BBC TV and radio rates increased

23 February 2013
Posted in General

The Writers' Guild has negotiated increases in the minimum fees paid to writers under our collective agreements with BBC TV and radio.

Minimum fees for TV writers have been increased by 1%, in line with the most recent increase in BBC staff salaries. Taking effect from 1 January 2013, this brings the key rate for original teleplays to £10,800 per hour and for series/serials to£9,840.

For radio writers there is also an increase of 1%, effective from 24th January 2013, and in addition the public service fee has also been increased by 2.5% from 10% to 12.5% for all contracts. For writers of archive material repeated on Radio 4 Extra, our agreement has been extended for a further five years, with the key rate for original drama increased to £3.24 per minute and these fees will be increased annually in line with RPI, subject to a cap of 3%.

Full details of the new rates can be downloaded from the Rates and Agreements section. These agreements have been reached in co-operation with the Guild's negotiating partners the Personal Managers' Association and (for radio only) the Society of Authors.

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Guild supports campaign for the Midlands

23 February 2013
Posted in TV

The Campaign for Regional Broadcasting Midlands launches in Birmingham

The BBC's Midland region raises a quarter of the BBC's £3.6 billion licence fee take, but only spends 2% of its income in the region. Expenditure per licence fee payer is £804 in London, £82 in the north of England, and just £12.30 in the Midlands.

These statistics were presented to 80 actors, writers, producers and other television makers crammed into a Birmingham pub to launch a campaign to insist that the BBC gives more back to the Midlands region.

Speakers at the meeting included Equity's Tracey Briggs and Writers' Guild President David Edgar. Along with BECTU, the Guild is officially supporting the campaign. The last Guild Executive Council meeting passed a motion supporting the Campaign for Regional Broadcasting's demand that more BBC production be brought back to Birmingham.

As Tracey Briggs and David Edgar pointed out, BBC Birmingham has a proud history in both television and radio drama, and not just in the 'golden age' of the 1970s, when David Rose was producing groundbreaking plays and films by David Rudkin, David Hare, Alan Bleasdale and Willy Russell. The Birmingham studios at Pebble Mill once produced 10% of BBC output.

Since the announcement of the move to Salford, BBC Birmingham has lost its pioneering factual unit to Bristol, the Silver St soap, and its last one-off drama producer. Its state of the art radio studio sits empty except for the few days a month of Archers recording. Its only television drama goes out on daytime TV.

Using BBC statistics, campaign chair Mike Bradley has calculated the huge disparity between what the BBC raises from the Midland region and what it spends. Nearly a third of what the BBC spends in London comes from the region. The aim of the campaign is to demand a fairer deal for the Midlands' television makers.

The campaign website has an online petition at www.crbmidlands.org.uk

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The storyliner’s story

21 February 2013
Posted in TV

An interview with TV storyliner and scriptwriter Kristy Jones

How did you get started in writing and storylining?

The first piece of work I wrote was a play for infant school children for a theatre in education company in south Wales. I only wrote it so I could direct the play; at the time I hadn't even thought of writing as a career and was concentrating on becoming a theatre director. It was a great experience, a four-year-old child won't sit down and pay attention to something that doesn't interest them. I got to see first-hand what worked and what didn't – there were a few rewrites during the first few days of the tour! My first storylining work was on Belonging for BBC Wales. I had worked with Sophie Fante, who's currently script producer on Casualty, on the first series of Torchwood. Sophie is a brilliant producer and mentor and now a good friend. On Torchwood Sophie was the assistant producer and I was a lowly trainee. She was brilliant at giving me opportunities and taking the time to explain how things worked, and coming from a theatre background to something like as huge as Torchwood, I definitely needed it. After Torchwood ended Sophie went on to work as executive producer on the final series of Belonging an she asked me to come along to storylining. I couldn't believe that you could sit in a room telling stories, having a laugh and getting paid for it.

What are the key elements of work as a storyliner?

A lot of it is creative, the actual creation of the stories and characters, but it's also quite technical and involves logistics. You have to ensure that there's enough content in each episode, that every episode has a dramatic peak. You have to use the appropriate number of interior and exterior scenes, make sure that your character count is accurate.

