My Experience on BBC Writers Voices

Last week we announced the latest cohort of BBC Writers Voices from across the UK and Republic of Ireland. These 69 writers, from a diverse range of locations and backgrounds, have just finished a six-month development programme combining in person sessions at our five bases and online workshops.

Sarah Agha, one of the writers from our London hub, volunteered to share her experience of being part of Voices from a writer's point of view. Find out more from her below.

Meet all the BBC Writers Voices 2025

For the last ten years I have been working as an actor in theatre, film and television and freelancing as a journalist and film curator. A goal of mine for the last five years has been to break into screenwriting, but where to start?

I love television and there are so many new shows to devour all the time across so many different genres. There are a number of British writers I admire and have often thought, how did they piece this masterpiece together? Especially when the text is tight and we fall in love with characters who make us laugh or cry as we follow them navigating life’s joys and challenges.

BBC Writers Voices is an intensive six-month programme to learn the core tools and knowledge to write for TV. This is exactly what I needed!

I applied for the scheme with my script ‘Bags and Bodies’. Since the 2020 lockdown I had been drafting various iterations of this show. I was hell-bent to get it made. So much so, I was not investing time and energy into generating new ideas and challenging myself to try something new.

For context, the show is a comedy about a Palestinian Irish family working in a chaotic family business - inspired by some of my own bizarre experiences working in our real-life topsy turvy family business.

But since October 2023, I started feeling very differently about the type of story I want to tell, particularly as a Palestinian at this devastating time. To be honest, I felt totally lost on my writing journey. Because I had been writing comedy, I kept thinking, is comedy an appropriate tool to use? How can we laugh now?

I felt like I had this story bursting out of me but I needed to find a new way to channel some of my energy (and frustration) in a productive way.

The offer to join the BBC Writers scheme was the guidance I craved. This scheme was the perfect opportunity for me to try something new, at a time when I needed it most.

After submitting my script and waiting for many months (I’m used to this part - I’m an actor) I received an email towards the end of 2024 inviting me to interview for a position on the scheme. 

I enjoyed the interview mainly because so many of the questions were about which shows I love and what kind of work I would aspire to make. It wasn’t intimidating - it was quite fun!

Being accepted onto the programme gave me the confidence boost I needed - especially after we were informed they received over 6,000 submissions. Whilst I knew my script needed some rethinking, it reminded me this was a story which was worth telling.

During our induction, I was impressed by how other members of the scheme could conjure up new ideas and concepts so readily. I had been so obsessed by my mission to make ‘Bags and Bodies’, I was not able to picture anything else.

Our development producer, Zahra Al-Sultani, warned us we would need to pitch three new ideas and then select one to develop over the course of the six months. Initially I found this daunting and challenging. My desire to work on my passion project was so entrenched I initially struggled to come up with new ideas and characters. But having a deadline to hit forced me to work outside my comfort zone and push myself to think about fresh ideas and worlds.

We then had encouraging peer to peer sessions where the rest of our cohort offered feedback on which of our three ideas they thought had the longest legs. I went from feeling nervous about trying something new to totally energised about starting from scratch. The possibilities felt endless! 

Once we had settled on our new respective stories, we started to meet industry professionals to help us find our next steps in the development process. Many of the speakers work outside of the BBC at various award-winning production companies and leading agencies.

One of the biggest tools I have taken from BBC Voices is the understanding that TV is formulaic (but never boring!) and there are certain rules and beats you need to hit in order for your show to work. It also needs to feel different, fresh and exciting. This is where our own specific voice comes in.

Our first session was hosted by Development Executive Justine Potter who offered an empowering reminder, ‘Nobody writes like you’. Even if the world is familiar to viewers you can still bring something distinctive to it.

BBC Voices focuses on drama. As someone who had applied to get on the scheme with a comedy-drama script, I was curious to see if I would be able to hack prioritising narrative drive over focusing on what makes an audience laugh.

In drama, it is the narrative beats which push the story forward. The comedy is incidental. Whereas with pure comedy, the jokes and gags are paramount.

“Even within drama there’s a massive appetite for wit now”, Justine Potter revealed.

With that in mind, I was excited to get cracking! I started working on a new show called ‘Blood Is Thicker’ - a dark drama comedy with complicated characters who make messy choices, hurting those they love in the pursuit of success and happiness. I have found it cathartic and fascinating to explore the close connection between tragedy, pain, grief and comedy.

Many of the earlier online sessions were about the importance of structure. The first time I wrote a full script, I plunged in head first. I had not diligently laid all the necessary foundations. Beth McCann, a screenwriting and script consultant, drilled us on three and five act structure and the importance of establishing the inciting incident as quickly as possible. What is the catalyst for the story? And do you have enough story engine?

A significant chunk of the course was spent applying the ‘10 Questions’ (based on the 10 Questions defined by John Yorke) to our protagonist. Beth quipped, “Characters are like onions, you keep learning about them as they unravel and the show goes on.”

Justine’s advice was to make a big list of things that happen. “You almost need characters who are fatally flawed,” she said, “Then put 20 obstacles in their way.”

“Ignore the noise about what commissioners want and just focus on making your show ‘good’. It is competitive out there, but the good stuff always floats to the top.”

Working on my ‘big list’ was really helpful when it came to drafting the series outline document we were required to submit by the end of the six months.

Our final assignment consisted of a five page Pilot Outline which included our chosen title, logline, the pilot summary, a description of the planned plot for the rest of the series and why the show has the potential to return. I found the intensive process of thorough planning immensely valuable and now that I have learnt how to outline, I will be using it going forward for all my projects. 

By the end of the scheme, I am under no illusions as to how hard it is to carve out a career in TV screenwriting and we might face disheartening barriers on the long road ahead.

But commissioning Editor Danielle Scott-Haughton emboldened us to “show you are someone who is not going to give up. This is for those who endure”. Whilst, out of context, that may sound like a recruitment campaign for the Hunger Games it is something I am holding onto as I march forward on my journey.

Through the scheme, I have definitely learnt to be a better writer and I will keep training to hone my craft. To “avoid the writing muscle from atrophying” as Danielle put it.

For someone who found it hard to generate new ideas, I am now eager to find time to write an outline for a third potential show, as well as revisiting ‘Bags and Bodies’ with all the new tools I collected from this empowering experience.

Thank you BBC Writers Voices!