Archives for July 2011

You can now download 3 brand new Holby City scripts from our script archive.

Click the links below to download the scripts - you can also watch a clip from each episode.

Series 13, episode 33 - Damage Control by Tahsin Guner

Series 13, episode 36 - In Between Days by Justin Young

Series 13, ep 40 - Going it Alone by Rebecca Wojciechowski

We've just uploaded some excerpts from one of the most engaging sessions at this year's TV Drama: The Writers' Festival - The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz's 'Team Writing US Style' workshop.

Currently based in the U.K. working on a new spy drama for the BBC, Frank talked about the differences between writing for British and U.S. television, exploring in depth the crucial role the writers' room and showrunner play in American television writing, and how he has managed to adapt this model whilst working in the U.K.

Listen back to some highlights from the session below:

We've just added the script for BBC Two drama - The Night Watch to our script archive:



The Night Watch by Paula Milne

A tragic and tender adaptation of Sarah Waters' best-selling novel by the award-winning Paula Milne (Small Island, Endgame, The Virgin Queen and The Politician's Wife), The Night Watch is set against the turbulent backdrop of Forties London and tells the stories of four young Londoners inextricably linked by their wartime experiences.

Watch a clip below:

Listen back to Paula Milne talking about the process of adapting Sarah Waters' novel at the Writers' Festival 2011.

Busy morning in writersroom HQ - our readers have been in the office reading through the entries for our CBeebies new writing competition, Get a Squiggle On, which closed last week.

We've had over 400 entries - recurring themes that have emerged so far are aliens, detectives, kids entertainers, carnivals/circuses, technology, tooth fairies, amnesiacs and biscuits!

Many of the entries have been beautifully presented with colourful moodboards and quirky illustrations - one even came with a dragon costume, and another with a banana (?!).

A big thank you to all of you entered - it's been heartening to see that a large number of scripts have come from first time writers. We're really enjoying reading your entries and will report back when we have more news on the shortlist.

Good luck!

Today, BBC Radio Drama have launched our bi-annual Alfred Bradley Bursary Award. It is a fantastic and unique opportunity for Northern writers interested in writing for radio.

It seems to be harder than ever at the moment for writers to get their big break in any medium, be it radio, TV, film or theatre. As the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award has an open submissions process, it provides a real opportunity for bold and original writing to shine through, especially for those writers who perhaps haven't yet built up a writing CV, as every entry is judged on the merits of a single submitted script (in any format) and a separate, one page radio drama idea.

As the Producer for Radio Drama Development I will be running the award in partnership with the Writersroom, and alongside Jo Combes, New Writing Development Manager, we will blogging about any Award updates, as well as trying to answer any questions which crop up which are not covered in the FAQ.

To begin proceedings though, we thought you might be interested in hearing from Rachel Dixon, one of our judges this year and the daughter of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC drama producer whose life and work the Award commemorates. Alfred Bradley joined the BBC in 1959 as a radio drama producer and went on to make an immeasurable contribution to the development of radio drama. His work was widely recognised as outstanding, especially as he set out to enhance the drama tradition of the North, broadcasting the work of the region's writers and actors to national audiences. Among the dramatists Alfred helped to launch during his career were Henry Livings, Alan Plater, Keith Waterhouse, Alan Ayckbourn and Stan Barstow.

Rachel Dixon

First and foremost, we would to thank for the BBC for their incredible support and belief in the bursary over the past 20 years. Dad absolutely loved the radio and he had a passion for storytelling. He loved all aspects of the creative process of producing plays - working closely with the writers, actors and technicians and everyone behind the scenes. He got enormous satisfaction when working with new talent and he had a very special way of encouraging and nurturing aspiring writers and actors.

This year is the 20th anniversary of my fathers' death and it is a huge testament to him that the bursary's reputation continues to grow from strength to strength. The bursary is an amazing legacy to my fathers' career, which the Bradley family are incredibly proud of. Thank you for taking part and we all hope that this years awards will discover another wonderful writer.

Further details about entering the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, including entry requirements, FAQ, script examples and an entry form can be found here on the Writersroom website.

