked.

I did not get a place in the Drama Room that year. It was the first time I’d made it to the interview stage after three previous applications had ended up nowhere. When I got the initial email to say I had been shortlisted I thought it was a really niche scam. I think I spent most of the interview just waving my arms around in disbelief like a lottery winner and telling everyone how grateful I was to even be in the same online meeting as them.

��tv Writersroom is the holy grail of script competitions - not only is it FREE (cue the applause) but its reputation as a course and a birthplace of talent is almost unmatched across the industry. The Drama Room scheme comprises a year-long programme of workshops from some of the biggest names in UK drama, followed by a dedicated development process with a script editor to write and polish a complete drama spec script. So the thought that I had turned my only chance at impressing the people who run it into a bin fire broke me a little bit. But somehow, in the midst of the flappy arms, I must have said something of vague interest as I ended up being selected for the 2022 ��tv Northern Voices programme instead.

Amy and the rest of the 2022 Northern Voices writers

Voices is a three-month (now six-month) regional programme run by the ��tv Writersroom. You become part of a close cohort of writers, all taking part in various workshops and sessions with writers, producers, agents etc, while working towards developing an original idea into a pitch document and treatment. It was my first time sitting in a room surrounded by writers in a similar position to me. We all had totally different things to say and ways of saying them, but were united by a shared desire to tell stories and learn more about how to make a career out of doing that.

It was only really during those three months that I genuinely started to believe that writing was something I could pursue seriously as a career. I can’t really remember a time when I wasn’t writing in some form or another - although I don’t think anyone’s going to be rushing to option the sketch show I wrote about French bread and electricity pylons with my cousins aged 11 - but it was always just an outlet and definitely not something I truly thought I would ever do professionally. Even in my early twenties, before Voices, it felt like a fantastical job, like being an astronaut or a mermaid - which I think is how a lot of writers feel. I just knew I wanted to be around stories, and people who love to tell them, so I did everything I could to get close to them.

Which is why when I finally did get through my second ��tv Writersroom interview to be part of Drama Room without a complete mental evacuation, and got the email to say that I had been accepted onto the 2022/23 course, I felt like high-fiving my earlier self for persevering - I wanted to do that girl proud.

Members of the Drama Room 2022/23 group with ��tv Writersroom staff

In classic writerly fashion, I have far too many words to explain how much I’ve loved my year being part of the Drama Room, and I really genuinely can’t believe it’s about to come to an end. The writers I have met during this programme are all extraordinary and have such unique voices that I’m excited to champion and see flourish. Our Whatsapp group has been a thing of beauty throughout - a place for communal meltdowns, unabashed mutual praise and promotion, and plenty of perfectly-placed memes. It has been a massive year for me personally and professionally, but to be here at the finish line with everyone else holding a completed spec script (okay that’s bending the truth slightly, but give me two weeks and a printer) feels pretty euphoric.

I would definitely be singing a different tune if it weren’t for the exceptionally astute (and endlessly patient) Jeremy Page and Connor Richmond, who were the script editors assigned to work with me on my spec script throughout the year. As a script editor myself, it was illuminating to be on the other side of the table (the side of irrationally self-righteous denial, intense over-analysis, and spirals of overwhelming despair). But it was also so joyful to be able to discuss my script with people who felt as fully invested and immersed in the world and the characters as I did. They, along with the ��tv Writersroom team, pushed me to create something that I was nervous to do but now feel proud of. They also made me feel safe to indulge in all the weirdest possibilities my brain wanted to explore so I could calibrate from there. Which is why you won’t find a talking picture of Barbara Stanwyck in my script anymore. Take it up with them.

Drama Room 2022/23 enjoying a group meal

For our first six months on the programme, we would convene three or four times a month over Zoom - plus a few in-person sessions spread across the year - to listen and talk to various different speakers about all aspects of writing for TV and radio. It’s hard to condense down my favourite moments and sessions from the programme as a whole because each speaker brought such a distinct viewpoint and journey with them. We’ve been privileged to spend whole days breaking down story structure with the likes of John Yorke and Philip Shelley, while script and story consultant Josie Day talked us through character in a way that has changed how I think about the wants and needs of all my protagonists (and indeed of many real people I meet). We also gained more practical insights into the worlds of producing, commissioning, and agency representation - all the vertebrae that form the career backbone of writing, which helped to demystify and legitimise what had once felt to me like a cheese-induced fever dream.

Speaking of those… Our session with writer, producer and story editor Andrew Burrell, diving into the world of writing for animation, was probably my surprise highlight of the sessions. Where else would you get to spend four hours crafting the perfect villain, in the shape of a devious rapping pigeon, to propel Danger Mouse and Penfold through a hypothetical episode?

Much like the crime-fighting mouse himself, I have so many more tools in my arsenal now when it comes to approaching the stories I want to tell. Most of all I feel empowered to be braver, to take risks with my writing (although not ones involving Barbara Stanwyck), and not to be afraid to fail. Recently I was invited to submit a short radio play via ��tv Writersroom for The Verb, a Radio 3 programme which celebrates language. Despite initial reservations, never having written for radio before, the gamble paid off and my play was commissioned. Listening to actors perform my play was a really special experience and one that has fired me up to try more new things.

A Drama Room 2022/23 workshop

Immersing myself in the world of television drama, both as a script editor and as a writer, has proven to me that the biggest, most annoying obstacle I’ve had to overcome when writing is me. Self-doubt can be so paralysing. It’s what made me panic in my first interview - what if everyone suddenly realises I’m terrible at this? What a relief looking back now that I didn’t just stop there. If I hadn’t submitted a script to ��tv Writersroom that fourth time I wouldn’t have made it onto the Voices programme. If I hadn’t submitted a fifth time, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post (so some of you reading might wish I hadn’t). So if you are umming and ahhing over applying - just do. It takes a lot to push that doubting voice aside, but it will always be more boring and depressing to keep listening to it.

Having worked in drama for five years now, starting as an editorial assistant and working up to become a script editor, I feel so privileged still to get to spend my time surrounded by people who love and believe in storytelling as passionately as I do. Being part of the amazing script teams that I have worked with has made me a better storyteller. Being on the Drama Room and Voices programmes and becoming part of the incredible network of writers that make up the UK screenwriting world has pushed me to take writing seriously for myself. There are so many things that uplift and enrage and inspire me, and I feel excited to commit them to paper (laptop screen). It is because of all of the people mentioned above that I now can and do call myself a writer. Maybe not as cool as an astronaut or a mermaid, but I’ll take it.

Find out about all the writers who took part in Drama Room 2022/23

Would you like to be part of the next Drama Room or Voices writer development groups? To be considered you must enter a script into our Open Call script submission window. This year the window is open between 12 noon on Tuesday 7th November and 12 noon on Tuesday 5th December.

Find out full details of the Open Call

Meet the Drama Room writers for 2022-23

2023-10-16T09:49:31+00:00

The Drama Room writers 2022/23

We're very pleased to announce the thirteen writers selected to be part of our Drama Room writer development group for 2022/23. They were selected following our Open Call submission window which closed in January 2022.

Across the first six months of the programme, the writers attended targeted training and development, including craft workshops (with practical writing exercises), masterclasses, introductions and networking events. For the latter half of the programme, the focus is on writing, for which they receive the support of a Script Editor for a further six months to develop their original spec' scripts.

Our overall aim for Drama Room is to develop and prepare talented emerging writers for the television drama industry by equipping them with the core skills, industry knowledge and connections to set them on the right track to gain ��tv broadcast commissions.

We’re excited to see all the amazing things this talented bunch will go on to do! Find out more about them below.

Would you like to be part of the next Drama Room writer development group? To be considered you must enter a script into our Open Call script submission window. This year the window is open between 12 noon on Tuesday 7th November and 12 noon on Tuesday 5th December.

Find out full details of the Open Call

Drama Room 2022/23 writer Amy Arnold reflects on being part of the group

Amy Arnold

Amy Arnold

Amy is a Macclesfield-based writer. She spent several years wandering all over the UK and beyond, working a variety of weird and wonderful jobs (including a brief, surreal stint milking cows), before settling by the Peak District so she could pursue her passion for stories, scriptwriting, and owning a golden retriever.

Amy loves to explore social power imbalances and family dynamics in her writing. In 2021 she made the final shortlist from over 5000 entries for the ��tv Drama Script Room with her TV drama pilot VOID, and was selected as part of the ��tv Northern Voices cohort for that year. Amy's environmental thriller BONE AND FEATHERS earned her a place on the Drama Script Room for 2022/23, and earlier this year her short radio play KISSING WITH TONGUES was broadcast on Radio 3's The Verb programme.

Amy is also a script editor at a Manchester-based production company, where over the past year she has been involved in the development and production of a variety of shows for Netflix, ITV, Amazon and UKTV.

Adam Bennett-Lea

Adam Bennett-Lea

Adam is a Manchester based script writer and editor who uses comedy and genre-mashing to tell stories of queer, Northern and working-class joy. Adam’s comedy-drama DRAGGED UP won New Writing North’s ‘Channel 4 Writing for TV award’ in 2019, and the show is now in development with Bonafide Films and Channel 4.

Adam was a member of the writers room for WATERLOO ROAD, and currently works as a Storyliner on HOLLYOAKS as well as a freelance script reader. His BFI funded short film I KNOW A PLACE is now doing its festival run and he’s working towards his first comedy feature. Being from Warrington, Adam is passionate about championing the places and people we don’t often see represented on screen.

Represented by Independent Talent.

Rhiannon Boyle

Rhiannon Boyle

Rhiannon was awarded the inaugural ��tv NTW Wales Writer in Residence 2019. Her winning script, SAFE FROM HARM, was commissioned for broadcast on ��tv Radio 4. In the same year Rhiannon was also chosen to be part of the ��tv Welsh Voices scheme.

Her theatre work includes KILL ME NOW for Dirty Protest, which had a successful digital run at the 2021 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and her one-woman show ANFAMOL (UNMOTHERLY) with Theatr Genedlaethol, which was the first Welsh-language production to be staged following the re-opening of theatres in 2021. The play received heralded plaudits, including a beautiful four-star Guardian Review. ANFAMOL was commissioned by S4C to be a five-part TV drama produced by ��tv STUDIOS in 2022. It aired in September and has so far been a huge success. ANFAMOL series two is now officially in development.

Rhiannon was also commissioned to write an adaptation of Caradog Pritchard’s classic Welsh novel ONE MOONLIT NIGHT (UN NOS OLA LEUAD) broadcast in English on ��tv Radio 4, ��tv Radio Wales and on ��tv Radio Cymru in Welsh. Welsh language screenwriting credits include S4C’s GWAITH CARTREF, POBOL Y CWM and STAD. Rhiannon’s pilot script for ��tv Drama Room, MS I LOVE YOU, is a semi-autobiographical comedy drama based on her own experience of begrudgingly forgiving her dad for past behaviours when he was diagnosed with the debilitating illness MS.

Represented by United Agents

Sophia Chetin-Leuner

Sophia Chetin-Leuner

Sophia is a writer and teacher from London. Her first play, SAVE+QUIT, toured the UK and Ireland, becoming an Irish Times Pick of the Week and ending up at the Vaults Festival, where it was published by Nick Hern Books as part of their Best of the Vaults in 2017.

Sophia received the Dalio Foundation Scholarship to study at NYU Tisch’s Dramatic Writing MFA (2016-8). On returning to London, Sophia was in the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers’ Group (2019). While there she developed THIS MIGHT NOT BE IT, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting and longlisted for the Verity Bargate Award (2020). It will receive a full run at the Bush Theatre in February 2024 and will be published by Nick Hern Books.

Her other play, PORN PLAY, was also shortlisted for the Women’s Prize and was a finalist for the Verity Bargate Award (2022). It received a week-long workshop at Soho Theatre in May 2023, directed by Milli Bhatia. Sophia also loves writing for TV and Film. She is currently working with production companies in the UK, including Two Brothers and Mam Tor, USA and Scandinavia to develop her original ideas for the screen. Her TV pilot FIX was shortlisted for the C21 Drama Script competition (2021).

Sophia is represented by United Agents.

Mohamed-Zain Dada

Mohamed-Zain Dada

Mohamed-Zain, goes by the name Zain, is a playwright and cultural producer. His first writing credit, EMILY (GLITCHED) IN PARIS was for the Royal Court Theatre’s Living Newspaper series in March 2021. Zain’s producing and directing credits include 2019 Outspoken Prize winning short visual poem, THE MOON IS A MEME and 2020 Outspoken Prize-nominated animation short, OTHERSTANI. Zain is an alumnus of Soho Theatre Writers Lab 19/20, Royal Court’s Introduction to playwriting 19/20 and the School of High Tide programme 20/21. Zain was also part of ��tv London Voices 21/22 and most recently, he was part of the Tamasha Playwrights Collective 21/22.

In March 2022, Zain wrote a short play, LOOT as part of the Royal Court's SW1 project for local sixth form students in Westminster, the play was performed in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs. Zain's debut play, BLUE MIST is currently running at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre until 18 November 2023.

Represented by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.

Samuel Evans

Samuel Evans

Samuel is an east-end-born queer support worker. Sam started writing short stories as a teenager about the nocturnal strangers he would meet on the top deck of London buses in the middle of the night when he couldn’t sleep. His first play TOMORROW got him an agent and he started writing plays with the National Youth Theatre, Arcola, and Almeida’s community groups absorbing the voices of others whilst maintaining his own.

