BBC Writers Academy

Applications are now open for the BBC Drama's Writers Academy

Outline

The training you receive from BBC Drama’s Writers Academy will give you the specific skills required to write for some of the BBC’s most popular series such as Doctors, EastEnders, Holby City and Casualty, and a springboard to write across all the BBC’s drama output.

To be eligible for this scheme, writers will have already had at least one professional (paid) drama commission in film, television, radio or theatre.

The Writers Academy will train up to 8 writers a year, over a period of twelve months.

Course Breakdown

The course will break down as follows:

Introduction to Writing for Continuing Drama Series

This is a 3 month training course in writing for Continuing Drama Series which will consist of a number of workshops and lectures accompanied by intensive writing exercises and analysis.

During this period each writer will write a broadcast episode of Doctors.

The training course will be lead by John Yorke, Controller, Drama Production and New Talent, and other industry experts from all areas of drama production.

Course participants will be required to attend classes at the BBC premises in Elstree for three days per week, and one day at Television Centre in London.

Some expenses will be paid for writers based out of the London area for this period.

Writing for Broadcast

After you have completed the initial training and the Doctors script, your work will be assessed. If you have reached the required standard for production on Continuing Drama Series you will begin the next phase of the training.

Writers will rotate across Casualty, Holby and Eastenders in turn, writing a broadcast episode, spending a maximum of 12 weeks on each show.

At the end of the 12 months, each writer will have written for each of the four shows.

Core team & HQ

The course will be run and administered from BBC TVC in London W12 and BBC Elstree Studios. The course will be overseen and run by a Course Producer.

The deadline for applications is: May 5th 2010. More information and how to apply is on the web site.

BBC Axes Friday Play

Yesterday The Stage reported that next year the BBC Radio 4 will axe its long-running drama strand, the Friday Play, as a result of budget cuts at the station.

The broadcaster’s commissioner for drama, Jeremy Howe, met recently with both radio producers and members of the Writers’ Guild of Britain to outline the station’s plans for drama going forward, including the decision to pull the Friday Play from 2011.

It has also emerged that the broadcaster will reduce the number of Friday Play dramas it commissions this year, with just 12 original dramas planned in the slot, compared with 20 last year.

A spokesman for the BBC confirmed the move, and said BBC Radio 4, along with other networks, is “trying to ensure it obtains the best possible value from its budget”.

“As a result, we have decided to decommission the Friday Play. This is in order to ensure we do not make ends meet simply by cutting deeper into the budgets of other drama slots. We intend to commission some of the dramas that would have run on Fridays in other drama slots across the schedule. In exceptional circumstances, we will run dramas on Fridays where there is no daytime slot that could accommodate the subject matter or treatment,” he said.

The spokesman added that the Friday Play slot has the smallest audience of any drama strand on the station, and he said Radio 4 “felt losing a single strand was preferable to risking the quality of drama output across the schedule”.

“The network’s commitment to drama remains strong and we will continue to commission nearly 200 single plays a year and more than 100 series and serials, in strands including Woman’s Hour drama, Afternoon Play, Classic Serial and the Saturday Play,” he added.

At his meeting with the WGGB, Howe is also believed to have told the guild that Woman’s Hour drama, which has traditionally nurtured new writing talent, was now looking to commission the “biggest and best writers”.

Tony Doyle Short-List

The BBC has announced the short-list for the 2010 Tony Doyle Bursary Award:

• Murder in the Lakelands by Patrick Nash
• Only One Problem by David Ireland
• The Dealer of Ballynafeigh by Rosemary Jenksinson
• A Pocket Full of Honour by Raymond Tierney
• The Pilgrimage by Chris Boyle
• East Side Princess by Vanessa Pope
• Christie by Chris Croucher & Mark Benyon

2010 Tony Doyle Bursary

The Tony Doyle Bursary for New Writing provides a fantastic opportunity for writers new to television. Previous winners of the prestigious £2,000 television writer's award are Bill Murphy, Brian Dungan, Dominque Maloney, Danny Stack, Abbie Spallen and Martin McSweeney and Martin McNamara.

The judging panel for entries will include John Yorke, Kate Rowland, Liam Cunnigham, Lorcan Cranitch, Peter Norris, Sally Doyle, Emma Norton from Element Pictures, Sarah Stack and Tina Kellegher.

The bursary's core aim is to assist the development of new writers. To achieve this, the chosen finalists will take part in a residential seminar where they will undergo intensive, structured, script sessions with members of BBC Northern Ireland Drama's development team and with top script writers and producers.

