Dame Sian Phillips, Marcus Brigstocke and Sarah Kendall all winners at the BBC Audio Drama Awards

The ceremony took place on the evening of Sunday 28 January, at the Radio Theatre in BBC Broadcasting House.

Writer Ayeesha Menon and the Midnight’s Children production team were awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award for their adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s seminal work, which formed the centrepiece of Radio 4’s Partition programming in August.

Sian Phillips said: “It would be hard to calculate the debt I owe to the BBC - in human as well as professional terms. My most extreme professional experiences occurred between the age of 11 and 19 in the BBC Welsh studios in Park Place in Cardiff, where I was pushed, pulled, coaxed, encouraged and taken down a peg or two in a wild variety of jobs related to acting.

"Waiting in the wings at some important event in, say, The Palladium will never lose its terror, but nothing in my life has ever compared with the experience, during the days of live radio, reaching the giddy heights of a grown-up play for the first time and hearing the Announcer in London say, 'This is the BBC Home Service. Saturday Night Theatre'. That mixture of fear and exhilaration would be hard to repeat."

The winners at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2018, which recognise the cultural significance, range and originality of audio drama, also included Marcus Brigstocke for his play The Red; Sarah Kendall for her Australian Trilogy comedy series; and Nikesh Patel for his leading role in Midnight’s Children.

Marcus Brigstocke’s first radio drama The Red won the Best Single drama category, whilst the best series or serial drama winner was Black Eyed Girls by Katie Hims. BBC Radio 3’s production of A Clockwork Orange won the Best Adaptation category.

In the acting categories, Nikesh Patel was recognised for his role in Midnight’s Children, whilst Christine Bottomley won Best Actress for the second year running, and the third time in total, for her performance in Solitary. Rupert Evans was awarded Best Supporting Actor for Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Sabrina Sandhu won best Debut Performance for her role in Black Eyed Girls.

Sarah Kendall’s Australian Trilogy was the comedy (longform) winner on the night, whilst the comedy (sketch show) winner was Jocelyn Jee Esien for It’s Jocelyn.

Writer and Society of Authors President, Philip Pullman, was the presenter for the Imison Award for Best Audio Drama Script by a New Writer and the Tinniswood Audio Drama Award for Best Radio Drama Script. These were awarded to Adam Usden for The Book of Yehudit and Sarah Woods for Borderland, respectively. The Tinniswood and Imison Awards were established by the Society of Authors and Writers’ Guild of Great Britain in memory of the radio drama producer Richard Imison and the radio drama writer Peter Tinniswood.

The ceremony was hosted by Tracy-Ann Oberman and featured a performance by Mark Kermode’s band The Dodge Brothers.

The full list of winners is below:

• Best Single Drama: The Red by Marcus Brigstocke, produced by Caroline Raphael, Pier Productions for BBC Radio 4
• Best Audio Drama (Series or Serial): Black Eyed Girls by Katie Hims, produced by Sasha Yevtushenko, Radio Drama - London for BBC Radio 4 
• Best Adaptation: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, produced by Gary Brown, Radio Drama - Manchester for BBC Radio 3
• Best Actor in an Audio Drama: Nikesh Patel (Midnight’s Children on BBC Radio 4)
• Best Actress in an Audio Drama: Christine Bottomley (Solitary on BBC Radio 3)
• Best Supporting Actor/Actress in an Audio Drama: Rupert Evans (Long Day’s Journey into Night)
• Best Debut Performance in an Audio Drama: Sabrina Sandhu (Black Eyed Girls)
• Best Use of Sound: War of the Worlds, sound by Cal Knightley, Mike Etherden, Alison Craig. Produced by Marc Beeby, Radio Drama – London for BBC Radio 4
• Best Scripted Comedy (longform) Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy by Sarah Kendall, produced by Carl Cooper, BBC Studios for BBC Radio 4
• Best Scripted Comedy (sketch show) It’s Jocelyn by Jocelyn Jee Esien, Liam Beirn, Laura Major, Tom Coles, Ed Amsden and Sarah Campbell. Produced by Suzy Grant, BBC Studios for BBC Radio 4
• Best Online/Podcast only Rathband: A Digital Tragedy, produced by Jeremy Mortimer & John Wakefield for 5th Quarter, podcast on iTunes etc
• Imison Award for Best Audio Drama Script by a New Writer: Adam Usden for The Book of Yehudit
• Tinniswood Award for Best Audio Drama Script: Sarah Woods for Borderland 
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Dame Sian Phillips 
• Outstanding Contribution Award: Ayeesha Menon and the Midnight’s Children production team

Notes to Editors

• The BBC Audio Drama Awards cover audio dramas first broadcast in English in the UK between 1 October 2016 and 31 October 2017 - or first uploaded/published for free listening online in the UK during the same period
• Entries were welcome from all makers of audio drama, and were not restricted to BBC broadcasts
• Each programme producer could enter up to four categories (one entry only per category)
• The audio drama had to be submitted exactly as broadcast or uploaded
• There was no entry fee
• The Imison Award is administered by the Society of Authors and the Tinniswood Award by the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild

Pictured: Dame Sian Phillips and David Suchet

IP

Related BBC Links

• BBC Audio Drama Awards