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.

27 January 2013
Posted in Radio

Tinniswood Award winner Murray Gold at the BBC Audio Drama Awards (pic: Anne Hogben/WGGB)

Kafka the Musical by Murray Gold has won the 2012 Tinniswood Award for the the best original radio drama script by any writer broadcast in the period 1 January 2011 – 30 June 2012. The Award is jointly administered by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and the Society of Authors. The prize of £1,500 to the winner is generously sponsored by the ALCS (the Authors’ Licencing and Collecting Society). The judges are Meg Davis, Jonathan Myerson and Tim Stimpson.

30 January 2012
Posted in Radio

Stephen Wyatt wins Tinniswood Prize for best script

The winners of the first ever BBC Audio Drama Awards were announced last night at a ceremony hosted by actor David Tennant in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House, London.

The awards aim to celebrate and recognise the cultural importance of audio drama, on air and online, and to give recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers, and others who work in the genre.

In conjunction with the Society of Authors and The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, the winners of the Imison and Tinniswood Awards were also announced and presented by playwright and Guild President, David Edgar.

The winners were:

Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Drama Script 

Gerontius by Stephen Wyatt

Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script by a writer new to radio

Amazing Grace by Michelle Lipton

Best Audio Drama

Lost Property - The Year My Mother Went Missing by Katie Hims (Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4P)

Best Actor in an Audio Drama

David Tennant, Kafka: The Musical by Murray Gold (Producer: Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3)

Best Actress in an Audio Drama

Rosie Cavaliero, Lost Property: A Telegram From The Queen by Katie Hims (Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4)

Best Supporting Actor/Actress in an Audio Drama

Andrew Scott, Referee by Nick Perry (Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4)

Best Scripted Comedy Drama

Floating by Hugh Hughes (Producer: James Robinson, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4)

Best Online Only Audio Drama

Rock by Tim Fountain (Producer: Iain Mackness, Made in Manchester for The Independent Online)

Best Adaptation

The History of Titus Groan dramatised by Brian Sibley (Producers: David Hunter, Gemma Jenkins and Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4)

Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama

Bad Memories by Julian Simpson (Producer: Karen Rose, Sweet Talk Productions for Radio 4)

Innovation Award

The Unfortunates adapted by Graham White (Producer: Mary Peate, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3)

Read the full shortlists for the Awards

11 January 2012
Posted in Radio

The shortlist for the first ever BBC Audio Drama Awards has been announced. The awards aim to celebrate and recognise the cultural importance of audio drama, on air and online, and to give recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers, and others who work in the genre.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held on Sunday 29th January 2012 in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House in central London and presented by actor David Tennant. In conjunction with the Society of Authors and The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, The Imison and Tinniswood Awards will also be announced and presented by playwright and Guild President, David Edgar.

View the full shortlists

Update: Guild President David Edgar's article about the Awards in The Guardian

11 January 2012
Posted in Radio

Entries are invited for prestigious radio drama awards run by the Writers' Guild and the Society of Authors

Submission deadline: Monday 10th February 2012

The Tinniswood Award for best original radio drama 

The Tiniswood Award honours the best original radio drama script broadcast in the UK over 2011 and until 30 June 2012, with a first prize of £1,500. The work must be an original piece for radio, and may also include the first episode from an original series or serial. 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. The judges reserve the right to call in the subsequent episodes if required. We welcome 30-minute plays provided they were stand-alone and that characters and situations are original to the writer. An adaptation for radio of a piece originally written for any other medium will not be eligible.

Submissions will be accepted from producers only and are restricted to a maximum of two entries per producer. Submissions must consist of:

• a complete nomination form from the producer;four copies of the writer’s script (as broadcast)
• a non-refundable entry fee of £50 - cheques should be made out to ‘The Writers’ Guild’ or by BACs to Unity Trust Bank, Account Name: Writers' Guild of Great Britain Tinniswood Award, Account No. 2013995, Sort Code: 08-60-01. Raising an invoice can be arranged
• a supporting statement, 250 word synopsis 250 words author biography (which should be emailed to anne@writersguild.org.uk)

Entries will not be returned and should be sent to Anne Hogben, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, 40 Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4RX.