The aim of the bursary
The aim of the bursary is to encourage television drama about Ireland by writers new to the medium. This may include writers experienced in other forms of fiction as well as new writers.

Prize
The winner will receive a cash prize of £2,000. The winner along the finalists will be invited to a residential seminar run by the BBC Northern Ireland Drama Department. The aim of the seminar is to introduce the writers to the world of television drama through a series of intensive sessions with the BBC Northern Ireland development team and experienced practitioners - producers, directors, actors and fellow writers. The winner and runners-up will be announced in January 2010.

All submissions should be received by 4th December 2009.

Further information and the rules of entry are available on the web site.

BBC Increases Drama Budget

The Stage reports that BBC2 is raising its drama budget by 50% over the next three years. At the BBC Vision Forum, director Jana Bennett announced the changes.

She added: "I believe the genre needs support. It will be targeted at distinctive, authored series that continue the great tradition of BBC2, with the aim of providing the next generation of television classics."

In addition, Bennett said investment in BBC children's programmes would be increased by at least £25 million over three years. ...

"It's our duty to take more risks with new forms and ideas. To commission home-grown content for British audiences. To offer different windows on the world. To be committed to a wide range of genres and subjects – and not just those with guaranteed mass appeal," Bennett said.

Ireland could do with some of this focus on the importance of home-grown drama.

BBC Radio Sketches Needed

The BBC 4 sketch comedy radio show, Recorded for Training Purposes, is searching for new writers.

The third series went out in January 2009. For that run there was a core writing team of people who’d written on the first two series but the show was also opened up to, well, anyone who wanted a go. Of the 110 sketches broadcast, exactly half were from the core writers, with the other half being sent in by non-commissioned writers.

Every sketch sent in (about 2,000) was read by at least two people from BBC Radio Comedy, with the best stuff gradually being filtered towards the recording scripts, and the stuff that got most laughs getting on air.

It has a cast of six - three men, three women - who can, between them, play most ages.

Series four will, like series three, be written by a mix of a) some people who have written on previous series and b) everyone else in the world.

Only two sketches will be accepted per applicant - details on how to apply on are on the web site.

The deadline for entries is: 12:00 (midnight), 2 October 2009

Newsjack Seeks Writers

BBC Radio 7 has launched a new topical sketch show called Newsjack which seeks to scrutinise the news, views and issues of the day via comedy.

It is seeking new writers for material for the show.

The pilot aired last Thursday 4 June at 11pm, and has been commissioned for an initial six-week run. Each episode can be replayed for a week after broadcast via iPlayer.

Sketch submissions for the show must arrive each Monday by midday.

Further information on the programme and its submission process is available from the web site.

ITV May Get License Fee

The BBC reports that under proposals in the British government's Digital Britain report there are plans to divert 3.5% of the television license fee to ITV and other public service broadcasters from 2013.

The BBC Trust has come out against the government's proposals, saying removing part of the licence fee would "damage BBC output".

Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said it "must not become a slush fund to be dipped into at will".

"This would lead to the licence fee being seen as another form of general taxation. The trust will not sit quietly by and watch this happen," he added.

Lord Carter, author of the Digital Britain report, said that a proposed merger between BBC Worldwide - the corporation's commercial arm - and Channel 4 would not be "a forced marriage", but that the government "would be ready to facilitate it".

Referring to a consultation, he said the government would not be "running a referendum on it" but would take the views of licence fee payers into account.

Channel 4's chief executive Andy Duncan welcomed the report, saying it "offers crystal clear acknowledgement of Channel 4's vital role in ensuring public service competition to the BBC".

BBC Drama Writers Academy

Applications are now open for this year's BBC Drama Writers Academy.

The Academy will take up to eight writers, and train them over 12 months to write for some of the BBC's most popular series such as Doctors, EastEnders, Holby City, and Casualty - as well as being a springboard to write across all the BBC's drama output.

To be eligible for this scheme, writers must have already had at least one professional drama commission in film or television, or a radio drama script produced, or one theatre piece performed professionally.

The course begins with a three month training course in writing for Continuing Drama Series which will consist of a number of workshops and lectures accompanied by intensive writing exercises and analysis. During this period each writer will be commissioned to write a broadcast episode of Doctors.

The training course will be led by John Yorke, Controller, In-House Drama, and other industry experts from all areas of drama production.

Course participants will be required to attend classes at the BBC premises in Elstree for three days per week, and one day at Television Centre in London, and some expenses will be paid during this training period for writers based out of the London area.

After you have completed the initial training and the Doctors script, your work will be assessed. If you have reached the required standard for production on Continuing Drama Series you will begin the next phase of the training.

