#Hackgate

Very excited to announce that we've selected 3 outstanding scripts for our #Hackgate Rapid Response. With only a week to turnaround the scripts, we received 179 submissions in total (though rather disappointingly only 10-15% of these were from female writers).

You've entertained us in the office for the past week with your explorations of the dark and seedy - the writing strongly reflected desperate times calling for desperate measures, with tales of journalists and family members alike outdoing and double crossing each other.

One observation which kept cropping up in the scripts (and gave us a chuckle) - was the striking resemblance of the former chief executive of a a major news organisation to a certain flame-haired former lead singer of a British blue-eyed soul band :-)

We were chuffed to have writer Tim Price on board to help judge the scripts. We first fell in love with Tim when he was one of The 50 writers in our partnership with the Royal Court Theatre. From the Welsh valleys, Tim has written for Welsh language TV and Secret Diary of a Call Girl before being was chosen for the BBC Writers Academy in 2009 and writing for Eastenders, Casualty, Holby and Doctors. His debut full length play For Once just ran to rave reviews at Hampstead Theatre. And he hosts a new writing night in a Mongolian Yurt in Cardiff. What a guy.

Below are the winning scripts, along with some feedback from Tim on why they were chosen:

I've Been Expecting You by Othniel Smith

"I've Been Expecting You has great characterisation and is consistently written. This is a script where we all felt safe in Othniel's hands whilst reading it."

Phone Hacking is a Juvenile Business by Ross Churchill

"Phone Hacking is a Juvenile Business is a script with bags of energy. I loved the heightened, stylised form and felt Ross was able to say more about the scandal than others who chose naturalism."

This is Jack, Leave a Message, Alright? By Jimmy Osborne

"This is Jack, Leave a Message, Alright? is a brave, beautiful piece and shows the writer's confident use of form. I could imagine it being an afternoon play."

We also want to give honourable mentions to Tom Crowley for "Have you Seen Lucinda Jameson" and Richard Budden for Suspicion, both of which came very high on our shortlist.

A big thank you to all who entered.