I like a challenge but when we decided in February to combine the launch of BBC Writersroom in Wales with the first BBC Welsh Writers Festival, I did wonder if I’d taken on too much! But as the day of the event dawns I’m glad that we’ve made it happen so fast. We all know the writer's mantra ‘show don’t tell’ – this day long festival is a way we can show the breadth of what the BBC Writersroom does – with sessions on TV drama, Continuing Drama, Radio Drama, Comedy, writing for Children’s programmes and a room dedicated to digital storytelling.
But most importantly we wanted to bring the Welsh writing community together to find out – how can we help? What is needed? How can we make BBC Writersroom a success in Wales? This isn’t about us preaching to you – this is the start of a conversation that we want you all to be an active part of.
Wales has story in its veins; I grew up surrounded by natural storytellers and characters and we've seen some of these reflected on screen, brilliant homegrown drama from Hinterland to Torchwood to Stella. But there's room for more versions of ourselves – multi-cultural Wales, the urban estates, (not just rural!) North Wales, middle class Wales… drama and comedy where our Welshness can either be central or incidental. We are here to help writers tell these stories and, most importantly, get them made.
Wales is a bilingual country and the story is slightly different with Welsh language drama and comedy – co-production has opened up some real opportunities and there is already some fantastic drama on S4C such as 35 Diwrnod, Hinterland and Y Pris. We are keen to support writers who write in Welsh and we are going to work with a Welsh language script editor who can be across submissions and help facilitate workshops and events in Welsh.
We want to show writers that there are many ways to get their story out there and it makes sense for a writer to try their hand at other forms and to experiment with different ways of telling stories. Look at the reach of radio drama like James Fritz's Comment is Free (winner of both the Imison Award and the Tinniswood Award 2017) or Matthew Broughton’s Tracks (which was produced by BBC Drama in Wales for Radio 4). A key aim of BBC Writersroom in Wales is to help join up all the existing producers who are working with and developing writers and to try to create more opportunities by partnering with them. For instance, we will be working with National Theatre Wales to run an intensive twelve-week writers’ development programme - ‘Welsh Voices’.
We're also pushing to create new opportunities at both nation and network level, places where writers can hone and develop their craft, where talent has a chance to incubate and find their voice. This year we are supporting It's My Shout with a two-day script development workshop. We will also be working with BBC Wales in finding and developing the next generation of comic voices for shortform content.
The Writers festival will be the first event of many events that we will put on to support and develop the Welsh writing community. BBC Writersroom Wales will also run sessions at the Llandudno Craft of Comedy conference at the end of March and at Machynlleth Comedy Festival in April. We also plan a fully bi-lingual launch and writing workshop in North Wales.
I'm looking forward to meeting and working with you in the months to come!