Writers will rotate across Casualty, Holby and Eastenders in turn, writing a broadcast episode, spending approximately 12 weeks on each show. At the end of the 12 months, each writer will have written for each of the four shows.

Find out more about the Drama Writers Academy on our website.

To find out more and apply, visit the BBC jobs website.

Deadline: 5 May 2009

White Girl Online

The television drama White Girl recently won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama.

The BBC has made the script available via the BBC Writersroom web site.

BBC College of Comedy

The BBC is looking for comedy writers to apply for a place in its College of Comedy.

The scheme will run for 12 months, and six successful applicants (writing pairs will be treated as a single applicant) will be attached to an existing production, and will also be mentored in the creation of original work.

The scheme is open to writers of half hour narrative comedy, and to sketch writers from the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland.

Applicants will have had their work broadcast; had work commissioned for development by a broadcaster or production company; or had their work performed professionally, either as a writer or a writer/performer. Applications which do not meet these criteria will not be considered.

Writers applying to the College should submit the first ten pages of a narrative comedy script, or a portfolio of no more than six sketches, together with a CV.

Applicants may indicate in their application whether a DVD or CD of their work is available, which may be requested during the selection process. They should not be sent unless requested. Links to online examples of work should be included in the CV.

Only one entry per applicant will be considered, and the deadline for submissions is noon on 24 April.

A short-list of no more than 12 writers will be invited for interview in the week of May 25. Applicants will be notified as to whether or not they have been successful by the end of the week.

The successful writers will attend a residential workshop in the course of the programme, be attached to a production (with expenses paid), and be mentored in the development of an original script, which will be showcased at the end of the scheme, and for which a fee will be paid.

As a condition of the scheme, original work by the writers must be submitted to the BBC under a 'first-look' deal, which will run for 12 months from the scheme's end in April 2010. The BBC undertakes to decide within three months of submission whether or not it wishes to commission the work.

Submissions should be sent to CollegeofComedy@bbc.co.uk, which will be acknowledged by e-mail. If candidates have not heard from the college by 18 May 2009, then they will not have been shortlisted. It will not be possible to enter into correspondence in relation to individual entries.

7 on 7

The BBC Writersroom is looking for writers for a new topical sketch show, called 7 on 7, that will be transmitted on BBC Radio 7 in May 2009.

The show gets comic mileage from the news on each of the last seven days - political, cultural, sports, and trivia. We'll take one day at a time and examine what happened on that day. Or we might use the events on a particular day to talk about a related topic. If a story develops over the week then we can revisit it in the show.

We'll have a regular host and a cast of performers who can recreate the names who've made the news in the last week and play the ones that we invent.

The tone will be lively, satirical, and distinctly irreverent.

The show will be thirty minutes long and initially have a run of ten weeks. We want an array of writers who can extract the maximum comic potential out of what's happened in the news and put some satirical spin on events. We'll use some established writers but we're particularly interested in introducing new writers to radio comedy.

Deadline: 10am, Friday 27 February 2009

Successful applicants will be invited to a masterclass with David Mitchell on Monday 9th March 2009.

Information on how to apply is on the web site.

360° Scriptwriting Festival

BBC Northern Ireland and Tinderbox Theatre Company present a four-day festival of script writing skills and talks in conjunction with the Tony Doyle Bursary 2009.

These are advanced workshops and talks for people interested in making a living from script writing in TV, radio, film, theatre or online, and take place from Wednesday 28th — Saturday 31st of January in Studio One, Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast.

Programme

Wednesday 28th January

• 5.30 - 7.15 pm – Talk by Tony Jordon on Writing for TV
• 7.30 pm onwards – Story Brainstorm Extravaganza for all festival participants.

Thursday 29th January

• 2pm - 4.30pm – Workshop with Nuno Bernardo on Online Drama
• 5.30 - 7.00pm - BBC Writersroom Roadshow.

Friday 30th January

• 2pm - 4.30pm – TV Drama talk.
• 5.00pm - 7.30pm - Tony Doyle Bursary announcement.

Saturday 31st of January

• 10.30am - 1pm – Workshop with Conor Mitchell on text and music
• 2pm - 4.30pm - Workshop with Moira Buffini on stage writing

Places are free, but to book a place on any of the sessions send an email or letter stating which sessions you would like to attend, your contact details and a short paragraph about your writing experience.

Information on how to apply for the events is available on the web site.

Belfast Roadshow

The BBC Writersroom Roadshow is coming to Belfast on Thursday the 29th of January, from 5:30pm - 7:00pm, in Studio One, Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue.

