The prizegiving ceremony took place at the BBC Audio Drama Conference at Leeds Playhouse.

From 239 submissions, the finalists were:

Benjamin Bee
Chrissy Jamieson Jones (Winner)
Julie Skeat
Lee Thompson (Special commendation)

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a £5000 award for a Northern writer who is new to radio. The winner also gets a 12 month mentorship with a BBC Radio Drama producer and the opportunity to gain a BBC Radio 4 drama commission.

The winner of the 2023 Award, Chrissy Jamieson Jones said:

“Wow! I am stunned and delighted to have won the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and can’t wait to hear Mouth on the radio. Thank you to Nadia Molinari and Pippa Day for their thoughtful feedback and support and thank you to the judges and the BBC Writer’s Room for this fantastic opportunity.”

Alison Hindell, Commissioning Head of Radio 4 Drama said:

“It was great to read all the shortlisted plays but Chrissy’s stood out for its confident pacing and sophisticated structure, as well as a moving and gripping portrayal of two women brought together in circumstances neither of them would have chosen. The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is an important element in the nurturing of new writing from the North of England and we are proud to be able to continue to support it.”

Lee Thompson, receiving a Special Commendation for the 2023 Award, said:

“I’m thrilled to have received a Special Commendation for my script Awaydays. It was brilliant working with Jessica Mitic to develop the script into something I’m very proud of. It was amazing to hear an extract read out along with all the other brilliant finalists on Saturday. I’m very grateful to the Alfred Bradley Award and BBC Audio Drama North for the opportunity.”

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer. Previous winners include Lee Hall, Peter Straughan, Cat Jones, Furquan Akhtar and most recently Paul Jones.

Find out more about the shortlisted writers, read synopses of their scripts and their biographies

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

The four writers and their shortlisted plays are:

No Man's Land by Benjamin Bee

Finn believes that his life sucks because he never had a dad (or any positive male role models). But when a friend convinces him to post an advert online he has to test that theory.

Mouth by Chrissy Jamieson Jones

Mouth is the story of two mothers who lie to protect themselves from loss. It asks the question: when your world is falling apart, what lengths would you go to in order to protect your family, but also yourself?

Has Anyone Seen Kelsey? by Julie Skeat

As her mum’s cancer quickly advances, a hapless young call centre worker faces grown-up life all on her own. In this blackly comic coming-of-age drama, Kelsey manages to completely botch her suicide, start planning her mum’s funeral and find an unlikely guardian angel, all in the space of a week.

Awaydays by Lee Thompson

Disillusioned with his life, sacked from his job, and drowning in family debt, a young man with seemingly nothing to lose decides to steal himself a better life, by helping his cousin rob the houses of wealthy footballers.

These shortlisted writers will now undertake a development process with mentorship from a BBC Audio Drama North Producer ready for the final judging process this Autumn.

The selected winner will be announced in September and awarded a £5,000 cash bursary and continue to develop their drama script to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

We wish everyone the best of luck and look forward to announcing the winner later this year.

Find out more about the writers below:

BENJAMIN BEE was born in Newcastle, where he currently lives and works. A troubled childhood meant he left school aged 14 without any qualifications. Since then he’s graduated from the London Film School and became a multi-award-winning writer & director, whose short-form work has been long-listed twice for the BAFTA’s and screened at over 500 festivals worldwide.

In 2019 he was selected as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow, and is currently in development on his first feature, MARWELL, a touching, time-travel comedy-drama, without any time travel. Marwell was selected for Venice Biennale College–Cinema, EIFF Talent Lab Connects, and is in development with the BFI Film Fund.

Ben is also developing multiple projects for TV and was recently selected for the BBC Comedy Collective – designed to nurture the next generation of comedy talent. He proudly identifies as neurodivergent and disabled. Ben is represented by Hannah Linnen at 42 management.

Chrissy Jamieson Jones wrote her play MOUTH on the Liverpool Royal Court's Stage Write programme. She has previously been shortlisted for the Shelagh Delaney Award, and has had short plays produced in London and locally in the North West.

She is currently collaborating with Box of Tricks Theatre on their Pen Pals programme and juggles writing alongside being a mum and re-training to be a psychotherapist.

After twelve years in the education sector, Julie Skeat tired of writing in secret, left primary teaching and undertook Writing on the Wall’s Write to Work course. More than a reboot, it was a total reprogramming, giving her the injection of confidence needed to call herself a writer. Last summer she was chosen as one of the Writersroom Write Across Liverpool writers and wrote a pilot episode for her drama Pop! about her experience of burnout.

She is currently working on her first full length play as part of the Liverpool Everyman Playwrights’ Programme. In BURIED, a daughter reliving her mother’s escape from domestic abuse warns of the dangers of carrying someone else’s story.  Julie’s characters aren’t used to the spotlight, tending to shuffle their feet and hang around in the margins. Many of these working-class voices think they are not worth listening to and she wants to prove them wrong.

LEE THOMPSON is a screenwriter and playwright from Liverpool. He is a graduate of the Liverpool Everyman Playwriting Course. His play QUALIFIED, a one-person show with music about teaching and mental health, has been performed at the Playhouse Studio in Liverpool and Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. Lee has also written plays for the Everyman Youth Theatre and the Alligators Collective at The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester.

For television, Lee worked on the final series of Jimmy McGovern’s MOVING ON, contributing the second episode of the series, SECRET LIFE. He is currently developing new work for television and stage. Lee is represented by Julia Mills at Berlin Associates.

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award including previous winners, great tips and advice on writing for Radio and read scripts in our online Script Library.