Judges for the 2012 award are yet to be confirmed. We are grateful to the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society Ltd (ALCS) for their generous sponsorship of the Tinniswood Award.

The Imison Award for best original radio drama by a writer new to radio 

The Imison Award encourages new talent by rewarding the best original radio drama script by a writer new to radio, with a first prize of £1,500. The work must have been broadcast in the UK over 2011 or scheduled for transmission until 30 June 2012. It must be the first dramatic work by the writer(s) that has been broadcast. It may also include the first episode from an original series or serial. An adaptation for radio of a piece originally written for another medium will not be eligible.

Submissions will be accepted from any party and must consist of

• a completed nomination form
• three copies of the writer's original script and recording of the broadcast (further copies may be requested if the work is short-listed)
• a supporting statement, 250 word synopsis and 250 word author biography (which should be emailed to jmccrum@societyofauthors.org)

Entries will not be returned and should be sent to Jo McCrum, The Society of Authors, 84 Drayton Gardens, London, SW10 9SB.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.

08 November 2011
Posted in Radio

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain has added its voice to growing calls for a rethink of the BBC’s proposed near-abandonment of Birmingham in favour of Bristol, Cardiff and Salford.

The Guild welcomed a House of Commons motion tabled by Steve McCabe, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, and sponsored by seven other West Midlands MPs. The motion protests against BBC plans to move much of its work away from the West Midlands. The Guild and its West Midlands Branch added their support to a campaign by the actors’ union Equity for the BBC to reconsider its plans to move all BBC factual and most network radio programming out of the region.

Writers’ Guild President David Edgar, a member of the Guild’s West Midlands Branch who has written several radio plays produced at the BBC's Birmingham Mailbox studios, commented:

'If the BBC's plans go ahead, a proud tradition of drama production in the West Midlands will be narrowed down to The Archers on radio and Doctors on television. The BBC lost its last one-off drama producer earlier this year, on top of the axing of the Asian soap Silver Street. Many Birmingham writers – along with producers, technicians and actors – will no longer be able to work in their region, and one of the best radio drama studios in the country will lie idle for most days of the year. The opportunity to write for the BBC in Birmingham has made an important and irreplacable contribution to what has hitherto been a lively and growing writerly community in the region. The BBC should think again.'

31 October 2011
Posted in Radio

Women in the UK radio industry are significantly under-represented at senior levels, according to a new report produced by Skillset for Sound Women, a new organisation dedicated to highlighting the issues faced by women in the radio industry.

The report, Tuning Out – Women In The UK Radio Industry, shows that just 17% of people operating at board level are female, and 34% are senior managers.[1] This compares poorly with the TV industry, where 29% of board members are female, though still just 37% of senior managers are women.

This correlates with a dramatic drop-off in the number of women in the more senior age brackets. Only 50% of women working in radio are over 35 years old, compared with 60% of men. This drops to 9% in the 50-plus age bracket, compared with 19% for men.

Tuning Out also shows that women are under-represented in technical and studio-based roles. Just 1% of radio editors, 9% of people working in engineering and transmission and 10% of studio operators are women.

With only 16% of women in the industry having dependent children living with them, compared with 25% of men, it seems apparent that many women are choosing to leave the industry when they decide to start a family.

Sound Women is a network of more than 200 women working in audio that is committed to raising the profile of the women who work in the radio and audio industry. 

Skillset’s executive director, Kate O’Connor, said: 'We hope that this report will stimulate debate around the issue of female representation in our industry, and are extremely pleased to be working as a founding member of Sound Women to highlight these important issues.'

08 September 2011
Posted in Radio

The shortlists have been announced for the annual Tinniswood and Imison radio drama awards

The Tinniswood Award honours the best original radio drama script. The shortlist this year (for drama broadcast in 2010) is:

• The Climb, by Andrea Earl
• Sarah And Ken, by Rebecca Lenkiewicz
• Setting A Glass, by Nick Warburton
• Gerontius, by Stephen Wyatt

The prize of £1,500 is donated by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, and the judges were Robert Bathurst, Paul Donovan and Nell Leyshon. The Award was established by the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and is administered by the Society of Authors.