Whilst working as a drag queen door host in Soho he was awarded a scholarship to NYU in New York for Dramatic Writing. There, he quickly discovered a passion for TV writing when Spike Lee, his professor, told him he had a work ethic that was bananas and a unique voice, whilst calling an agent to recommend Sam to them. When Sam submitted a script I WILL SURVIVE, INNIT about a young man becoming a drag queen to survive a sexual assault and get people to believe him, he landed himself in London Voices. This script also got him nominated for the Brit List by ��tv Studios. Sam is currently participating in the EastEnders Shadow Scheme.

Alan Flanagan

Alan Flanagan

Alan Flanagan is a writer and actor from the Irish countryside who’s worked in London for the past decade. He’s written over 50 episodes of Channel 4 continuing drama HOLLYOAKS, including two hour-long specials and an episode which won him Scene Of The Year at the 2022 British Soap Awards. His original thriller PAPERTRAIL has been optioned by ��tv Studios, cosy crime show REP optioned by Lime Pictures, and sci-fi drama SHUFFLE is currently in development with a production company in the USA.

Theatre credits include rural horror EYES TEETH SOIL, sci-fi romance THE SILVER BELL, and sexual health comedy BINGO, which he is currently adapting for television. He has a radio short in production with ��tv Radio 3’s The Verb, and has written over 30 episodes of horror audio drama DARK SHADOWS— as well as writing for the DOCTOR WHO and DORIAN GRAY audio series.

Awards include Best Actor and Best Writer at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, while he’s lectured screenwriting at Brighton and Sussex universities.

Represented by Phil Adie at Nick Turner Management.

Daniel Katanchian

Daniel Katanchian

Daniel is a British screenwriter from London. Earlier this year Daniel was a participant on Channel 4’s 4screenwriting 2023 programme, selected from thousands of entrants to develop a new pilot script from scratch. Daniel is developing drama series and feature film projects with several production companies across Britain.

Daniel currently works in non-scripted TV where he develops documentary films and series. He has developed shows commissioned by Netflix, Amazon Prime, the ��tv and Channel 4 over the past four years

Represented by Alex Bloch and Doorie Lee at 42 Management.

William Mager

William Mager

William, also known as Billy, is a British writer originally from Sheffield. William is passionate about authentic onscreen representation, creating compelling and diverse characters that reflect his own lived experience. He is currently developing his original spec script, REUNION, with Warp Films and ��tv Drama.

Prior to ��tv Writers Room, William was one of 12 writers on 4Screenwriting 2022. The resulting script, LOVE DAY, is in development with Pure Fiction and Channel 4.

William has also written for Children's TV including CBeebies, CITV and Channel 5 Milkshake!.

Represented by Christine Glover at Casarotto Ramsay.

Tom Mair

Tom Mair

Tom Mair is a screenwriter from the Scottish Highlands currently based in London. He wrote the multiple award-winning short film DELOPING (yes, two wins counts as 'multiple' - he checked), which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2022 and was screened worldwide.

Tom is currently writing a new, original drama series for Sky Atlantic and ��tv Scotland, in addition to developing several other projects with independent production companies like STV, Two Rivers, The Lighthouse, and FilmNation.

When not writing, Tom works as a script editor and recently finished collaborating with Andrea Gibb for her soon-to-be-announced, four-part television adaptation of a Sunday Times' best-seller.

Represented by Julia Tyrell at JTM.

Nk'iru. Njoku

Nk’iru. Njoku

Nk’iru. is a Nigerian writer-director based in London and represented by Sarah Williams at Independent. She was in the ��tv London Voices 2021 cohort. In 2022 she got into The Writers Lab UK & Ireland where she developed her comedy-drama pilot, BIG SHOES.

Nk’iru.’s writing career is over 16 years old and was established in Nigeria, where she lived until 2018. For nearly 8 years she was the head writer of long-running continuing drama, TINSEL. She wrote for several other Nigerian series and was episode writer, script doctor, head writer, director, and consultant showrunner on various country-specific seasons of MTV’s drama series, SHUGA. For 8 years she moonlit in non-fiction as a content director then head of content of PROJECT FAME WEST AFRICA, an Endemol music-based reality franchise produced in Nigeria by Ultima Studios. She also has credits on FAR FROM HOME a Netflix Original produced in Nigeria in 2022.

In 2019 Nk’iru.’s short filmORÍKÌ written and directed by her, won the award for Women in Film at the Black Star International Film Festival, Ghana. It screened at Cannes Pan African International Film Festival, AFRIFF (African International Film Festival), and Female Eye Film Festival’s International Women’s Day Program, TIFF BELL Lightbox, amongst others.

Represented by Independent Talent.

Michael Lee Richardson

Michael Lee Richardson

Michael Lee Richardson is a writer and filmmaker based in Glasgow. They are passionate about telling rich, authentic stories about queer and working class lives and culture. They have film and television projects in development with a range of different production companies including their first feature, A GOOD SPELL, with Bombito. They have also written prose and poetry, radio drama and children’s nonfiction. Michael is an Edinburgh Television Festival Ones to Watch and an alumni of Young Film Foundation, Torino Film Lab and EIFF Talent Lab.

Michael’s first short film as a director, JUST JACKIE, is currently in post-production. Michael’s first short film as a writer, MY LONELINESS IS KILLING ME, won a BAFTA Scotland Award in 2018. It’s been shown on ��tv Scotland, and at film festivals around the world. Michael’s most recent short, WHO I AM NOW – directed by Jack Goessens – debuted at EIFF 2022 and is currently on its festival run. Outside of writing, Michael likes 80s makeover montages, witches and having a little look around the shops.

Represented by Louisa Minghella at Revolution Talent.

Lily Seriki

Lily Seriki

Lily is a screenwriter. London born, bred and based. A recent graduate of the National Film and Television School’s Screenwriting MA, her graduation pilot won the NFTS popcorn award and is now in development with Popcorn Group.

She likes to write genre-bending stories centring the empowerment, joy, and friendships of girls and women who don’t fit in.

She’s addicted to cuteness and social justice and hopes that by finding the recipe for irresistibly adorable characters, she will be able to indoctrinate many unsuspecting viewers with her militant woke agenda.

The Verb Dramas

2023-02-28T09:50:00+00:00

The ��tv Radio 3 programme The Verb is a weekly "Cabaret of the Word", featuring the best poetry, new writing and performance, presented by Ian McMillan. The programme has regularly collaborated with us at the ��tv Writersroom, offering the opportunity for writers from our Drama Room development group to gain a short audio drama commission and the chance to appear as a guest.

Having been selected, the writers underwent a swift but thorough development process with a ��tv Audio Drama North Producer. Below you can read their experiences of the process and listen to their produced audio dramas.

Listen to Adulting written by Georgia Affonso and performed by Chloë Sommer, Jenny McIntyre and Jason Done.

"When ADULTING was picked for The Verb it was a real sense of achievement for me. I’d pitched an idea a few years ago that hadn’t gone through, this was totally fair enough (I reread it recently and it was dull as dishwater) but you don’t feel super hopeful at the time. This was a moment for me to say to myself, look – you’ve got better!

We were limited to less than 10 minutes, and I am someone who can ramble. This is where working with a fabulous producer like Lorna Newman, who directed and produced my piece, is invaluable. Lorna focussed my ideas; we talked a lot about weight and food and culture and trips to the doctors and she made sure she knew what I was trying to get across – a pro!

Getting to sit in the recording was a dream. One of the best bits of script-writing is when you get to hear brilliant actors like Chloë Sommer, Jenny McIntyre and Jason Done bring your piece to life.

I’m looking forward to pitching more ideas to Audio Drama in the future."

- Georgia Affonso

Listen to Cramond Island written by Tim Barrow and performed by Jason Done and Emma Laidlaw.

"I loved writing for radio. I haven’t before. My eyes and ears were opened to the possibility by an opportunity presented as part of the ��tv Writersroom Drama Room 2022 cohort. I was dead chuffed to have my pitch chosen.

If a radio audience can be transported anywhere I wanted to take them to a windswept island in the Firth of Forth and back in time, deep into nostalgia and old dreams. 10 minutes seemed too brief a stay, but actually allowed plenty to space to explore these characters and tell their tales. Producer Jess Mitic was brilliant – she got the story, the tone, the world and all its swirling undercurrents, and saw in the script possibilities I hadn’t explored. I love and admire the respect she has for radio audiences. Her notes were easy and exciting to address and always helped enrich the story or heighten the drama. She also noted stuff she liked!

Most of my work is in theatre and I was delighted to find how beautifully the worlds of theatre and radio correlate. I like working with silence and physical action – storytelling without dialogue – and happily learned that these are entirely possible in radio. I learned that actors can invest hugely in radio dramas, and am so pleased and proud of these performances. And I learnt that the audio FX team are truly wonderful – they created an astonishing soundscape, which truly captures the world of Cramond Island."

- Tim Barrow

Listen to Floater written by Alex Riddle and performed by Jonathan Keeble and Emily Pithon.

"The miracle of radio drama is that you can do just about anything with it: go back in time, into outer space, bring untold stories into people’s headphones. So I wasn’t entirely certain how my low-key romance set in your local Specsavers would be received. Getting the email to say that the piece had been commissioned was one of the highlights of my year.

Over a couple of Zoom sessions, I worked with my brilliant producer Vicky Moseley to add clarity to some of the more obscure references, punch up the jokes, and make sure the piece didn’t fall foul of the ��tv’s editorial standards… I was more than happy to make a few required tweaks, but retaining the phrase ‘d*ck pics’ was apparently the hill I was willing to die on. I punched the air when the email came through saying that it had been cleared for broadcast.

Heading up to Manchester for the recording, I was full of excitement and the unique terror of a writer wondering what their lines will sound like in the mouths of others (“…but will they empathise the half rhyme of the penultimate monologue. The whole piece will fall apart otherwise….”). But, sat down with a cup a tea at the read through, any lingering nerves melted away as I listened to Emily Pithon and Jonathan Keeble, these two wonderful actors, work their magic and watched as Vicky and the team brought Floater to life. Just a lovely day."

- Alex Riddle

Listen to the writers' interviews on The Verb with Ian McMillan on ��tv Radio 3 and ��tv Sounds

Georgia Affonso shares her round up of the Drama Room 2021/22 group's sessions

The Waterloo Road Shadow Scheme

2023-01-31T09:32:00+00:00

Writer, Georgia Affonso, shares her experience of being selected for the Waterloo Road Shadow Scheme as part of the ��tv Writersroom's Drama Room 2021/22 group.

Trailer: Waterloo Road

One of my highlights of 2022 was being selected for the Waterloo Road Shadow Scheme as part of ��tv Drama Room 2021/22. As a teen, I used to avoid maths homework and instead get engrossed in the lives of Chlo, Janeece and the inimitable Steph Haydock. Sorry to my old maths teachers, but let’s be honest, now it’s all been worth it.

Cast members from the original series of Waterloo Road from 2006-15, including Denise Welch as Stephanie "Steph" Haydock

Before we applied, all of us were given a chance to read the show Bible (a document that gives details on characters, episodes, themes, series arc etc) and spent a day on Zoom learning from Executive Producer Cameron Roach and his team. We were then given a couple of weeks to develop a written pitch for an episode and a few pages of script. When I got through, I was ecstatic, relieved (you get paid!) and now faced with the challenge of explaining what a Shadow Scheme was to my family.

Shadow Schemes can vary, but they aim to give you the experience of writing on a TV show without the responsibility of an episode that will be broadcast. Waterloo Road is a ‘producer-led’ show which means that the producers make the key decisions over the series arc. We were given an outline of all the plots that needed to be in our episode and then our job was to weave them together and turn them into an entertaining script. They try to make it as close to the real thing as possible, you get a script-editor, access to the research team and quick turn-around deadlines.

Cast members from the 2022 series of Waterloo Road. Photo Credit: ��tv/Wall To Wall/Rope Ladder Fiction/David Gennard

First, we created a ‘scene-by-scene’ which is where you bullet point what order the scenes will come in. It felt like a sort of puzzle, you are trying to make about 4-5 story-lines work together, get the rhythm of the episode right and make it fit into an hour. I would define my relationship with scene-by-scenes as ‘It’s complicated’ but the high points are when you figure out how to tie multiple plots together and you feel like a TV genius.

Next, it’s time to write the actual script. The scene-by-scene is really handy here (this is a message to future me, do the planning, the planning works!) For this first draft of the script, I focussed on making sure all the story beats fit into the episode, I did a lot of staring at the map of the school and googling whether teenagers still say "peng".

My feedback for the first draft was also tied in with one of the most fun parts of the project – the set visit! I’d never been on a tv set before, and giddily showed up like a kid on a school trip. I was given a tour of the set and loved seeing the small details like the photos on Kim’s desk. Being on set reminds you how many people it takes to make a tv show – extras, make up, lighting crew and loads more. Getting to watch actors film a scene was amazing. I don’t know how they manage to be so convincing with a camera right in their face, then they stop acting and are a totally different person - magic!

Khalil “Kai’ Sharif (ADAM ALI), Miscellaneous Crew. Photo Credit: ��tv/Wall To Wall/Rope Ladder Fiction/David Gennard

After my tour, it was time to sit down with my script-editor Amy Coombs and get some feedback on my first draft. Amy was really encouraging, and we talked through what was working and what had been a challenge. I’m a bit of a box ticker, so Amy encouraged me to be looser with the plot points. I was surprised by how much we were encouraged to make the episode our own.