Ahead of Thursday's deadline for Get a Squiggle On, here are some more highlights from our Q&A with Grandpa in my Pocket writers, Jan Page and Mellie Buse.

The entries are pouring in thick and fast - if you haven't yet sent your script, find out how to enter on the competition page.

An absolute must watch is the brand new historical drama, The Night Watch, which premieres on BBC Two tonight at 9pm.

Paula Milne's ambitious adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel is a poignant tale of liberation and loss, following the lives of four young Londoners throughout different stages of the Second World War.

At last week's Writers' Festival, Ben Stephenson - BBC Controller, Drama Commissioning, interviewed Paula Milne in a very special masterclass session focusing on The Night Watch.

Listen below to an audio excerpt from the session to hear Paula talk about the themes which attracted her to the novel, how she approached structuring it for screen, and the differences in working on an original piece versus an adaptation:

With only a week left to enter our CBeebies new writing competition, Get a Squiggle On, while you're in the midst of putting the finishing touches to your scripts - we thought you could do with a bit of encouragement from the experts. We met recently with the lovely Jan Page and Mellie Buse, writers and creators of Grandpa in my Pocket, to talk about the challenges and rewards of writing for a preschool TV audience.

Watch the clips below for their advice on writing scripts that make the little ones tick (we'll have more for you next week):

To find out how to enter Get a Squiggle On and win the chance to develop your idea alongside the Cbeebies team, visit the competition page.

Hi, I'm Bill Grundy, winner of the 2011 BBC Future Talent Award for my screenplay Hefted, and lately the first Headspace Writer in Residence at MediaCity, Salford.

Having blagged myself into the 2nd Writers' Festival purely on the strength of a competition win, rather than any genuine broadcast credit, I confess I felt a bit of a fraud, rubbing shoulders as I was with some of the best scriptwriting talent in the country. But I needn't have worried. The Festival, ably hosted by Leeds College of Music and slickly run by the heroically hard-working Writersroom staff, did indeed boast a stellar line-up of speakers, but it never lost sight of its main purpose - to be a festival led by writers for writers - of whatever level of experience.

From the elegant yet rousing keynote speech from Paula Milne, through a lively debate on the political role of the TV writer, the event progressed at a blistering pace via a range of panels, workshops, masterclasses and Q&A sessions. After the first half-day, I already felt as if I'd been on some week-long residential course. There was a lot of good stuff to choose from, but highlights for me include John Yorke's exhilarating gallop through 2000 years of script analysis, from Horace to Blake Snyder - with the conclusion that all the gurus are basically peddling the same message. We have, Yorke argued, a biological need to impose order on reality, and, in fiction, that order takes pretty much the same shape in every generation and culture. I only wish he'd had a bit more time: mid-way, I gave up trying to take notes, and kicked myself for never having taken a Pitman's shorthand course.

I enjoyed Danny Brocklehurst and Nicola Shindler's self-effacing account of their writer/producer relationship in the making of the brilliant mini-series Exile, and was impressed by Hugo Blick's eloquent contributions to several sessions, not least his own, in which he gave a fascinating description of his role as writer/director/producer of The Shadow Line. By contrast, American writer Frank Spotnitz (X-Files, Millennium) gave interesting insights into the U.S. team-writing approach, which he's currently employing over here on a projected spy series.

And, although I've heard much the same from him on other occasions, Jimmy McGovern still managed to be hugely entertaining and inspiring. His stress on the importance of writers being passionate about their work was echoed again and again, in various ways, by speakers throughout the event: yes, study structure; yes, understand genre; yes, know your audience, but always, always write what you want to write - what you really care about and what moves you, personally. That's something I've begun to realise myself, as a mere wannabe, and it was heartening to have it confirmed by the most celebrated TV writers of our time. At the close of the final session, I heard someone behind me say "I enjoyed that. Now I'll have to go home and write." That's a pretty fair tribute to the Festival, I reckon.

Bill Grundy was the winner of the 2011 BBC Future Talent Award. Read his winning script, Hefted, in the BBC writersroom script archive.