Having said that, every show is different. Soaps like Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Pobol y Cwm are very slick. They are massive shows with lots of different people working on them so the production system has to work. Hollyoaks and Eastenders had similar systems in my time. The writers would come in to a story conference every couple of weeks. Everybody would sit round a table and throw ideas around about what stories should be told over the next block of episodes. After story conference the story team would take all the ideas away and try to work out the structure of that story. We needed to decide things like how many episodes it would take to tell the story, how it would fit in with other long running stories, and if all the actors available to tell that particular story.

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Imison and Tinniswood Awards - call for entries

08 February 2013
Posted in Radio

Revised submission deadline: Wednesday 10 July 2013. Revised transmission period: 31 July 2012 until 31 October 2013

The Imison Award - £1,500

We would like to offer our congratulations to the 2012 winner Do You Like Banana, Comrade? by Csaba Székely, produced by Marion Nancarrow, Radio Drama London for Radio 4. Listen again on Radio 4, 2.15pm on Wednesday 20th February. Read more about the 2012 Imsion. Read more about the BBC Audio Awards.

The Imison Award encourages new talent by rewarding the best original radio drama script by a writer new to radio. The work must have been broadcast in the UK from 31 July 2012 until 31 October 2013 and be the first dramatic work by the writer(s) that has been broadcast. When submitting 15-minute episodes from a series or serial we will require consecutive episodes (including the first episode) to make up at least 45 minutes. An adaptation for radio of a piece originally written for another medium will not be eligible. There is no entry-fee and submissions are accepted from any nominating party. Submissions must consist of:

A completed nomination form;
Three copies of the writer's original script and a CD of the broadcast (further copies may be requested)
Aupporting statement, synopsis and author biography (no more than 250 words each - please email to Jo)

The prize is judged by the Broadcasting Committee of the Society of Authors. We are grateful to the Peggy Ramsay Foundation for donating the prize money. Read Alison Joseph’s views on the judging process.

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Avoiding Arabella

07 February 2013
Posted in Books and Poetry

John Morrison presents his guide to book festival etiquette (with apologies to Emily Post)

Prologue

Let’s call her Arabella. She is young, well-spoken, has an upper second in English from a leading university, and works in the publicity department of Fudgwick and Brittle, once a leading independent London publisher, now part of a giant international conglomerate.

You are an underpaid author, whose new biography of the famous 18th century courtesan twins, Sally and Polly Tickler, has just had a warm review in the Telegraph. Your phone rings.

‘Hi. It’s Arabella Toplofty from Fudgwick and Brittle. We’ve had a bid from a book festival in Lower Sneezing. Are you free to do a Tickler twins event in the first week of October? You are? That’s brilliant. Don’t worry about a thing – I’ll make all the arrangements.’

I’ll make all the arrangements. It’s the kind of thing J K Rowling hears from her publisher every day. You’re flattered. You can relax. Everything will be taken care of. Arabella…what a lovely name…

You have just made a terrible mistake.

The First Rule – A Danger To Be Avoided

The first rule of book festival etiquette is to bypass Arabella Toplofty. If you are an author, insist on making all arrangements directly with your hosts in Lower Sneezing.

A chaperone from the publishers’ PR department, however well-intentioned, will probably muddle up the dates and times, put you on the wrong train, or fail to forward your emails. Leave Arabella to file her nails.

The same principle applies if you are running a book festival and inviting authors. Send a booking form for the author (not Arabella) to fill in and return by email. Write in the exact date and time of the event, the fee (if any), the contact details of the person who will meet the author and host the event, and how to claim travel expenses. Ask the author to provide his or her postal address, home and mobile telephone numbers, and a list of technical requirements.

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Nottingham Groundswell

05 February 2013
Posted in Events

A Writers’ Guild event on 16 February as part of the Nottingham Festival of Words

Stephen Lowe Nottingham Groundswell will be exploring the distinguished literary reputation of this region. And asking is the current vibrancy of its literary scene with award-winning writers such William Ivory and Alison Moore due to the inspiration of this great tradition – the world of D.H. Lawrence & Alan Sillitoe – or to more practical factors, such as encouraging promoters, a lively cultural scene and writer support groups?