I went into my second draft determined to make my mark, changing plots, locations and focussing more on characters I wanted to highlight. In some ways this was tougher than the first draft because you were inventing more plot while still needing to keep the main elements the same. You’re also given about the same amount of time you would have in a real-life scenario so you’re trying to work quickly without losing quality – great training for the real thing.

In my final feedback session Amy and I were able to talk about the whole process and what I’d learned from it. Amy advised me to trust my instincts, and I’ve been holding onto that in all my writing as I go forward. Recently, I’ve loved watching the new series and see all the characters come to life. Shadow Schemes have huge value to emerging writers and hopefully, it won’t be too long until I’m writing on a show for real.

Watch the new series of Waterloo Road on ��tv iPlayer

You can watch every episode of Waterloo Road (2006-2015) on ��tv iPlayer

On the Blog: Georgia Affonso shares her roundup of the Drama Room 2021/2022 group's sessions

Lady Shorts

2022-06-24T09:01:06+00:00

Four fresh, funny, female-led shorts from some of Northern Ireland’s newest writing talent. Simon Nelson, Development Exec for ��tv Writersroom, explains how Lady Shorts were produced.

Today sees the launch on ��tv 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

Watch Lady Shorts: Fresh

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 ��tv Writersroom and ��tv Northern Ireland’s Learning Department – as so often happens in the ��tv Writersroom, we were able to combine our skills with those of another ��tv department to create something exciting and new. Back in the early days of the pandemic, we teamed up with ��tv NI’s Gareth Hawthorne and David Monahan to develop several scripts with a view to making some of them for ��tv 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)

Watch Lady Shorts: Shopped

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 Gemma Arrowsmith, 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 Indie Movie Company 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!

Watch all four Lady Shorts now on ��tv iPlayer

The Latest from Drama Room 2021/22

2022-05-27T09:14:15+00:00

Georgia Affonso, one of the writers selected for Drama Room 2021/22, shares her roundup of the group's latest sessions.

The Drama Room 21/22 Writers

Last July I got The Email: I’d been given a place on ��tv Drama Room. For weeks I’d been bracing myself for the ‘unfortunately, on this occasion’ and I’d planned what commiserative takeaway I would order. When the good news came through, I didn’t really know what to do with myself. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of workshops, feedback, deadlines and getting to know one of the best groups of writers I could have hoped to be included in.

What is the ��tv Writersroom Drama Room?

It’s a lot of things. A group of writers who have all been interviewed from across the UK, and provided with a huge timetable of workshops led by industry professionals including producers, writers, script editors and commissioners. We also get our own script-editor (mine is Toby Rushton, a total gem) who works alongside us to develop a spec-script (an episode of tv/film script used to showcase your voice to the industry). On top of this, we get to pitch to paid opportunities with The Dumping Ground, Waterloo Road and ��tv Radio 3’s The Verb.

Our first, giddily nervous meet up was in person, but the majority of the scheme has taken place on Zoom. Virtual workshops have been great for me, as I don’t live in London, but it does feel like a treat when we get to meet up in person like we did last week for two days of workshops at ��tv Broadcasting House.

First, we met Tom Lazenby (Head of Development, ��tv Drama Commissioning). What a commissioner was had been a complete mystery to me, I always imagined them kind of like an army of daleks you have to face to get your script into actual production. Tom was not a dalek, he was a kind and funny human who acknowledged how much mystery surrounds his job. Tom answered loads of our questions about the commissioning role – he emphasised that ��tv Drama are keen for fresh voices and highlighted several dramas due to be aired soon by new writers.

This external content is available at its source: An image of the writers in Drama Room 21/22 having a workshop with Tom Lazenby, Head of Development for ��tv Drama Commissioning around a large table

After a lunch meeting some of the regional commissioners and development producers, we had a Comedy/Drama workshop with Chris Head. Chris took us through a selection of Comedy/Drama clips we’d sent him and supplied a selection of tips for how to inject comedy into our script. I loved getting ideas for the teen Comedy/Drama that I’m trying to write, and coming across new Comedy/Drama shows that the other writers had sent.

We finished the day with 1-1 check ins with Development Producer, Usman Mullan and Head of New Writing, Jess Loveland before heading off for a Nandos and some drinks. This is one of the big benefits of meeting up in person - it’s easy to feel like an imposter when you’re in such a talented group, some people have had long-running plays on, some have tv work in development – but everyone is warm and supportive and most importantly a massive laugh. You get to hear how everyone’s finding juggling the workload, working with their script editors, and you can debate the latest tv dramas with fellow tv nerds.

Day two was a day’s masterclass with structure legend John Yorke. John was previously Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of ��tv Drama Production, he has worked on masses of quality, popular TV drama and wrote a book dissecting narrative structure ‘Into the Woods’. John took us, speedily but clearly, through his premise, that all stories have a universal structure. He encouraged us to challenge him but used countless examples to back up his point. We were tasked to use what we’d learnt to pitch an advert for ��tv Writersroom, the most memorable tagline being ‘Usman will find you’ – which sounded, maybe in hindsight, a bit like a threat.

At the end of the two days, my head was a whirring jumble of ‘mid-points’ and ‘formats’. Our group just had time to take a quick selfie outside for the gram and spot Louis Theroux on his bike (!) before it was time to head back up home. It’s been a big learning curve and we’re not done yet with our spec script draft deadlines now on the horizon, but I couldn’t be facing it with a better group of amazing writers.

WRITING TODAY - Space to write

2022-02-15T15:03:29+00:00

This blog post is part of a series where the ��tv Writersroom approached selected writers to offer them a platform to discuss what they feel are the most relevant topics affecting the broadcast industry today.

Matthew Mc Devitt is a Derry writer who was selected for Drama Room 2020. Previously he came through the Belfast Voices 2018 scheme. He's recently been commissioned for a radio comedy pilot about a pest controller with delusions of being a private eye, called Softboiled. He's also writing his first feature, A Clannish Breed, a coming of age comedy about a Father and Daughter duo, faking a satanic panic in 1980's Northern Ireland.

What’s your favourite montage of a writer at their desk overcoming writer’s block and turning out pages? Nic Cage (as Charlie Kaufman) in Adaptation thoughtfully debating the pros/cons of coffee and a muffin as instigator for writing or reward for writing. Barton Fink slowly losing his mind in, well Barton Fink. Murder She Wrote’s Jessica Fletcher gleefully typing away, remorselessly turning her hometown’s most recent murder into her next bestseller. Part of you is saying No Jessica, the body is still warm - it’s not right! Another part of you grudgingly admires, she’ll have a chapter done by lunch at that rate.

It’s a trope and not even a good one. The writer rubs their face, mutters different opening lines to themselves, paper is rolled up and thrown into an already overflowing bin. What these scenes generally have in common is that they are set in large well lit rooms, with a mahogany desk, bookshelves everywhere. Autumnal light spills in the bay window. These writers also have a sickeningly endless amount of time to complete their magnum opus. The demands of rent, social obligations and time lost to their own inherent vices do not enter the story logic. Mahogany desk, autumnal light…this is not what my writing space looks like. I doubt yours does either.

I’m a glutton for writer interviews. Process, regime, technique. Apparently Haruki Murakami commits to writing a novel with the intensity of an ultra marathon runner. Life is reduced to a cycle of writing/exercise/sleep until the work is done. It’s genuinely impressive. However my own regime is more akin to a malfunctioning couch to 5k app, where life is reduced to an endless cycle of writing/job 1/family commitments/job 2/relationship maintenance/dog walking/gentle weeping and not enough sleep.

Some writers set internet restriction apps, to prevent them from doom scrolling the news when they should be following their muse. Maybe I was lucky that the first desk where I ever took my own writing seriously was where the only thing that could distract me was the Rorschach test nature of the rising damp in the wall. Hmm, that mould looks a bit like Vin Diesel - maybe this script needs a car chase?

My problems were never about distractions when I got to the desk (in reality a breakfast bar in a shared house) but getting to the desk at all. Good news - I now have a desk where I don’t have to scrape my housemates' encrusted cornflakes off before I start. Plot twist - that alone has not improved my writing.

My first ever submission to a ��tv Writersroom open call was a TV pilot that I wrote in 6 woozy nights after I clocked off from my bar job. To call it a first draft would likely see first drafts everywhere, unionise and counterclaim. It was gibberish. I was so tired/elated when I finished it, I decided at the last minute to change the title to size 45 IMPACT FONT so it would really land home with its first reader what a seminal work they held in their hands. Unsurprisingly I did not make any form of long, short or middling list. More surprising was that I did not end up on any government watch lists (that I know of). Whatever it was (it shall remain nameless) it was closer to Outsider art than Spec script. But I had finished something.

And then I started thinking about how it might be much less demented to think ahead with realistic specific goals, rather than put in for each approaching deadline, like a stray dog running after every passing car, barking wildly at the tail lights. And so work life/writerly aspirational life imbalance properly began, as I know it has for many others. My partner is likewise blessed/cursed with the compulsion to write. Like me, works in the hours and minutes that can be poached from doing all the things you do to keep the wolf from the door. Or at least not fully inside the house. We daydream about having enough time to really write. These musings tend to inevitably (and unimaginatively) drift towards reveries about rural cottages, near a flowing river. Well-lit rooms, mahogany desks and bookshelves tend to feature heavily ... alas our reality is much closer to a poorly furnished Escape Room during the cleaner’s week off.

But yet we both still (strive to) write for TV. Not always when we want. Rarely where we want to. Sometimes even (oh the inhumanity! oh the irony!) at the cost of actually watching TV. I now find myself unable to watch The Shining. Not because it terrifies me. It doesn’t anymore. Now I can only feel anger at Jack Torrance not using his boundless freedom to write a bit more efficiently (and ideally less murderously). No talking to the ghosts until you hit your word count, Jack, I’m thinking. I’ll let you into room 237 Mr Torrance, my brain reasons, when I see chapter two!

I try not to let the fantasy of endless writing time become my own Overlook Hotel. I accept the reality that I have to write when and where I can. And try not to find myself reading listicles at 4am about which famous writers only wrote standing up/sitting down/after a long walk/or in a bath eating apples. Would having a writing space torn from the pages of a broadsheet’s Sunday supplement lifestyle section be nice? I’m going to guess yes. Would having what felt like enough time to write, help? Almost certainly. Is breaking into professional writing a level playing field? Not even close.

But most open calls worth entering (like ��tv Writersroom) are read blind. Your submission’s first reader won’t know (or care) if you wrote it in a townhouse or a treehouse. Under the warm hue of autumnal light or the dull flickering of a broken streetlight. The only thing they’ll care about, is the only thing you’ll have any control over - do they want to keep reading? ��tv Writersroom schemes helped me stop seeing writing as a montage where inspiration strikes.

My first ever script editor Hamish taught me to fight for every percent your script can improve. It’s not very cinematic but it works. Recently, for the first time in my life I now have both a desk of my own and enough time to focus solely on writing (for a month or two anyway). I suppose it’s time to find out if I’m Jack Torrance or Jessica Fletcher.

I really hope it’s the latter.

Introducing the Drama Room writers for 2021-22

2022-01-05T14:40:07+00:00

The Drama Room writers 2021/22

We're delighted to announce the sixteen writers who have been chosen to be part of our Drama Room writer development group for 2021/22. They were selected following our last Open Call submission window which closed in January 2021 (last year).

The writers spend six months attending targeted training and development including craft workshops (with practical writing exercises), masterclasses, introductions and networking events, and writing briefs with the opportunity to pitch for selected writing opportunities across the ��tv. Following this stage they receive the support of a Script Editor for a further six months to develop their original spec' script

We can't wait to see what this talented bunch go on to achieve. Find out more about them below.

To be in the running to be considered for the next Drama Room writer development group you must enter a script into our Open Call window which closes on Thursday 13th January at noon. Find out full details of the Open Call

Alex Riddle

Alex Riddle writes off-kilter drama that embraces comedy and genre leanings. He is a member of the ��tv Writersroom Drama Scheme for 2022, having previously been part of the 2021 ��tv London Voices development group. He currently has a radio short in development with ��tv Radio 3's The Verb, and has just completed a shadow scheme with Waterloo Road. His monologue Hips, about a feckless Elvis impersonator, was produced by the Papatango Theatre Company for its Isolated but Open anthology and published with Nick Hern Books. Alex has worked in film, publishing, and as a teaching assistant. He was raised in Bognor Regis and lives in Brighton.

Alvin Yu

Alvin Yu is a British-Chinese writer/director who grew up in North-West London. He studied Medieval English at the University of Oxford and upon graduating worked in odd-jobs - first a failed stint as a chef in an Italian food truck, a jewellery salesman, and later for a charity teaching English at a comprehensive school in Tottenham.

He worked for a number of years in scripted development as a researcher and development assistant, honing his craft by developing and writing pitches for a number of TV channels including HBO, Sky Atlantic and Netflix, including initial research for Gareth Evans on the HBO show Gangs of London. He was a script reader for the Pulse Film x AI Genesis Film Fund. He directed a music video with over a million views on Youtube, and also directed a number of short films which have been screened at festivals and cinemas around Europe including Split which debuted at the BAFTA accredited London Short Film Festival.

His first TV pilot was selected for development with the ��tv Writer's Room BEA Script Editing initiative and was also longlisted for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. He has been shortlisted for the Curtis Brown Breakthrough Scholarship for TV Screenwriters of Color, Royal Court Young Writers Programme and the BBH 40th Anniversary Short Film Competition. He was selected for the prestigious ��tv London Voices scheme in 2021, and ��tv Drama Room in 2021-2022.

