We had a busy year in 2018 and are looking forward to the year ahead. We are currently pulling together the content for our Scottish Writers’ Festival which will be held in Glasgow this coming May and will post a save the date in the coming weeks, so please keep a look out for that!
In the meantime, find out about everything that we’ve been up to in 2018 in Scotland and beyond.
Scottish Voices
We set up our first Scottish Voices writers groups in 2018 and are currently working with 34 writers over the course of 18 months. During this period, we will run a range of sessions and practical help such as industry talks and workshops, script editing support, targeted writing opportunities and space to write two days a month within the BBC Scotland Pacific Quay Building.
In November 2019 our current Voices groups will finish after their 18 month programme and we will start with a new writers group for another 18 month period across 2020/2021.
Writer Events in 2018
We ran a range of events last year and hope to do more in 2019. The sessions were either open to all writers or smaller talks for our Scottish Voices groups. They included In Conversation with Nicole Taylor, Q&A with Rob Williams, Q&A with Paul Logue and In Conversation with Annie Griffin. You can watch interviews we recorded at the time with Nicole and Annie below.
Current Active Opportunities for 2019
BBC Scotland - Digital Drama Pilot
4 writers each received a 10 minute paid script commission and two of those projects have now been selected to go into production in February 2019. The two successful writers are Stef Smith and Stewart Thomson.
BBC Radio Scotland - 4 x 15 minute Radio Comedies
6 x 15 minute script commissions of which 4 scripts will be selected and go into production in March 2019 for broadcast in April and May 2019 on BBC Radio Scotland.
BBC Learning - Audio Stories
A targeted opportunity for writers to develop an audio story for the BBC Scotland Learning team and for the younger audience as part of the Scottish Curriculum.
BBC Children's Podcast
A targeted opportunity for 1 or 2 writers for podcasts aimed at the CBeebies and CBBC audience.
Coming Up or In Development for 2019
BBC Radio Drama - The Lexicon of Murder
We ran a bespoke residential in conjunction with the BBC Radio Scotland Drama team in 2017 and the team have now had a Radio 4 Drama commission for 7 x 45 minute radio plays and 7 x 44 minute simultaneous Podcasts, which are due to be broadcast in early 2020. Gwen Adshead (one of the UK's leading forensic psychiatrists) is consulting on the drama.
4 writers have been commissioned - Anita Vettesse, Audrey Gillan, Eileen Horne, Lucia Haynes
Scottish Writers' Festival
An open invitation to over 200 Scotland-based writers. We are planning the festival to take place in May 2019 with full details to be announced.
Find out more about our 2017 festival which included a Q&A with writer and showrunner Steven Moffat
2018 Writers' Successes and Commissions
River City Writers' Shadow Scheme
5 new writers were selected for River City’s first Writers’ shadow scheme. All five writers are Scottish. Two of the writers were success in gaining commissions for the next series in February 2019 - Richard Flynn and Damian Mullen.
CBeebies - Feeling Better
A script commission for writer Raisah Ahmed
Children's Digital Project
4 writers were commissioned to treatment for CBBC Children’s digital ideas
The Biggest Weekend Festival Monologues (Scotland)
In collaboration with BBC Introducing/BBC Music we ran an open script callout for writers in the Nations and Regions.
Something Blue by Fiona Connor was produced by BBC Writersroom Scotland at Scone Palace. Watch it above!
We also put two more shortlisted scripts into development and produced them in collaboration with BBC Scotland - Poo Girl by Gillian McCormack and When Pish Comes to Shove by Kevin Walls. Watch them below.
Find out more about the Biggest Weekend monologues and watch all 4 from around the UK
Comedy Writers' Programme
A new programme in collaboration with network BBC Comedy Commissioning in which we paired four writers with Scottish Indies to develop a comedy script. Four writers were given a paid commission for a 30 minute script each.
Keiron Nicholson – Young Films
Bryce Hart – Happy Tramp North
Lorna Martin – BBC Studios (Comedy)
Susan Riddell – The Comedy Unit
BBC Radio 4 - Sketchtopia
3 writers were commissioned for this new BBC Radio 4 sketch show - Maryam Hamidi, Joanne Lau and Ling Low.
CBeebies - Molly and Mack
4 x 15 minute Script Commissions for writers Xana Marwick (1 episode) Maryam Hamidi (2 episodes) and Seyi Odusanya (1 episode).
BBC ALBA - FUNC
This open call for a new Gaelic Sketch series resulted in 19 writers receiving sketch commissions.
Scot Squad (produced by The Comedy Unit)
3 writers were successfully commissioned for the TV comedy show Scot Squad - Steven Lawrence, Martha Barnett and Tom Worsley.
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