The Imison Award honours the best original radio drama script by a writer new to radio. The shortlist this year (for drama broadcast in 2010) is:

• Atching Tan - A Tober Of Loki Nogo, by Dan Allum 
• The Pursuit, by Matt Hartley
• The Barber And The Ark, by Marcia Layne
• Amazing Grace, by Michelle Lipton

The prize of £1,500 is donated by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation. It was founded and judged by members of the Society of Authors’ Broadcasting Committee (Alison Joseph (Chair), Mike Bartlett, Lucy Caldwell, Nazrin Choudhury, Christopher William Hill, Karen Liebreich, Sue Limb, Karl Sabbagh, Colin Teevan and John Taylor).

The presentation of the awards will take place on the evening of Sunday 4th December at a private reception at the Radio Theatre, London.

31 August 2011
Posted in Radio

The Writers’ Guild has agreed increases of 2 per cent in the minimum fees for BBC radio writing – in line with the salary increase for lower-paid BBC staff.

The new rates (pdf), which took effect from 1 August 2011, bring the key rate for writing original radio drama to £89.05 per minute, or £5,343 for a one-hour play (two transmissions), and £892.50 per episode for The Archers. Our agreement with the BBC provides a sliding scale for other types of drama: pre-existing format 90% (£80.15 per minute); dramatisations 85%, 75% or 65% (£75.69, £66.79 or £57.88 per minute) depending on extent of work required; semi-dramatised narrations 55% (£48.98 per minute).

Minimum rates for short stories and abridgements are also increased. The attendance payment remains at £60. The rates were agreed in negotiations between the BBC, the Guild, the Society of Authors and the agents’ trade body the PMA.

Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett commented: “With the BBC agonising over yet more cuts, we must be grateful for even a small increase in writers’ fees, even though it is below inflation. But it is worrying that the number of plays commissioned is declining year by year, and Radio 4 is axing at least a third of its short stories. The Guild will continue to fight all such cuts.”

Higher minimum rates for BBC Radio Features and Talks Contributions (pdf) have also been agreed.

18 July 2011
Posted in Radio

The Writers' Guild has added its voice to the protests against the announcement that Radio 4 will reduce the number of short story readings from three to one next Spring.

Writers' Guild General Secretary Bernie Corbett said:

'Here is yet another meaningless cut that will save Radio 4 in a whole year less than the cost of a single coat of paint on the shiny floor of a TV talent show. For six months the BBC has been endlessly “consulting” on its next round of cuts, named without apparent irony Delivering Quality First (DQF), necessitated by the six-year licence fee freeze agreed with the incoming coalition government without any public consultation at all.

'Every time DQF is mentioned we are told that the days of “salami-slicing” under which every BBC service has to deliver the same percentage cut, are over and from now on the BBC will have to concentrate on the areas that no commercial broadcaster is interested in. Short stories, that literary endangered species, would appear to be exactly the kind of material that should be protected.

'The new Controller of Radio 4 has finished her honeymoon period. Now it is time for her to beat down the door of the Director-General and inform him that Radio 4 – and more to the point the listeners of Radio 4 – will simply not put up with any more of this pointless cultural vandalism.'

Update: The Society of Authors has published actions that people concerned about the cut to short stories can take.

Update ( 20 July 2011): In today's Daily Telegraph, in an article called Why Radio is the Ideal Home for Short Stories, Allan Massie largely agrees with Bernie Corbett's fury and argues that if the BBC offers fewer examples of the art of the glimpse, listeners as well as writers will have the right to feel cheated. 

Update (8 August 2011): Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4, revealed a partial climbdown from her plans to axe two-thirds of Radio 4’s short story output when she met Writers’ Guild General secretary Bernie Corbett at the end of July.

There was outrage when a BBC press release stated that 'from next spring, the number of short stories will be reduced from three to one a week on Radio 4'. An internet petition quickly gathered more than thousands of signatures, including many wellknown writers and performers. Williams, however, told Corbett the figures 'were not precise' and that she would be cutting the number from 144 to 102, most of which would be broadcast first on Radio 4 with 'a small number' premiered on digital Radio 4 Extra, but repeated on Radio 4 later. In addition, more short stories from the BBC archive would be repeated on 4 Extra.