Benedict Lombe

Benedict Lombe is a British Congolese writer and theatre-maker based in London. She is interested in reclaiming diasporic stories with flair, humour and heart. Her debut play ‘Lava’ received its world premiere at the Bush Theatre in 2021 to critical acclaim. Benedict went on to win the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for ‘Lava’ in 2022, making history as one of the first writers to ever win the award for a debut play.

In addition to this, she has won a Black British Theatre Award and was nominated for the Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play of the Year. ‘Lava’ was also the recipient of the Best Performance Piece at the 2022 Off West End Awards. She has been on attachment with the National Theatre, The Bush Theatre, Theatre503, and is working on new commissions.

Whilst in Drama Room, she was invited to take part in a shadow scheme for the returning Waterloo Road series, and is currently developing original film and TV projects with indies.

She is represented by Kat Buckle at Curtis Brown.

Brennig Hayden

Brennig Hayden was shortlisted for the ��tv Wales Writer in Residence before being accepted onto the 2021-22 ��tv Writersroom Drama Group. While being a member of the group, Brennig has been on the C��tv ‘The Dumping Ground’ Shadow Writing Scheme; and taken part in the ��tv prime time medical drama ‘Casualty’ Writer Development Program.

Brennig’s other notable achievements include winning the 2021 Bluecat Screenwriting Contest Fellini Award for best international screenplay, was a top three finalist in the Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Awards; and won the Gold Prize in the 2015 Page International Screenwriting Awards and placed in the semi-finals of the Academy’s Nicholls Fellowship in multiple years.

Carlo Kureishi

Carlo Kureishi is a writer for film and television.

Carlo graduated with a degree in philosophy from Bristol University in 2015, a year later he was writing under commission from the ��tv on an original comedy-drama idea, whilst also working in the writers’ room for Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge. He would go on to write and develop his first feature script with Turbine Pictures, as well co-writing a play for the theatre group Tara Arts. In 2021, he was selected for the ��tv Writer’s Room competition.

He is currently working on an adaptation of a Norwegian novel with director Iram Haq for Storm Pictures. Carlo is also developing an original television idea about the UK’s grime music scene with Warner Bros. Elsewhere, he is collaborating with his brother on television concepts with Rollem Productions, Pulse and Hudson Pictures.

He is represented by Nicola Biltoo of The Agency.

Emilie Robson

Emilie Robson is a screenwriter and playwright originally from South Shields. In 2019, their play Moonlight on Leith (co-written with Laila Noble) was named runner up at Theatre Uncut’s Political Playwriting Award ceremony. In 2020, Robson’s play GAME was selected for artistic development with The Traverse in Edinburgh. Robson’s short Sebastian (et moi) was broadcast on ��tv Radio 3’s The Verb and her audio drama PICA received a full production with ��tv Radio 4 after receiving special commendation at the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2021. She was one of 12 participants on the Channel 4 2021 Screenwriting Program, selected from a record 3,800 submissions and currently has projects in development with ��tv Team, DNA films and Firebird Pictures amongst others.

Faebian Averies

Faebian Averies is a two-time award-winning Welsh writer/actor. First winning the Wales Writer in Residence Award with ��tv and National Theatre Wales in 2020 and then scooping the prestigious Imison Award for her debut Radio 4 play The Lemonade Lads earlier this year. Faebian is an alumnus of ��tv Writersroom Welsh Voices which she was invited into following a scratch performance of her play ‘Two Flats on Clifton Street’ with Chippy Lane Productions. A full-length version of the play then went on to win ‘Masterclass - Pitch Your Play’ resulting in a rehearsed reading in the West End in 2021. During Drama Room 2021/22 Faebian was one of four writers selected to partake in Waterloo Road’s Shadow Scheme where she acquired the skills to write for CDS.

Faebian is represented by Vivienne Clore Management and is currently under commission for several projects across stage, screen and radio.

Fionnuala Kennedy

Fionnuala Kennedy is a writer from Belfast. Her play, ‘Removed’, a commission by Prime Cut Productions to explore the lived experience of young people in care in partnership with VOYPIC, has toured across Ireland and won the 2020 Zebbie award for Best Play. Most recently, she has written ‘Thaw’ for Replay Theatre Company’s PMLD audiences (The MAC Belfast, Oct 2021). She is one of ten writers on the National Theatre’s Connections Programme 21/22 with a play called ‘Hunt’ and is currently under commission for NI Opera writing a new opera for young people for 2023. She was part of ��tv Belfast Voices 2018/19 and is delighted to be part of Drama Room 21/22.

Georgia Affonso

Georgia Affonso is a Manchester-based writer and theatre maker, originally from Oxfordshire. She is represented by Eva Robinson at Sayle Screen.
Georgia was selected for ��tv Drama Room 2021/22. Through Drama Room, Georgia was chosen for the Waterloo Road Shadow Scheme. Georgia's short play ADULTING was also selected to be produced on Radio 3's The Verb.

In 2019, Georgia wrote and directed RUNWAY with her own company No Door Theatre at the Oxford Playhouse (BT Studio) as part of Offbeat Festival, Southwark Playhouse and the Martin Harris Centre in Manchester. RUNWAY was longlisted for Theatre503 Playwriting Award 2018 and the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award (��tv).

Georgia was one of ten writers selected for Northern Voices 2019, a development scheme as part of ��tv Writersroom. She is also a graduate of The Writing Squad, a development scheme for writers aged 16-21 in the North.

Georgia is currently a Lead Artist at DIY Theatre, a Learning Disability Theatre Company based in Salford, and has also facilitated and/or produced work with Claybody Theatre, Manchester Camerata, No Dice Collective, Northern Broadsides and OmniMusic.

Gillian McCormack

Gillian McCormack is a Scottish writer from Glasgow, signed to Independent Talent Group. She currently has her own original projects in development with Merman, Freedom Scripted, Emanata Studios (formerly Beano Studios) and Screen Scotland and two in development with Balloon Entertainment, with with one of these projects currently in development with a Global SVOD.

In 2021, she was part of the Writers Room for a new untitled Balloon Entertainment project and also part of the script writing team for Secret Cinema’s Stranger Things. Her script Rewind was a finalist in the Thousand Films Competition 2020, run by Sid Gentle and Edinburgh TV Festival. Selected as a participant of the inaugural ��tv Writersroom Scottish Voices writers group in 2018, she received her first credit with a comedy short Poo Girl which was produced by ��tv Scotland and ��tv Writersroom and received her post grad diploma in script development from the National Film and TV School the same year.

Gillian loves telling darkly comic stories that combine people and characters who are relatable with something a little bit bonkers. When she is not writing she works in events and PR in the music and entertainment industry.

Houmi Miura

Houmi Miura is a Japanese British female writer, theatre-maker and actor based in Manchester.

She's participated in writers rooms with C��tv and CBeebies, as well as writing episodes of Daisy & Ollie (Channel 5), Biff and Chip (CBeebies) and is currently writing for Hollyoaks (Channel 4). She has written sketches for C��tv’s The Amelia Gething Complex and has written and performed a monologue for New Earth Theatre’s SIGNAL FIRES. She was also shortlisted for the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and previously on the ��tv Writersroom's Northern Voices 2020 cohort. Houmi loves to playfully explore themes of identity within the everyday, through a fantastical lens.

She is also currently developing her solo show, In The Beginning Woman Was the Sun, supported by ��tv, Eclipse, Unity Theatre and Arts Council England.

Nathan Ellis

Nathan Ellis was a member of the Royal Court Invitation Writers’ Supergroup 2018-19 led by Alice Birch and Ali Mcdowall. He is developing TV projects with Balloon, Archery Pictures, UFA Fiction, and Tall Story Pictures, and is writing a feature for Calamity Films with Renée Zellweger attached. In 2020 his play SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION was Shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award. It will be performed at the Soho Theatre in 2022 directed by Blanche McIntyre and at Staatstheater Kassel in 2023.

His play work.txt (a play without actors) received five stars in the Guardian and was Offie-Nominated in 2022. It was also invited to the Caravan International Showcase 2022 and will go on an international tour in 2023. His first play No One Is Coming to Save You ('a blazing debut' The Stage) was invited to Incoming Festival 2019 and toured nationally. He is based between London and Berlin.

Paris Ventour

Paris Ventour (He/Him) is a North West-based screenwriter. He has written Series 9A of ‘My DG’, an online spin-off of the BAFTA-winning children’s drama, ‘The Dumping Ground’ (C��tv), and has also been in the writers' room for the landmark Series 10.

He is a graduate of ��tv Children’s New Voices 2020/21 scheme, and is currently a Storyliner for ‘Coronation Street’ (ITV), having previously worked as a Storyliner and Script Editor for ‘Hollyoaks’ (Lime Pictures).

Rosanna Suppa

Rosanna Suppa is a writer and performer focussed on bringing nuanced, funny queer and working class stories to the fore.

Their career started in the Cambridge Footlights, and their debut play, TUNA has toured to multiple London venues including an acclaimed run at VAULT Festival 2020 and is being performed across the country in late 2021. They co-wrote Lesbian Space Crime, which was shortlisted for the Untapped award (New Diorama/Underbelly) in 2020 and developed with Omnibus Theatre as part of their Engine Room scheme. They have also co-written and created 2 queer web series, Brood, and Bed & Bridget, as well as running writer-development initiatives with their theatre company, AIRLOCK, and working on commission for youth theatre companies developing scripts.

They have recently developed multiple TV projects with their agent based on their playwriting, including a darkly comic, county lines drug running drama Smack Capital, and have worked in writers rooms for Beano Studios. Lesbian Space Crime is being performed at the VAULT Festival in 2022.

Sarah Gordon

Sarah Gordon is a Belfast-based writer and director. She spent last year developing her first feature script (POKES) with Northern Ireland Screen’s New Writer Focus.

During lockdown she was commissioned to write and co-direct one of six short comedy films for a project called Splendid Isolation (��tv4/��tv NI - nominated for the Royal Television Society NI Best Drama Award; and nominated for a Celtic Media Award).

Other short films include Shopped (dir. Jon Kesselman, produced by ��tv Writersroom for ��tv iPlayer); and RAT (Púca Pictures, winner Best Short at Dinard Festival of British Film).

Sarah was part of ��tv Writersroom’s Belfast Voices 18/19, Zodiak Kids NI New Writers Scheme 2020, and Lyric Theatre’s New Playwrights Programme 2019. Her first children’s book (Bernard the Irish Dinosaur) is about to be published by O’Donnell Press. She is also currently developing an Irish language feature film with ILBF, TG4 and ��tv through Púca Pictures.

Tim Barrow

Born in Edinburgh, and brought up between Australia & Scotland, Tim Barrow trained as an actor at Drama Centre London, graduating with a BA Hons degree in 2001. He works as an actor, writer and film-maker.

Tim’s debut play Guy was produced at London’s Pleasance Theatre, followed by Union (Lyceum, Edinburgh – published by Playdead Press), and Neither God Nor Angel (Oran Mor / Traverse). He worked with the charity Stand Easy to create The Dandelion Patch, spotlighting verbatim stories of mental health trauma from armed forces veterans (Edinburgh Fringe). With Paul Beeson he co-wrote and co-produced A War Of Two Halves and Sweet F.A. (both plays staged at Tynecastle Park football stadium, and both published by Tippermuir Books). Sweet F.A. was nominated for 2 CATS awards in 2022.

Tim founded Lyre Productions to make contemporary Scottish feature films. He wrote, produced & starred in award-winning Scottish road movie The Inheritance, directed by Charles-Henri Belleville, plus Edinburgh love story and redemption tale The Space Between, and award-winning Scottish schizophrenia love story road movie Riptide – currently screening at film festivals worldwide.

Tim received a New Writers Award from Playwrights Studio in 2012. He was selected for the Wellcome Trust Ideas Lab at the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival. In 2019 he was a Starter Artist at National Theatre of Scotland. He was part of ��tv Writersroom Scottish Voices 2020. During Drama Room 2022 he was commissioned to write Cramond Island for ��tv Radio 3's The Verb.

What was it like to be part of the Drama Room writer development group?

2021-11-04T16:08:00+00:00

I write this as I reflect on the past year, of being a part of ��tv Writersroom’s Drama Room 2020/21.

I trained as an actor and my first attempt at dramatic writing was for the theatre. After some years of working as an actor, I found that parts for a young Ethiopian actor were too few and far between and I became more interested in actually creating the stories, rather than trying to be in them.

My love of TV and cinema led me to film school, where I studied Screenwriting. That was nearly ten years ago now. Coming out of film school with an ambitious feature film script, like any hopeful graduate, I was keen to get my script produced. I made short films and co-wrote a feature that was produced, but the journey to really discovering my voice in my work was far from straightforward.

My need to “get it right” became the obstacle. In the many drafts of the screenplays I wrote, I presented a version of my voice that I thought the gatekeepers wanted to see. I needed to reset and in a way restart; rediscover my reason for writing again; which was, of course, telling stories from my cultural and personal perspective. A perspective rooted in being a Londoner and a first generation Ethiopian immigrant and navigating the spaces in-between.

I returned to where I had started, theatre, and started writing plays again. I was writing these plays for myself, it was an exercise of discovery, suddenly I was enjoying writing again and my need to write every day returned. Once I had plucked up the courage to share my work, a friend of mine encouraged me to apply to the ��tv Writersroom.