Here's your chance to put your questions to the people who assess up to 10,000 scripts a year for the BBC. You can also bring your script to hand in to us in person - but please make sure it meets our guidelines.

For a place on the guest list email your full name in the body of the email, with the subject heading Belfast Roadshow, to: writersroom.events@bbc.co.uk

BBC Writer Interviews

Over on the BBC Writers Room you can read an interview with screenwriter Russell T Davies about his career, as well as an interview with poet and playwright, Amanda Dalton, about her recent radio adaptation of the classic silent film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

What the BBC Wants

On the BBC Writersroom Blog they've put together a collection of links to video interviews with various BBC Execs, in which they discuss matters to do with commissioning work for the BBC.

Tony Doyle Bursary 09

BBC Northern Ireland is once again looking for applicants for the Tony Doyle Bursary for New Writing.

The aim of the bursary is to encourage television drama about Ireland by writers new to the medium. This may include writers experienced in other forms of fiction as well as new writers.

The winner will receive a cash prize of £2,000. The winner along with 3 finalists will be invited to a residential seminar run by the BBC Northern Ireland Drama Department. The aim of the seminar is to introduce the writers to the world of television drama through a series of intensive sessions with the BBC Northern Ireland development team and experienced practitioners - producers, directors, actors and fellow writers. We intend to announce the winner and runners-up in January or early February 2009 and to hold the seminar in April 2009.

More details on the submission process are available on the web site. The deadline for applications is 30 November 2008.

Badly Drawn Series

The Sunday Business Post reports that Dublin company Jam Media will produce a new €5 million BBC animation series.

The BBC will provide over the half the funding, with additional money coming from Irish sources.

John Rice, managing director of Jam Media, said that the series should air on RTÉ in 2010. He added:

"The big advantage with producing the series in Ireland is that you can go to the BBC, for example, and tell them that you could get between 30 and 50 per cent of the necessary funding in Ireland yourself with initiatives like Section 481, the BCI and Irish Film Board."

Principal photography work for Badly Drawn Roy began last week. The series will debut on the BBC next March.

"This is our most ambitious project so far," said Rice.

"We'll be producing the series in Ireland and contracting in 90 writers, crew, actors and animators to work on the project in addition to our own staff. We're looking at a 12week live action shoot and 30 weeks in animation production."

The BBC picked up the series following Jam's short film release of the same name in 2006.

Produced under the Frameworks Scheme with funding from RTE, the Arts Council and Irish Film Board, the original film was presented as a mock documentary about an animated character called Roy and his life as part of an ordinary live action' family in a Dublin suburb.

Rice said the format for the new BBC series had been re-jigged to appeal to a pre-teen audience.

"It was commissioned by BBC drama, which is really unusual for a kid's TV series," he said. "The idea is that it might appeal to children on the verge of puberty who often feel kind of different - Roy is a cartoon boy living in the real world.

The original short film upon which the series is based was co-written by Alan and Frank Shannon, and directed by Alan Shannon.

Hare Wants More TV Drama

In a recent article in The Times the playwright David Hare has criticised the BBC for its abandonment of the single television play.

Even in the days when single plays were allowed on majority channels, drama was identified as a conspicuous source of mischief and expense. How could anything which cost so much be so infuriatingly unpredictable in quality? Little wonder, then, that controllers chose to steer their investment away from individual stories that could never be repeated into long-running series with familiar characters and cliff-edge endings that would keep the ratings ticking over nicely.

It is, of course, for these same sour commercial reasons that fiction has responded to its own demotion by increasingly choosing to pass itself off as fact. More and more single films, if they happen at all, seem merely to reconstruct events about which we have already read. Figures such as Margaret Thatcher, Christine Keeler, Frankie Howerd and Lord Longford are mimicked and lent motives in a stuttering flow of biopics, behind which lies some depressingly tame thinking: "Oh, they'll be interested in this; they already know about it."

Hare does point out that the BBC is airing two theatre adaptations of his work: My Zinc Bed (tonight on BBC 2 at 9pm) and A Number (next week). Despite this he feels these small gestures towards original drama are not enough in a period when the BBC is under continued pressure to justify its funding from television license money.

More BBC Scripts Online

The BBC Writers Room has recently added two new scripts to its Script Archive:

• White Girl by Abi Morgan, a single drama that was transmitted as part of BBC2's White Season in March this year.
• Damned, Damned, Damned by Frank Cottrell Boyce, a radio play that is part of his series of Friday Plays, One Chord Wonders, currently transmitting on Radio 4.