Corbett warned Williams she risked a perception building up that Radio 4 would drift away from creative, cultural and literary writing and instead focus on news, current affairs and international coverage. Sacrificing short stories to make room for an extra 15 minutes on The World At One seemed to confirm this view. Williams countered that she was scrapping Americana and would replace it with a new Sunday night comedy.

The change in policy on short stories has failed to satisfy campaigners who demand that the full 150 per year should be retained – pointing out that until recently there were five per week, or more than 250 per year. They also believe that the new slots on Sundays and Fridays are less user-friendly than the mid-afternoon slots on weekdays.

18 April 2011
Posted in Radio

Jake Yapp gets to grips with writing topical sketches for BBC radio

Listen to the sketches mentioned in this article:

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It is 8.26 am and I am trying to think of something funny to do with the Archers and young people. And I have another half an hour or so before the sketch I haven’t yet written will be played out on national radio.

It’s a faintly nerve-racking job. I mean, it’s not like working in A&E, or, far worse, doing supply teaching, but it’s fairly hairy at times. My job is to make sketches for the BBC 6Music Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show. And I make them fresh on the morning of broadcast, each one-two minute sketch delivered from scratch in about an hour. Here’s how it works.

6.30am

My alarm goes off. I try to crawl out of bed without disturbing my girlfriend Lucy – although Maisie the cat sees to that. Depending on the weather, and how cold the flat is, I pull on my usual classy work attire: tracksuit trousers, a t-shirt, socks and a dressing gown. It is a hot look. And it screams ‘Media Professional’. I traipse downstairs to the spare bedroom, and sit down at my laptop. It is already on – it came on several minutes ago. It’s on a timer thing. This whole job relies on streamlining and systems – partly because of the fast turnaround, partly because I am a lazy sod.

6.45am

The Email arrives from the 6Music production team. They have been up for ages, bless them, in Western House, scouring newspapers for stories for the show:  ‘Morning. Found this story of the new Archers spin-off for “youngsters”. We were thinking of some crunk version of the theme tune then some kids saying “blud” quite a bit. Something like that? And a podcast trail pls. Thanks Jake!!!!’

This is my brief for the day. There’s a link in the email to the news story, about the launch of the new youth-oriented spin-off from The Archers, Ambridge Extra. My mind starts churning. I decide to go for a straight spoof. But it will take time to do it right. So I decide to do the podcast trail first, and save the Ambridge Extra spoof for later.

7.00am

I start thinking about the podcast trail. There’s a daily Shaun Keaveny podcast, and pretty much every day I am asked to make a trail to promote it. It’s a really broad brief. I can do it about pretty much anything I like, as long as I crowbar in some reference to the podcast. 

I find this harder in many ways, than the sketch. I like having a brief – the more restrictive the better, in many respects. The vast, wide expanse of ‘anything’ makes it almost impossible to write. How do you choose the best idea when the ideas are unlimited?

28 March 2011
Posted in Radio

William Gallagher (left) and Jason Arnopp discuss their experiences writing Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish

Jason Arnopp: I'd always admired Big Finish as a fine example of a company which grew itself from scratch, pulling off that tricky combination of fannish enthusiasm and real professionalism, while building an empire of spin-off full-cast audio drama. I'm a lifelong Doctor Who fan and was interested in audio - in particular, the atmospheric possibilities of that medium.  So I contacted Big Finish script editor Alan Barnes, told him about the films I'd written before and threw an outline idea for a story at him. It was the creepy, Blair Witch-esque affair that would become the title-story of the anthology The Demons Of Red Lodge & Other Stories. To my delight, he not only liked it, but didn't want any changes to that outline. How did you get the job yourself, William?  