I saw the level of competition, I had never written for TV and I didn’t have a screenplay I was confident enough to apply with, but this same friend suggested I apply with one of my new stage plays. I didn’t think it would be possible to be considered for TV with a stage play. I thought this was a writers’ programme for more experienced TV writers. But I applied and was accepted on to the programme.

The Drama Room writers 2020/21

As well as developing our craft and practice of TV writing, the objective over the course of the scheme was to write a spec' script. It felt like a chance to re-engage with the screenwriting process and discover my voice again in this space. The wide range of workshops created the foundation for what would be my first TV spec script, and the year long process being in the ��tv Writersroom's Drama Room encouraged me to cultivate a range of ideas for TV drama.

Having read John Yorke’s book on script writing and finding it to be one of the most informative books on the process, I was thrilled to be taking part in a day long workshop delivered by John Yorke, himself. I found it to be an insightful and illuminating session on story structure. As someone who often grapples with structure in screenwriting, I was so glad to be part of a session with John looking at structure in depth.

Beru Tessema

Among the other sessions, we also worked on Pitching and Treatments, with Philip Shelley. Looking at the fundamentals of writing a one page pitch was massively useful for me, because this was an area that I wasn’t that confident in, but the session demystified this process and now I feel a lot more confident communicating my ideas within a one page document. Following this session, the exploration and discussion around writing treatments for TV was one session I returned to months later. Learning about the various styles and approaches has broadened the possibilities of how I could write a treatment and has helped me when putting together treatments for my own ideas and projects.

As part of the scheme I was also assigned a brilliant script editor, Josie Burke, who worked with me closely throughout the year. Working with Josie was a transformative experience for me. Beyond just being an editor for my spec script, Josie became like a mentor to me. Our regular story development sessions became spaces in which I learnt about the craft of TV writing, as well as developing my story. Above all, Josie’s way of working gave me confidence in my craft and I felt liberated to write in a voice that felt like mine. She worked to encourage my voice, not to change it.

As I come to the end of the ��tv Writersroom's Drama Room programme, I have a spec script that I am proud of, and more importantly, I feel a shift within myself. The past twelve months have really been about development, and I know that to be true in my work and my practice as a writer.

Thank you to the ��tv Writersroom team!

Find out more about the Drama Room 2020/21 group

See the details of our next OPEN CALL for a chance to be part of our next Drama Room or Voices development groups

Meet the Drama Room writers for 2020-21

2021-03-24T10:45:28+00:00

The ��tv Writersroom Drama Room writers 2020-21

Meet the 20 writers who have been part of our Drama Room writer development group since autumn 2020.

��tv Writersroom's Drama Room is a 1-year development scheme for writers identified through our open submission Script Room opportunity and other talent searches. This Drama Room group was put together following the Script Room which closed in January last year.

The group meet, normally once a month (this year all sessions have been held online due to Covid), with targeted training and development including workshops (with practical writing exercises), masterclasses, introductions and networking events, and writing briefs with the opportunity to pitch. In addition to this, they are each paired with a script editor to work with across the year to develop and write an original pilot spec' script.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage and develop the best in new drama writing and to give these writers the opportunity to build strong connections with producers and help them gain ��tv broadcast commissions.

(Please note: We are still in the reading process for the most recent Script Room, which closed in January 2021, and will let everyone know the outcome as soon as possible.)

Amy Trigg

Amy Trigg is an actor and writer from Essex. She was the first wheelchair user to graduate from a performance course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Her acting credits include work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, ��tv and Universal.

Amy’s first full length play 'Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me’ was joint winner of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020 (Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough). Her essay, ‘An Ode to Improv (and Poehler and Fey)’ features in the book ‘Feminist’s Don’t Wear Pink (and other lies)’. Amy won 'Colchester New Comedian of the Year 2016’ for her one woman sketch ‘The Rebrand’. She is a writer on the upcoming ��tv series ‘Ralph and Katie’ (ITV Studios).

Amy is currently part of the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course 2021, ��tv Drama Room 2020/21 and ��tv Writers Access Group 2020/21. She was recently part of the Royal Court Introduction to Playwriting Group 2020/21.

Andy Twyman

Andy Twyman is a Theatre Director and Writer/Director for TV and Film originally from a small village that nobody would ever have heard of in Aberdeenshire. He was previously Associate Director at leading new writing theatre company HighTide Festival Theatre and has worked extensively across the UK.

Andy's short Film “Olve” Screened at Leeds International Film Festival and London Short Film Festival last year. His first feature film “Nairn” has just finished development and he is currently developing a slate of feature films and TV pilots.

Andy is also a fervent supporter of Manchester City FC, an average to poor squash player and very amateur home cook.

Asif Hasan

Asif Hasan is a writer with a background in factual storytelling and journalism for television. He’s worked for all the major broadcasters. His producing, directing and writing tv credits are diverse – ranging from undercover investigations for Panorama to Real Crime Documentary-Dramas.

Through his work, he has gained an intimate knowledge of a diverse set of worlds, from frontline policing, and healthcare, to the world of exploited illegal immigrants. Given his factual background, he places a great deal of emphasis on authenticity.

Asif’s overactive imagination and need to create character and stories developed early – being his only escape from a challenging childhood. He’s written a screenplay, two pilots, one of which was shortlisted, and another of which was longlisted for Thousand Films.
Born in London, Asif has spent most of his adult life in the North – Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield.

His mantra is, “Enjoy the journey. Commit 100% to the journey. Don’t sweat the outcome, it will look after itself.”

Beru Tessema

Beru Tessema is an actor, writer and director making work both for stage and screen. He was born in Ethiopia and raised in London where he is now based. Beru trained as an actor at RADA before going on to study screenwriting at London Film School.

Beru has written, produced and directed several short films including Absence (2014) and Verse (2015). He made his professional debut as a screenwriter in 2016 when he co-wrote the feature film Barley Fields on The Other Side of the Mountain which was nominated for best feature film at the Valladolid International Film Festival under the Seminci Joven Award.

As well as developing new work for the theatre, Beru is currently writing a feature film project, Angell Town, as a recipient of the Creative England development fund. He is also working on a short film project, Lions, which he will be directing with the support of Film 4 and BFI Network.

In addition to writing and directing, Beru teaches Screen Acting at RADA.

Chloë Mi Lin Ewart

Chloë Mi Lin Ewart is a British East Asian, lower-class writer, born and bred in Leeds, now based mostly in London.
She is currently writing an episode of All Creatures Great and Small for series two, has three of her own shows in development with various production companies and will soon be part of the writer's room for a new project, Shenhoods.

Previously, Chloë completed the 4Screenwriting 2020 course, was commissioned to write two short plays for a Tennessee Williams inspired project at Trafalgar Studios and was a writer on James Graham’s Sketching project which ran at Wilton’s Music Hall. This play was published by Methuen Drama.

Chloë has also been longlisted by Thousand Films for her TV pilot, Finding Dad, and by Bush Theatre, the Papatango Prize and the Verity Bargate Award for her plays, Things I Know and These Days. She also received funding from Film London for her short film, Cupidity, which went on to win ‘Best Short’ at the Unrestricted View Film Festival.

Daniel Rusteau

Daniel Rusteau is a writer and playwright from London. He was recently a member of the writers room for the neo-noir detective series MIDDLE WEST (Outlier Society/PointGrey/Amazon), he has written two episodes of HOLLYOAKS (Lime/Ch4) and his half-hour film SUPERDAD for the anthology series ON THE EDGE (BlackLight TV/Ch4) is shooting this spring.

He is currently adapting the novel THE DIVINITIES by Parker Bilal for See-Saw Films and has original ideas in development with World Productions, Headline Productions, West Road Productions and Blacklight Television. He is adapting for TV the comic strip MILLION POUND BOYS for Beano Studios, his crime drama TV script THE BOROUGH made the 2019 Brit List and his play THE ONES WE LOVE was shortlisted for the 2021 Tony Craze Award.

He participated in the ��tv Writersroom London Voices Scheme 2018/19 and has recently been selected for the ��tv Studios Writers’ Workshop by John Yorke.

Elliott Kerrigan

Elliott Kerrigan won the ��tv Writersroom Trans Comedy Award in 2013, which led to the sitcom 'Boy Meets Girl' on ��tv Two, starring Rebecca Root, who was the first trans person to play a trans character in a lead role in a sitcom. Elliott has also written a play for Radio 4 called 'Midnight At Christmas.' Elliott has always loved writing, but is new to writing drama.

He watched a lot of sitcoms growing up - 'The Golden Girls', 'Rhoda' and 'Frasier' - and these shows inspired his sitcom 'Boy Meets Girl.' Lately, he's been watching the ��tv's 'Collateral', 'Doctor Foster', 'Fathermotherson, and 'The Honourable Woman' and he hopes these shows inspire him to write brave and compelling dramas.

When he's not writing, he's enjoying life in Northumberland, seeing friends, walking Byron the dog, listening to Alec Baldwin's podcast 'Here's The Thing', or reading (he's just finished Kate Atkinson's 'Big Sky', which he thought was phenomenal. Next: 'The Karamazov Brothers' by Dostoevsky).

Jahvel Hall

Jahvel Hall was born and raised in London, starting out as an actor. Not knowing what to do in-between jobs, he studied English Literature and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London. He developed his writing skills with short stage and screenplays in the years that followed. While living in Glasgow, Jahvel wrote the short-film "Misgivings" produced by Sigma Films. “Misgivings" toured the international film festival circuit playing in over 20 festivals, winning awards at 2 of them.

Jahvel's writing tends to oscillate around the intricacies and conflicts of cultural/racial identity, excessive drinking, and mental health. With a differing perspective to the norm his writing often finds the humour in topics that probably shouldn’t be funny. Previous work has been described as “quirky”, “raw” and “hmm...interesting”. His writing aims to tell captivating stories with a heart from perspectives often unheard from.

Kelly M Jones

Kelly M Jones is a gay working-class Playwright from Dagenham. She was the winner of the ��tv's Wales Drama Award in 2014. She has recently completed the Emerging Playwrights Program at The Bush Theatre.

Currently on Hightide's Playwrights cohort and Mercury Theatre's Essex Voices. Kelly writes about queerness, class and her relationship to home. Recent credits include:

Room to Escape (��tv Arts), Comma (Sherman Theatre), Garden Paradiso (Mercury Theatre), Tammy (Queens Theatre Hornchurch), The people’s platform (Commonwealth).

Kirsty Smith

Kirsty Smith is a writer from Keighley, West Yorkshire her BAFTA Rocliffe Drama winning script I Am No Bird is under option with Lime Pictures, she was a participant in the Leeds Playhouse writers programme 2020 and her play Jane Hair: The Bronte’s Restyled will tour in 2021, supported by The Bronte Society & The Arts Council it is created with fellow Bradford lass Kat Rose Martin.

Kirsty is working on a slate of ideas for film and television with writing partner Lucy Dwyer including a YA mystery series for Lime Pictures and feature SUPER G’S for Lunar Lander Films. Kirsty & Lucy have been finalists in the Thousand Films Screenwriting Contest and the All3Media New Comedy Voice Award.

Previously Kirsty worked in unscripted television developing, producing and directing comedy and magic shows. She is represented by Julia Mills at Berlin Associates.

Kristian Phillips

Kristian Phillips is a Writer and Actor from Port Talbot, South Wales. He is currently part of The Hampstead Theatre’s Inspire Group and Theatr Clwyd’s Writer in Residence Scheme.

Kristian recently came Runner Up with Commendation for the Phil Fox Award. Previous Work includes: DRIFT - A darkly comic, solo show about grief, addiction and masculinity.

Projects in Development include: SCHOOL NURSE (TV); CHEMICALS (TV); DRIFT (TV); A SMALL LIVING ROOM IN SOUTH WALES (Theatre).

Mandip Singh Desi

Mandip Singh Dhesi is a northern-based screenwriter from Leeds. His debut script, 'Falling' was long-listed for the Kudos North Writers Award in 2018 and was also long-listed by the ��tv Drama room in the same year. He was then invited to join the ��tv Writersroom Northern Voices development programme (2018-19) out of ��tv Media City Salford.

Mandip was selected as a finalist for ��tv Radio's Alfred Bradley Bursary Award in 2019 for his second script, 'The Gift'. He subsequently spent three months working with a script editor, developing and adapting the script for radio.

Mandip's third script, '5 'tin Road' was long-listed by the ��tv Drama Room in 2019 and subsequently led to agent interest and meetings with production companies. His fourth script, 'Northern Sky' was selected by ��tv Drama Room 2020 and has also led to further industry attention.

Mandip holds a BA in Arts and Humanities and an MA in International Development and Education from the University of Leeds. He is currently developing several projects for television.

Matthew Greenhough

Matthew Greenhough is a working-class writer and performer from Sheffield, founder and creative director of Wound Up Theatre, and associate artist of The Pleasance, Islington. He wrote and co-performed the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award-listed play, 'Bismillah! an ISIS Tragicomedy', which ran for over 70 performances, including VAULT and Edinburgh Festival runs, a transfer to the Pleasance Theatre, London and a National Tour.

A recipient of The Peggy Ramsay Foundation Grant and The Live Theatre Bursary (awarded for ‘innovative approaches to story-based performance’) Matt’s most recent show was 'It’ll be Alt-Right on the Night', which he also performed. It enjoyed a critically-acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival in 2019, transferring to London for ‘Best of the Fest’, followed by a National tour. Earlier works include 'Delusions of Adequacy' (Edinburgh Fringe) and '#VILE: The Untimely Demise of a Manufactured Pop Star' (Edinburgh Fringe).

After spending his youth in punk bands around Yorkshire, Matt entered the arts in his twenties, performing stand-up comedy as a dare. His writing uses comedy to explore seismic issues through, dark, character-led stories, informed by his background. He has been described as "skilfully juxtaposing the poetic and the mundane – a sweary Alan Bennett with funkier hair".

Matthew McDevitt

Matthew McDevitt is a Northern Irish Support Worker and Writer, based in Derry. His first ��tv commission was a comedy-drama for radio, Lock In, starring Conleth Hill, which was broadcast on Radio Ulster and Radio Scotland in 2018. Matthew has contributed material to all three seasons of, Soft Border Patrol, on ��tv NI.

His other works include, The Greasy Apple, a music mockumentary for Resonance FM; the script for the 3D Installation Talking Heads - as part of his hometown's acclaimed Halloween Festival; and the satirical game-show, Let's Get Quizzical which appeared as part of Bob Slayer's, 'Heroes of the Fringe' and Belfast Comedy Festival.

His short story Handy Number is due for broadcast on Radio 4 in early Spring 2021.

Maud Dromgoole

Maud Dromgoole is a writer from South East London, she is a graduate of the Royal Court invitation group lead by Alice Birch and Ali McDowall and the Hampstead Theatre inspire group led by Roy Williams.

Writing for theatre includes:
Mary Babies based on the true story of Bertold Wiesner and his thousand unknowing donor conceived children, which started at Vaults Festival before going on to a full at Jermyn Street Theatre. 3 Billions Seconds a satire on ecofacism following a couple of population activists as they attempt to offset the environmental cost of their impending child. Also started at Vaults Festival, before going on to the Paines Plough roundabout.

Other full length plays include RUR finalist for the Mercury Weinberg Prize, Offie nominated Acorn and Blue Moon. Her many short plays have been performed at theatres across London. She is currently working on the Living Newspaper Edition 5 for the Royal Court Theatre.

Mina Barber

Mina Barber is a Writer and Director and was invited to join the ��tv Writersroom London Voices Group in 2018 and was commissioned as part of a group of writers to write monologues for the ‘Hear Me Now’ project, which was published in 2018 and presented as part of a Festival at Theatre 503 in February 2020. Most recently Mina was invited to join ��tv Writersroom Drama Room 2020/2021. Mina is also about to start a 1 year placement with the ��tv Children’s in house team and is currently working with Documental Theatre on a 15 radio piece.

As a director for Theatre and Film Mina has worked with the Young Vic on playwright Ross Willis’ ‘A Million Fuckboy Sperms’ as part of the Young Vic Directors Programme. She has also worked with Theatre Royal Stratford East, Theatre 503 and most recently in the West End as an Assistant Director on the critically acclaimed and Olivier nominated ��tv comedy ‘Upstart Crow’ by Ben Elton starring David Mitchell.

For film Mina has directed two shorts with Slackline Productions titled ‘I Dreamed I was Brigitte Macron’ and with Kick it Down Productions titled ‘3,800 miles’ both recorded during lockdown. Most recently Mina directed a production of ‘A Dolls House’ adapted by Tanika Gupta at the Central School of Speech and Drama that was live recorded that was streamed in January 2021 and has just finished working on a digital theatre piece for Theatre Royal Stratford East titled ‘Hysterical – The Hilarious History of Hysteria’.

Sami Ibrahim

Sami Ibrahim’s play two Palestinians go dogging won Theatre Uncut’s 2019 Political Playwriting Award and will be produced at the Royal Court once theatres re-open. He is currently a writer-in-residence at Shakespeare’s Globe where he is writing an adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses that will open this summer.

His play Fledgling was recently broadcast on Radio 4 and his piece The European Hare was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize 2019. He has been on attachment at the National Theatre Studio and Theatr Clwyd, and is under commission at The Yard as well the Almeida.

For screen, he is currently writing a pilot for Chapter One Pictures and is developing treatments with Expanded Media as well as the BFI / Film London. He is represented by Jessica Stewart at Independent Talent.

Siofra Dromgoole

Siofra Dromgoole has written three plays: Walk Swiftly and With Purpose (Edinburgh Fringe, Theatre503, North Wall Arts Centre) If It Didn't Matter (North Wall, Edinburgh Fringe) and Baby, What Blessings (Bunker, Edinburgh Fringe, Theatre503).

Most of these were interested in themes of coming-of-age, in the loosest sense — thinking about what it is to come into new information, and how we change and adapt with it.

She has taken part in residencies and workshops at North Wall Art Centre and Royal Court. Siofra has screen projects in development, works part-time in publishing and is currently finishing an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths.

Temi Wilkey

Temi Wilkey is an award-winning playwright, actor and screenwriter from North London. She studied English at Cambridge before training with the National Youth Theatre REP company in 2014. Her theatre credits include the National, the RSC and the Manchester Royal Exchange.

Temi was a member of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Group in 2017 and wrote her debut play, The High Table, at the course’s culmination. It was produced at the Bush Theatre in Lynette Linton's debut season, and won Temi the Stage Debut Award for Best Writer in 2020.

Temi wrote on Netflix's Sex Education S3 and is adapting the Booker-prize winning book Girl, Woman, Other for the ��tv. She’s also working on her own original projects in the UK and the US.

Yolanda Mercy

Yolanda Mercy is an Award Winning London-based British Nigerian, writer and performer. Her first play On the Edge of Me presented at Soho Theatre where she is currently on attachment (as a Soho Six).Last year saw her television writing debut with BBW, a comedy drama for Channel 4 as part of their BAFTA nominated anthology- On The Edge. Yolanda is a published author with Meuthen Books for Quarter Life Crisis, which toured nationally/international plus was adapted for ��tv Radio 1xtra.

This year Yolanda returned to ��tv radio with a new 5 part audio drama series called World of Curls, which she has written and directed an episode for. She has been named as The Barbican Centre's ones to watch in 2021, is a member of the Bafta Crew x BFI network scheme, and is currently developing new projects across different mediums.

Yolanda is the Winner of the "Debut TV Writer award" for BBW as (Edinburgh TV festival/New Voices Award), Winner of the Underbelly Untapped award, Named artist to watch by the British Council, Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for playwriting, and nominated for a ��tv Audio Drama award.

Find out more about the ��tv Writersroom's Drama Room development group

Four practical tips to help your script reach its full potential

2020-07-20T13:14:22+00:00

As our readers reach the end of the scripts sent into our latest Comedy Room window we asked a member of the team to share some top tips and advice. We will be sending out emails very soon, so keep an eye on your inbox.

I recently joined the ��tv Writersroom reading team, and it has been such a pleasure and a privilege to read the scripts that you wonderful writers send in for Drama Script Room and Comedy Script Room. We get some absolutely brilliant submissions, and I’m so impressed with the imagination, inventiveness, and diversity of the writing. Reading work by developing writers is always so exciting and rewarding.

There are some common challenges that we encounter in scripts of both genres, and in comedy dramas too – we’re seeing more and more cross-genre pieces. Here are some suggestions for how to tackle some of these challenges, and show off your very best work, whether you’re writing a drama, a comedy, or a hybrid of the two.

Back to Life starring Daisy Haggard as Miri Matteson and written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon

1) POWER UP YOUR STORY BY CREATING A ROBUST PREMISE:

When dreaming up your premise, make sure it will give you enough story.

Your fundamental concept is your roadmap. It is your core story idea, which generates and shapes the narrative action in your script, and defines your characters’ journeys. It’s absolutely crucial that this idea is sturdy, intriguing, and dramatic, and that you can see how you might begin to transform it into words on the page. If you’re struggling to write scenes, your premise could be underbaked.

Very often, an initial premise is halfway there, in that it describes part of a story. A really good example is this kind of set up: circumstances force our protagonist to return to their home town. That’s promising, but you’ll need more, or risk running out of steam too quickly. Consider where you want to take your character. What happens next, to stoke the conflict, suspense, and tension that you will need to sustain the rest of your story? Now they’ve returned home, what must your protagonist do, and how will they change? What sort of obstacles and complications will they confront? The ��tv’s Back to Life (watch now on ��tv iPlayer) is one great example of a returning-home story with dramatic and comedic legs.

Sorting out your premise is just as important for comedy as it is for drama. So much of comedy hinges on the tension between who a character is, and what they are forced to do. You’ll need a strong story spine to dramatise this tension and carry the humour; it will help you to deliver those hilarious situations, predicaments and character turns.

Giri/Haji written by Joe Barton

2) GIVE YOUR CHARACTER A SPECIFIC, CONCRETE TASK – ACTION IS CHARACTER:

Once you’ve cooked up a fantastic premise, you then need to execute it practically, in your script. It’s crucial to decide what your protagonist wants, and how they are going to accomplish their goal.

To jumpstart your story, and give it drive and purpose, your protagonist needs a task. Pursuing this task will give them agency in the story, and a strong, clear narrative arc.

In this context, a task isn’t something abstract or internal, such as the desire for respect. It should be crisp, concrete, and evident to the audience. So for instance, it’s Indiana Jones resolving he must find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis get to it. A task focuses the action and gives your protagonist purposeful scenes, with things to do. This empowers you to explore character to your heart’s content, by putting your characters and their relationships through their dramatic and comedic paces. For the audience, it gives us something clear and unambiguous to root for.

Some fantastic examples of shows where there’s a clear task: the ��tv’s Giri/Haji (read the scripts by Joe Barton in our library), The Last Kingdom for ��tv/Netflix, and Save Me on Sky Atlantic.

Alexander Dreymon as Uhtred in The Last Kingdom (adapted by Stephen Butchard from the novels by Bernard Cornwell)

3) CONSIDER COMING INTO THE STORY EARLIER:

The standard screenwriting advice is to come into your story and scenes as late as possible. But I often find that developing writers come in too late, meaning that vital scenes and story beats have already happened, off the page.

To tell the most exciting story available to you, make sure that your most thrilling scenes are happening on screen, that you haven’t missed out your inciting incident, and that you’ve set up your protagonist or protagonists. HBO's Succession does this brilliantly, economically establishing its lead characters, before throwing a big (story) grenade into their lives.

If you have an amazing backstory, think about how you can tell it as front-foot story, that unfolds in the timeline of your episode.

4) POV IS YOUR SECRET WEAPON:

Giving a character a point-of-view invites empathy for that character, and it enables you to control how we feel about the people in your script. It tells us which characters we’re supposed to care about, and whose story this is. We’re much more likely to root for someone when we experience events as they do, and when we know what they know.

So don’t give a POV to all your characters. Scripts will often try to introduce multiple characters with multiple POVs very quickly. This tends to fragment the narrative, and makes it hard to invest in a story emotionally.

Fleabag written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge

It’s usually wise to restrict yourself to a few significant POVs at the beginning. That way, we have someone to hold onto emotionally, as we explore the world of your story, and can access it in a way that feels enticing and engaging. I love the way that the ��tv’s REV does this; at the beginning, we meet all its weird and wonderful characters through Adam the vicar, its protagonist. Some other shows which use POV masterfully are the ��tv’s Fleabag (watch now on ��tv iPlayer) and Keeping Faith (read the scripts by Matthew Hall in our library), and The Good Wife for CBS.

Good luck, and happy writing! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Download and read scripts from our Script Library

More great resources to support your writing including interviews and our podcast

Watch a series of eight short animations on the Essentials of Scriptwriting

The Drama Room Writers

2020-02-12T10:47:07+00:00

The Drama Room writers at BAFTA (Photo credit: Kwame Lestrade)

Find out more about the writers who have been part of our most recent Drama Room development group, beginning in autumn 2019. They've been attending monthly workshops, having introductions to different scripted content areas across the ��tv and have each been developing an original spec' script. Last night they were introduced to ��tv commissioners and independent producers at a special event at BAFTA.

The group were selected following our unsolicited Script Room window for Drama scripts which closed back in January 2019. In that window we received 3634 scripts.

The latest Drama script window closed in January 2020. We are currently reading those scripts ahead of selecting the writers to take part in the next Drama Room development group, beginning in autumn 2020.

Dipo Baruwa-Etti

Dipo Baruwa-Etti

Dipo Baruwa-Etti is a playwright and filmmaker. His debut play AN UNFINISHED MAN will premiere at The Yard Theatre in April 2020, published by Faber & Faber.

For screen, he is developing several projects including a short film as writer-director with ��tv Drama and BFI, which will shoot this spring. Dipo is one of six winners of the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme 2020 and is on attachment with the Almeida Theatre.

Dipo has been selected to be part of our TV Drama Writers' Programme for 2020.

Emma Dennis-Edwards

Emma Dennis-Edwards

Emma Dennis-Edwards is an Actor and Writer of Jamaican and Trinidadian heritage. Emma has been a participant at the Royal Court, Soho, Lyric Hammersmith and Oval House’s young writers programmes and was mostly recently awarded a commission by the Old Vic as part of The Old Vic 12 Programme.

Emma’s play Funeral Flowers was commissioned by Power Play Theatre Activists in association with the Pleasance Theatre and was part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won the Scotsman’s Fringe First Award. It has since enjoyed a sold out transfer in London at the Bunker Theatre. Emma’s play American Dream 2.0 was recently performed at the Young Vic as part of their Neighbourhood Theatre project.

Emma was one of the writers selected for the ��tv Studios Writer’s Academy in 2019 and is currently developing an original TV Series with Balloon Entertainment.