William Gallagher: It sounds quick and obvious in retrospect, but I was working on a BBC drama project and got the chance to write for Moray Laing, editor of Doctor Who Adventures magazine. You can't have a good lunch with me without gathering somehow that I am a drama nut and that I adore radio drama, so shortly after I started there Moray introduced me to Alan Barnes at Big Finish. I pitched a couple of ideas and though I think it must've taken a couple of years, one of those fitted what he was looking for in this CD and I was commissioned to write Doing Time last January. And I tell you, the day I wrote my first line of dialogue for the Doctor I genuinely got a shiver. I didn't expect that. What is it about Doctor Who? 

Jason: Doctor Who is absolutely ingrained, hard-wired, into so many people's childhoods. It probably made many of us want to be writers in the first place - that was certainly true for me. And I think that when you find yourself writing for an incarnation of the Doctor with which you grew up (in my case Peter Davison), that Doctor's voice comes quite easily, if not effortlessly, to mind. But yes, I definitely felt that shiver. After that, you just get on with the business of serving the story and the characters and the audience well, don't you? You'd written radio drama before, whereas I had worked in radio sketch comedy, so had a few new things to learn, particularly when it came to making scene transitions clear. It's easy enough to do it, but harder to do it without shouting exposition at the listener and starting each scene with "Doctor, look - we've walked into a forest at night, with dense trees!"  

William: Scene transitions were easy for me because I hear the story that way: not as a sequence of separate scenes but one whole. I started out in BBC local radio producing packages and learnt to build sequences. I enjoy knowing just when to cut and just when to linger. Plus, radio audiences are very, very fast at picking up the tiniest clues and I am that audience myself: I've heard gorgeous plays where scenes change mid-syllable and I've heard plenty where they don't. But then in post-production Big Finish added a piano piece to the end of a particular scene and it was exquisite. Just a perfect transition. I will ask for them in all future scenes, everywhere. The much harder, newer thing for me was that it's not Doctor Who unless you have a monster: I believe fervently that the best monsters are people. So I did write a roaring monster but I made him a side character while I concentrated on a very human villain. You're a horror writer, did you find monsters easier than I did?

Jason: I do like a bit of horror – all right, a lot of horror – and so monstrosities tend to parade from my brain with some ease. I do believe that Doctor Who always needs a monster and these generally must be as menacing and alien as possible. I take your point, though, that sometimes a human(oid) villain such as The Master or Davros can be more interesting – there's certainly more of a debate to be had between them and the Doctor. Happily, the show often enjoys the best of both worlds, with seemingly human villains who transform into all kinds of abominations, and I follow that tradition in The Demons Of Red Lodge. I'm certainly glad we both got to visit Big Finish's studio on the day that our stories were recorded.  I had a great time watching Peter Davison (The Doctor) and Sarah Sutton (companion Nyssa) saying my dialogue – how did you enjoy the experience?

William: It was embarrassing. I've just produced a Radio Times video that involved filming a clutch of star names and I was entirely blasé (or, as I believe others call it, professional). But standing there in Big Finish's studio I think I convinced Peter Davison I was a starstruck fan – because as we first shook hands I spotted Sarah Sutton behind him. I had such a crush on her when she was Nyssa in the TV show and when I was somewhat younger than I am. Such a crush that the studio day ended with her saying ‘Thank you for a lovely script’ to me and my replying, quite suavely ‘Gibber’. Otherwise it was perfectly normal. To be serious, it's a smart production and I am enjoying working with them, enjoying getting drama on its feet and collaborating not as the writer who never shows up but all of us together and hands on. 

Jason: I must also confess to a little gibbering in that studio. There, that feels better. And yes, Big Finish is great for encouraging that collaborative process. In the world of film, I've been lucky to form an alliance with the brilliant director Dan Turner. After making a couple of shorts and developing various projects together. we shot a horror film called Stormhouse last year, on which I was writer and executive producer.  The latter title, in this case, basically means I have much more creative input and control than the average writer.  I must admit that, while writing audio, I often miss that ability to tell all with a single image. Audio and audio/visual drama are very different beasts, but with equal strengths. Chief among the audio medium's advantages, of course, is unlimited visual budget.

William Gallagher can be found on Twitter as @wgallagher.

Jason Arnopp  on Twitter as @jasonarnopp.

 The Demons Of Red Lodge & Other Stories is out now on CD and download from Big Finish Productions