Marcelo Dos Santos

Marcelo Dos Santos

Marcelo Dos Santos is an award-winning Brazilian/Australian writer based in the UK. In 2014 he adapted the critically acclaimed LIONBOY for Complicité which toured extensively in the UK and internationally including the New Victory Theater on Broadway. He has developed work through the National Theatre Studio and has been a writer on attachment at the Bush Theatre, HighTide Festival Theatre as well as the Royal Court where he was also a member of their writing ‘super group’ and where he is currently under commission.

Theatre credits include: LIONBOY (Complicite/UK and International tour); LOVERS WALK (Southwark Playhouse); THE END OF HISTORY (High Hearted Theatre & Soho Theatre); NEW LABOUR (RADA); TRIGGER WARNING (co-writer, Camden People’s Theatre, winner of the Jerwood ��tv Run Commission).

Short films: DEADPAN featuring Alex Kingston dir. Edward Hicks, MIRROR MIRROR dir. Michael Davies, THE WAY BACK dir. Nick Cohen.

He is currently under commission to the Royal Court Theatre and English Touring Theatre (ETT).

Yero Timi-Biu

Yero Timi-Biu

Yero Timi-Biu is a multiple award-winning writer and director for TV and film. Her 2019 BFI-funded short film, 'Signs' premiered at Encounters Film Festival where it won the Youth Jury Award. Yero is developing a satirical drama series, 'The Institution' with Abbott Vision. The series is based on her time at fashion school. She is currently being mentored by the company head, Paul Abbott. Yero is also developing a psychological thriller exploring the psyche of Black women and their maternal health. On ��tv Writersroom's Drama Room, she will be writing the first episode of a supernatural dark comedy-drama about West African grief and gentrification in East London.

In between developing her own original content, Yero has written on shows such as teen fantasy adventure drama ‘Mystic’. She wrote 12 interactive episodes of C��tv/Netflix’s The Worst Witch and has worked on The Dumping Ground. Yero has also written and directed short films for Channel 4's Random Acts strand such as Beneath the Surface and Two Minutes.

Nyla Levy

Nyla Levy

Nyla Levy is a Playwright and Actor. Being mixed race, Pakistani and Canadian, with Muslim and Jewish heritage, and born and bred in London - Nyla has always gravitated towards stories that explore experiences related to identity, culture and race. Nyla began in verbatim, with her first play Different is Dangerous (Amnesty International Freedom of Expression longlist nominee), followed by Normal with a bit of Oomph! Nyla co-founded Two’s Company who went on to tour Different is Dangerous to venues including, Theatre 503, Nottingham Playhouse, The Lowry and Edinburgh Fringe.

Nyla received funding from Arts Council England to develop her first fictional play, Does My Bomb Look Big in This? In 2019 Tamasha and Nyla co-produced a UK tour of Does My Bomb Look Big in This? Venues include Soho Theatre and Tara Arts followed by a regional UK tour. Nyla storylined ideas for Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge Series 3. And is currently developing Little Runt for television with Jax. Nyla is on a mentorship scheme with Tiger Aspects. Nyla is also currently working with ��tv on a new ‘Girl Cops’ project.

Kat Woods

Kat Woods

Kat Woods is a writer and director from Co. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. She has a particular interest in staging works that provide a platform for those from socio-economic deprived areas. Works that are representative of her community, that she loves, The Underclass. Works that redefine the discourse surrounding the poverty stereotype. Kat is represented by Alex Rusher at Independent Talent and is published by Samuel French. Kat is an Associate Artist at The Pleasance Theatre and a writing associate at Omnibus Theatre. She is a Royal Court/Kudos TV writers group alumnus. Most recently she has been commissioned to write for The Abbey Theatre on their Priming the Canon programme and The C2C Fermanagh community project.

Kat’s work has been performed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Finland, US: Baltimore, Washington DC, Connecticut and New York. Theatre writing selected credits include KILLYMUCK (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Bunker Theatre London) WASTED (Northern Ireland and International tour, One Act Festival Savoy Wales, Kings Head, Soho Playhouse, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, LOST, The White Bear) MULE (N. Ireland tour, Omnibus, Edinburgh Festival Fringe) BELFAST BOY (Omnibus Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Tampere Festival Finland, The Arcola Theatre, Blakes of The Hollow Enniskillen) DIRTY FLIRTY THIRTY (Blakes of The Hollow Enniskillen, The Playhouse, The Pleasance, The White Bear) SKINTOWN (The White Bear).

Theo Toksvig-Stewart

Theo Toksvig-Stewart

Theo Toksvig-Stewart is a London-based writer and actor who trained at Drama Centre London. Theo has just been commissioned by Warts and All Theatre to write a new version of “Robyn Hood” developed with children in care. His most recent play, “Endless Second”, explored consent within a relationship and debuted at Theatre503 in 2019. It then played at that year's Edinburgh Fringe where it was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatre and Sit Up Awards. The play transferred to the Park Theatre and the Pleasance as part of their Best of the Fringe seasons and is to be published by Oberon Books. His first play, “An Opera from the East”, an adaption of the Threepenny Opera, was produced at the Drama Centre London in 2016.

As well as working on his first TV drama pilot about two siblings and their journey through the care system, Theo is also in development for his first comedy short “Odd Socks”.

Theo loves his large and supportive family. His parents are lesbians and he has numerous full, adopted, step and half siblings from which he is basing a comedy pilot “My Kind of Normal” around his “unconventional” upbringing.

Alex Mathias

Alex Mathias

Born in West Wales, Alex Mathias studied English Literature at Cardiff University before spending the beginnings of his professional life as a projectionist and manager of an independent cinema. After watching too many films he became convinced he could make them and set out to teach himself screenwriting.

A short film script he wrote was shortlisted for the It’s My Shout Short Film Production Scheme and his sci-fi feature script, Twin Lights, placed in the semi-finals of the Page International Screenwriting Awards in 2018. Currently, Alex is working on a comedy-drama feature set in his endlessly enthralling homeland while working to get several shorts produced.

AJ Yi

AJ Yi

AJ Yi is a mixed-race Chinese writer, performer, and comedian whose work has been performed everywhere from The Yard Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, The Roundhouse and various UK festivals. In 2018 their one-person spoken word show Love Songs (developed through the Soho Theatre and supported by Camden People’s Theatre) received Guardian Pick of the Fringe, and was nominated for two Edinburgh comedy awards, before transferring to the Soho Theatre as part of their emerging talent festival. A positive, empowering and celebratory narrative about sexual assault, AJ has since spoken about the issues within Love Songs on the ��tv Sounds podcast AFTER (iTunes top ten podcast of 2019), raised money for women’s rights charities and is passionate about continuing the dialogue about sexual experiences of womxn of colour through online articles and panel discussions.

In 2019 AJ was part of the ��tv Writersoom's London Voices group, and received writing commissions from the V&A Museum and the Bush Theatre x Elephant West. They were also co-director of the theatre company Trip Hazards (listed by the Guardian as a top five emerging theatre company to watch). This year AJ is currently developing her next play (BANANA) and working on new projects for screen. They also plan on doing more of what they love best: performing with her friends on the London comedy, drag and cabaret circuit, and living with their parents for the rest of their life.

AJ is represented by Independent Talent.

Omar Raza

Omar Raza

Omar Raza is a multi award-winning actor. Titled by ‘The Scots Magazine’ as a ‘Funny Five Scot’ comedian alongside Kevin Bridges and Susan Calman. His ��tv credits include: the BAFTA award-winning comedy ‘Limmy’s Show!’, C��tv’s ‘Annoying Things Adults Say’ and ��tv Radio 4’s 'Fags Mags and Bags' & ‘Beta Female’.

As an RTS nominated writer, Omar’s screenwriting debut, Soul Journey, was for ��tv Three's 'The Break: Series III’. It was shortlisted at: the ‘MIPCOM Diversify TV Excellence Awards 2018’, the ‘Edinburgh TV Festival: New Voice Awards 2019’ and the ‘Royal Television Society Awards 2019’.

Omar was chosen as 1 of 6 at a retreat with ‘Young Films Foundation’ in partnership with ��tv Films, Film4 and Channel 4, at the Isle of Skye. The UK’s leading authorities behind TV shows such as ‘Killing Eve', 'Derry Girls' and ‘Doctor Who’ gave Omar first class mentoring to develop his own project. In addition, Omar was a panellist for the BAFTA Awards 2019.

Shazia Ali

Shazia Ali

Shazia Ali started writing shortly after her third child was born. She was part of the Tamasha playwright’s programme in 2018/2019 and her scratch The Conversation was produced at the Soho Theatre at the end of that programme.

Shazia was born and bred in Birmingham to Pakistani parents - a bus driver and a classroom assistant. She clawed her way to Oxford to study English and worked as an employment lawyer for ten years. She is a full time parent to three boys aged 12, 10 and 6. She runs a campaign for clean air and has volunteered as a College Governor and a trustee for an arts organisation.

Lettie Precious

Lettie Precious

Lettie Precious is a British playwright, poet, author and artist from Sheffield currently living in London. Winner of the Royal Court and Kudos Fellowship 2019. In 2018 they were part of ��tv Writersroom's London Voices and the Graeae Write To Play year-long attachment. As part of Queer Upstairs their play THE GREY AREA had a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court Theatre, Jerwood Upstairs in 2019.

Their first full length play, THIS IS US, developed on attachment with Graeae, had a rehearsed reading in 2019 at the Bush Theatre, in association with Talawa and Tamasha and Graeae theatre companies. Previous work has been showcased at Soho Theatre, Oval Playhouse, The Arcola and Theatre Royal Stratford East. They became a published author in 2018, and are under commission from Audible for a 4 part series, the ��tv for an episode of THE BREAK, and a radio piece for Naked Productions.

Lucy Burke

Lucy Burke

Lucy is a writer a performance poet from Manchester. In 2016 she wrote Glitter Punch, a coming of age play about sixteen year old Molly from Salford who embarks on a sexual relationship with her college tutor. Glitter Punch was shortlisted for the Bolton Octagon Top Five Season and completed sell out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London’s Vault Festival. Glitter Punch is published by Nick Hern Books. In February 2018, Lucy’s one woman play Weird was developed in association with the Soho Theatre Young Company and completed a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018. Weird transferred to the Soho Theatre in December 2018 as a part of their Soho Rising season. Lucy’s most recent play I Am Not A Bird I Cannot Fly (commissioned by the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) premieres in March 2020 at the LIPA Sennheiser Studio, it focuses on a group of female young offenders in the north of England. As a poet Lucy has performed at various venues across the UK, she is also a visiting tutor at LIPA, teaching writing and artistic practise to second year students.

Lucy was long listed for the 2019 TV Drama Writers programme before gaining her place on the ��tv Drama Room. She is excited to be making the leap from theatre to television and is enjoying meeting with and learning from various production companies and sharing ideas.

Anna Mason

Anna Mason

Anna Mason is a writer for screen and theatre from Leeds. Her pilot How to Get Rid of Carol was featured on this year’s Brit List. Anna has written a number of short plays that have been performed in various theatres throughout London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Whilst working as a Drama Facilitator for Bounce Theatre, Anna wrote two plays, Fried Chicken and Battered Chicken, which were performed at anti-bullying week in Kingston.

She is represented by Jenn Lambert and Joe Phillips at Curtis Brown.

Ayad Andrews

Ayad Andrews

Ayad Andrews is a writer and marketing officer. He was born in Baghdad, Iraq and lived there until the early 1970s when his family were forced to flee the country. In 2016/17, he was a member of the Oxford Playhouse Playmakers scheme and was most recently part of the Royal Court Theatre's Introductory Writers Group.

His first full-length play 'TERP', about an Iraqi interpreter in the second Gulf War, had its premiere as part of the Vibrant Festival of New Writing 2018 at London's Finborough Theatre. His follow-up 'The Ghost of Muhammad Ali' recently had a rehearsed reading at The Spring Arts Centre in Havant.

The Comedy Room - Children's Day and an opportunity to pitch to Radio Drama North

2020-01-27T15:00:00+00:00

Helen Parkinson is part of our Comedy Room writer development group. She gives a rundown on the group's recent two-day workshop at Media City in Salford (also including the Drama Room writers) which covered writing for Children's plus an opportunity to pitch a short Radio Drama.

Hey, I’m Helen and I’m not sure why I’m in the Comedy Room. My background is seriously serious. I was a pensive ‘Method’ actress, an earnest (read minimal budget) theatre director and producer of material that was of no laughing matter. As a writer I tackle dark topics. I thought I’d written a very serious piece of TV until everyone who read it told me it was funny. It seems the ��tv thought so too. So, here I am with a bunch of stand-ups and comedy writers who are genuinely hilarious and I’m seriously hoping no one will notice that I’m not. So far, I think I’m getting away with it.

I’ve been asked to write about our third ��tv Writersroom session - a two-day sojourn to the ��tv's base at Media City in Salford to discover all there is to know about writing for C��tv and Cbeebies.

To be honest, I hadn't previously thought about writing for children. This may have something to do with the fact that I’ve raised four of them. When you’ve been through twenty years of child-rearing, you sort of don’t want to have anything to do with them for at least another two decades. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against kids' TV. Quite the reverse: Tellytubbies gave me the chance to clean my teeth, Spongebob let me soak up a few minutes of respite in the shed and Pingu kept me from putting my head in the oven. But writing for kids? Animation? Puppets? Not convinced. You see, I write deeply flawed, egotistical characters in dark situations, who go on harrowing emotional journeys and find redemption, only to have it taken away. Not the stuff of pre-school TV. But, as we sat on brightly coloured stools under the Tree Fu Tom backdrop in C��tv’s reception, I determined to keep an open mind. This is important at my age. Although, maybe I should close it – I’ve noticed things keep disappearing.

The writers waiting watched over by Tree Fu Tom

But before ‘Children’s Day,’ we had an afternoon workshop with Radio Drama North. Instantly, I felt at home (in front of the ironing board actually – radio drama has accompanied me though many a pile of school shirts). Now we were to be given not only top tips, but the opportunity for a commission to write a short audio drama script for ��tv Radio 3’s programme The Verb. The remit was to explore language-use, to realise something interesting about the way we talk to each other, with an emphasis on experimentation. Producer Sharon Sephton stressed the need for making the audience care about the characters and what happens to them. ‘Openings’ were important: we should aim for instant jeopardy and intrigue to hook the listener in. She suggested we ask ourselves a series of questions before beginning to write: whose story is this and what do you want to say with it? How do the characters change? Is there a resolution? A twist? What makes it unique and fresh? And what makes it good for radio? This last question was possibly the most thought provoking. Especially, as Sharon pointed out, radio drama can take us anywhere, any time and into any body, even a non-human one – no need for expensive prosthetics, just a few choice words would do the trick. I was seriously inspired: we had the blank canvas of the listener’s mind to play with. No holds barred. The universe was our oyster (or even an oyster). Unlimited no strings… Then I heard Sharon say: ‘Oh, and it all needs to be done in five minutes. So, have a think over the tea break, then give us your pitches.’

Watch Scriptwriting advice from Radio Drama North

Now after three months spent in the Comedy Room there are two things I’ve learned about writers. Firstly, they like their food, preferably sweet and starchy and served at frequent intervals and, secondly, they don’t like pitches. We had pitched ideas in a previous session, but that had been to the group and Comedy Room Executive Simon Nelson and Assistant Producer Amanda Farley, who didn’t really count, because we’d been out drinking with them at the ��tv Club (a definite perk) and realised they were just ordinary, fun people. But now we were going to have to pitch to SIGNIFICANT SERIOUS ��tv PEOPLE. It’s fair to say, even the mince pies and gluten free bars didn’t alleviate the onset of the ‘pitch sweats.’ As it turned out, the pitching wasn’t at all harrowing. We disseminated into groups, each with a producer/script editor and discussed ideas, some half formed, some fully fledged, all unique and full of potential. Then we were given individual feedback followed by another mince pie. All in all, pretty painless. Sighs of relief all round. But not for long…

Watch Advice on writing for Radio from the team at ��tv Radio Drama North

There’s another thing I’ve discovered about writers. They hate networking. Like really hate it: a frontal lobotomy is more appealing than talking to an ‘industry professional.’ So, when the catering trolley rolled in, heralding the start of the ‘Industry Drinks – Meet the Producers’ event, the writers huddled together around the table, swilling and grazing and pretending not to notice the VIPs arriving. Simon had tasked us with getting email addresses and he and Amanda, cattle prods in hand, herded us out into the room. Maybe it was the alcohol, or the fact that the VIPs were really nice, keen to talk and happy to hand out email addresses, that made it an (almost) enjoyable experience. Needless to say, there was a lot of email bartering in the bar afterwards.

The following ‘Children’s Day’ consisted of a packed schedule. In preparation, we all tucked into a substantial breakfast at the hotel.

First off was the Scripted Development team. Executive Producer, Anna Davies gave us the run down on how they develop content with writers. Very briefly, if they like your idea, a writer is commissioned (paid!) to produce the ‘Outline.’ Get past this stage and then they help you develop it into a ‘Scene by Scene’ and if it is sufficiently gripping and unputdownable, you get commissioned to write the script. This is sent to the commissioner who will make the final decision. Of course, in the Q&A, everyone wanted to know what the secret ingredient was, the top tip, the magical pathway to the holy grail of the commissioner’s endorsement. The answer, it seemed, was simple: character. Yes, they want exciting new concepts, fresh perspectives, and compelling stories that can appeal internationally, but, ultimately, it comes down to character. Be they covered in fur, unable to utter a word, (or a sponge), children want characters to care about. And producers want children to spend time with these characters for series after series, after series.

Next up was Emma Hill, Senior Content Producer for Children’s Interactive TV. Now, the only part of interactive TV I have any experience of is the red button on my remote. So, it was an eye-opener to discover that there is a whole world of digital opportunities for writers, including Web dramas and storytelling on social media platforms such as Instagram, offering children a chance to follow characters outside of the world of the series (in my day the closest we came to this was the TV annual); offering writers the opportunity to develop much-loved characters further.

Danger Mouse on C��tv

Coffee and biscuits and an episode of Danger Mouse took us into the realm of children’s animation. Animation lets children go to places that live action can’t. Things can happen to characters that don’t happen in the real world, without scary real-world consequences. This makes it fertile ground for the comedy writer (that’s me out then) as the action can be extreme. But, don’t be duped, the Animation Development team emphasised, it’s not the animation that makes for a successful TV series, it’s the characters. The animators, like actors, get inspiration from characters. The script is their blueprint. So, work hard to give characters flaws, inner lives and outer conflicts, moral conflicts. This is what makes kids come back for more.

After sandwiches and cake, Connal Orton, Executive Producer of the 4 o’clock Club, emphasised the need to roll up our sleeves, and get down and dirty with the development process. Don’t hate it, embrace it. This, he said, was the secret to creating a long running series (plus lots of dosh, acclaim and further opportunities). Needless to say, everyone had their pens ready when he announced the three golden rules to help us achieve this:

Rule 1: You can’t polish a turd. In order to avoid this, spend a lot of time in development. Embrace the process. Explore the ‘What if…’ as far as it will go. And further.

Rule 2: You have to kiss a lot of frogs. Check out a shed load of ideas. Be brave. Don’t worry about making mistakes. Be robust! Test and retest the idea until you find one that is indestructible. Dump it if it isn’t working.

Rule 3: The devil is in the detail. Make sure you have nailed down every detail before beginning to write a line of dialogue. Be a technician, a craftsperson. Aim at all times for excellence in this process. Produce watertight story maps across A, B and C strands and DO NOT integrate them until the final draft. And importantly, produce fully fleshed out characters with flaws and skills that will help them deal with what is thrown at them and ultimately provoke emotional change.

4 O'Clock Club on C��tv

By now I was beginning to realise that there was a recurring theme throughout all these sessions. No matter what the medium, radio, animation, puppetry, no matter what age group, from pre-school to teen, it was all about the characters. Now, I know this. I do. And I love writing characters. In fact, most people say it is my strength. But, for some reason, when it came to the task we had been set a couple days earlier, that of pitching an idea for a scripted show for a C��tv slot, I hadn’t given the characters much thought.

I had been desperate to make the ‘idea’ exciting/appealing to a teen audience, spending hours plotting a Black Mirror meets Hunger Games scenario. I’d researched the ‘world’ I knew what was going to happen to my ‘bunch of kids,’ but now I realised I hadn’t fully developed any of the characters. Of course, I’m pretty sure I’d have tackled this at some point, but now, as I sat with Senior Development Producer Hannah Rodger and four other writers, I knew that this pitch wasn’t going to catch fire. It lacked what kids want most: great characters they want to spend time with. For me, this was a lesson well learned.

What I also learned is how attuned Development people are on picking up on an idea, instantly spotting what is interesting and different. Or not. We had five minutes to pitch and believe me this is enough. The pitches that made the most impact were the ones that gave the broad brushstrokes of setting and story, touched on themes, followed by a succinct description of a couple of main characters: needs, wants, obstacles, emotional journey, and then popped in the odd fine detail to spark an image/idea that was irresistible. Too much detail and like white noise, it started to lose impact, too little and it wasn’t engaging. I don’t think any of us got it ‘just right’ but, hey, for most of us, this was a first time and one which was an invaluable learning experience.

Tree Fu Tom on CBeebies

Fortunately, tea and scones followed (I do feel I ate my way through the ��tv) and then the opportunity to hear from three real (i.e. paid) writers Toby Hadoke, Sameera Steward and Lucia Haynes. This was the perfect antidote to the pitch sweats. Hearing their stories was encouraging, if only because it seemed most of them got where they were by a series of events that did not include giving the best pitch ever.

Just as we were flagging (or perhaps sinking into a food coma) the last act appeared, Vanessa Amberleigh, Executive Producer at CBeebies, roused us with a brilliantly, speedy delivery of what pre-schoolers like. Here are a few I jotted down: ‘Hellos’ and ‘Goodbyes’ are popular. Slapstick too, but only of the ‘best behaviour’ variety. Pre-schoolers have enormous egos (does this change?), so use emotional journeys that teach empathy (good luck: my Y.A.s still struggle with this). Pre-school is the ‘gang phase’ – what one says the others follow – so try to give them confidence in their own opinions. They like format, the anticipation is half the fun (I can relate to that). And they like humour, as well as songs and puppets. Remember these characters can shape a child’s outlook on life (I wonder if Worzel Gummidge removing his head and replacing it with another has impacted on my world view…). More importantly, they will imitate behaviour, so ask yourself, would you be happy to see a child doing what your characters are doing?

This last question resonated as I popped open my salad box on the train home. I’d thought I’d struggle to write for kids TV. But now I realised Danger Mouse wasn’t so very different from the vain, egotistical, hubristic people who appear in my scripts. (Let’s face it, even Peppa Pig can be a bit of a cow). The harrowing journeys I put my characters on, aren’t so very different – Danger Mouse regularly has the daunting task of saving the world – and the redemption/resolutions are short lived: he will always forget how much he needs Penfold and Baron Silas von Greenback will always have a plan…

So, as I sat back munching through my spinach, it occurred to me that, after all, there may be a space in all this fun for a seriously serious writer like me.

Find out more about the Comedy Room and Drama Room

An introduction to writing for ��tv Children's (CBeebies and C��tv)

2018-12-17T11:41:52+00:00

Chris Cantrill is part of our Comedy Room writer development group for 2018/19. He recently attended our introduction to writing for Children's day which is run at Media City in Salford in conjunction with the Drama Room writer development group.

Hello! I’m Chris, one of the 2018 Comedy Room intake*. My background is in live performance and I write and perform as one half of Yorkshire’s finest, meat-themed double act, The Delightful Sausage. We’ve been described as a ‘Cannon & Ball’ meets ‘Hellraiser’ - it’s safe to say, we’re niche**.

At the time of writing, we’ve had three Comedy Room sessions***. The first was about writing topical comedy, the second looked at the world of sitcom and today’s session focused on writing for younger audiences.

Kicking off Children's Day with the combined Comedy and Drama Room groups

As the really tired dad of a two-year-old, I know their minds are terrifying, snack-fuelled chaos machines. A typical conversation with my son will go like this:

“Good morning!”

“Dinosaur! Does Mummy have a bottom? Snack!”

So, writing for children was a definitely a daunting prospect but after today it’s one I’m very excited about.

The schedule for the day was packed with speakers working in the different departments involved in producing ��tv content for children. The Scripted Development team took us through the shows they make and how they develop the concepts. We heard about the exciting new ways in which Digital Content is changing how we tell and consume stories. We also learnt about the extra precautions you’ll need to consider when writing for a pre-school audience.

Workshopping ideas

Pitching 101

After lunch we split into groups and had to pitch an idea for a scripted show to John Knowles and Hannah Smith from the ��tv Animation Department.

I’m sure to most rational folk, this is a truly chilling prospect****. However, it’s a skill you’ll need in the wheelhouse. Being able to clearly articulate your vision for a project is the difference between it getting made or being quietly added to the dreaded C-drive mausoleum of unseen scripts.

Here are my tips:

Be creative! A pitch sits in a weird space between performance and business presentation. On one hand, you’re trying to sell a creative idea which should be exciting. The flipside being, it’s still a commercial proposal, so avoid making it a cringe comedy routine.
Define your audience. 6 - 12 years old is a huge developmental chasm and finding something that pleases both ends of the spectrum is unlikely.
Be concise and read the commissioning requirements. You should be able to define your idea in a couple of sentences.
Listen to feedback. Being able to collaborate is essential and it’s the production team’s job to make sure your idea is as polished as possible before they sink a stack of cash. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree on everything but if a note is being made it’s most likely highlighting an issue which needs fixing.

Don’t

Download an air horn app to signal your presentation has ended.
Respond to feedback by screaming, “this interview is over!”
Interrupt the pitch with a fake call from the head of ITV in a futile attempt to initiate a bidding war.

The mantra for the day (or for writers in general!) presented by Connal Orton, Exec Producer

Overall, it was a really fun and interesting day. Being part of the Comedy Room has been a fantastic experience. I’ve had amazing opportunities, learnt from masters of the craft and been introduced to a peer group of hard-working, very funny oddballs.

That said, the ��tv is a public body and there are many opportunities for everyone to submit work or learn more. It was either Pablo Picasso or Syd Little who said, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working” and that’s probably the most valuable lesson I’m taking from the Comedy Room. You have to be working on stuff all the time and sometimes it really is as simple as sending an email and saying, ‘hello’.

Now, I've got to get back to some top-notch dadding as it’s just dawned on me I haven’t seen the lad in over an hour.

* The other Comedy Roomers call me ‘The Cool Beatboxing One’. Yeah? Guys?!

**Or in the words of an audience member in Cardiff, “cease and desist.”

***You can read all about day two from Omar

****Scared of speaking aloud and failure? I’d recommend the immersive therapy of stand up comedy!

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