After careful consideration, we’re delighted to announce the writers who have reached the longlist for The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2023 run by the BBC Writersroom in conjunction with BBC Audio Drama North:

Rory Aaron
Oghomwen Adeyinka-Edward
Sian Armstrong
Benjamin Bee
Karen Featherstone
Annie Grace
Sofia Hadley-Johnson
Chrissy Jamieson Jones
Emmy Khan
Matthew Kirton
Craig Lumen
Nathan Powell
Mark Robertson
Mandip Singh Dhesi
Julie Skeat
Matthew Smith
Juliana Sumsion
Lee Thompson 

The shortlist will be announced in early July after which the selected writers will each be assigned to a Producer in the Audio Drama North team who will work with them to prepare their scripts for Audio ahead of the final judging process.

Thank you to all who entered, it was a pleasure reading your work.  We would encourage you to keep submitting to our future opportunities, including our Open Call submission window which will be accepting submissions towards the end of this year.

Do keep across our website for details of the latest writing schemes and events on our scriptwriting Opportunities page.

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a bi-annual opportunity for writers based in the North of England who are new to writing for audio. It offers a £5,000 bursary to the winner as well as the chance of a Radio 4 Drama commission.

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer and is run by Audio Drama North in conjunction with BBC Writersroom.

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award including previous winners, great tips and advice on writing for Radio and read scripts in our online Script Library.

Paul, Emilie and Alex - can you tell us a little bit about your writing careers and how much writing you'd actually done before you applied for the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award (ABBA)?

Paul Jones: I was writing fiction mainly. I'd kind of always written, but I didn't start to take it seriously until my forties, and then I always liked writing dialogue in particular. I had a couple of plays on, nothing major, you know, but I'd been stabbing away for a few years.

Alex Clarke: I had sort of come to writing sideways. I'd never really seen myself as a writer or that there was a career to be had.  I was mainly either on the dole, cleaning or a support worker. I was moving around all these different working class jobs and writing was something that I was doing mainly for my own mental and wellbeing so, I’d kind of come to it through a mental health route.

It was something that I used to figure out my own problems and things that happened to me in the past, and it was very much a cathartic practice for me. It was never really something that I saw could even become a career.  So I was probably writing for about 10 years for my own self and within different support groups that I was a member of.

Then I wrote a little piece about a crime that happened to me in my teens. I wrote this moment into a play and then sent it to the wonderful DYSPLA down in London.  The team there work with dyslexic writers and autistic writers, and they thought there was something in it. So from there, I wrote little pieces of fringe theatre and then I decided I wanted to write television because my first love is television. I'm quite a visual person.  I then entered the New Writing North screenwriting scheme and won it and went into development with Channel 4 with a piece that I’d written about childhood, autism and domestic violence.

As soon as that went into development, I was awarded the Alfred Bradley. At this point I’d been throwing a lot of things into the darkness with my writing and then within one year, 2 years, a lot of things kind of collided and came together for me.

Emilie Robson: Not an awful lot had been going on for me. I'd written a couple of plays with friends, and we put them on like a free fringe, but nothing professionally produced, nothing commissioned, and then I'd written a couple of solo things that I've gotten like shortlisted or long listed for prizes, but it was just always a bridesmaid situation.

In 2020 - what a great year that was! I threw everything at the wall with very little else to do and actually, just everything sort of started coming together, and ABBA was probably one of the first things that came through where I thought, ‘oh, my God!’ Like I was close to giving up. My script was long listed, shortlisted and then in the final 5. So I was basically a complete beginner and then it all started coming together.

Paul and Alex, what impact did winning the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award have on your writing career?

Alex: It changed everything, and I think it changed everything because it changed how I was viewing myself and my work, and that definitely came through the development process and working with Nadia Molinari (Audio Drama Producer) there in the team.  Starting to see myself as potentially a professional writer, and that there was something important that I had to lend to the world of writing.

That's definitely something that I think is really unique to the process of writing for Radio. I've not found that process anywhere else.  I got a BAFTA writing mentorship through it. I think the stamp of BBC and having a piece of work that been professionally made by the BBC was a beautiful calling card. It opened so many doors. The BAFTA writing mentorship were able to hear my writing and hear what I was able to do.  From there, I got a BFI writing commission and I got an ITV mentorship, too. Then I also went into development with the BBC and Dancing Ledge with a new TV series that I’m developing and Dancing Ledge contacted me because they had seen that I'd won the Alfred Bradley so, yeah, it changed everything.

Paul Jones:  I mean it's the pat on the back that you need, you know.  I suppose like any writer it's difficult to call yourself a writer, isn't it? Most of the time you're squirreling away alone and for it to be recognised it gives you that little confidence boost you need. Makes it easier to get a meeting or perhaps get a second play if not commissioned, looked at.

Emilie, you received a special commendation with your ABBA submission - what happened next for you?

Emilie: I sometimes forget I didn't win! Because, I feel like – bar the money and the prestige - there was very little difference between my experience afterwards.  It was a few months later, while I was in the middle of developing Pica for the BBC Writersroom’s Drama Room scheme that I got the message to say like we'd like to develop this for Radio 4 and I still got a full commission out of it.

That will still always be a highlight getting to do that when you kind of think ‘oh, second place, lovely. Thank you very much’. The process was just so much fun, even under COVID guidelines and restrictions.  Then also because of the Alfred Bradley and the BBC having departments all across the UK, the Northern department were aware of who I was, and Alice Ramsey (Assistant Commissioner for Drama Commissioning and BBC Writersroom North) must have mentioned my name in like 10,000 rooms by now, and it's only from skimming the top of the Alfred Bradley that she even knows who I am to put me forward for these other opportunities.  Still, I had a meeting last week where they said, ‘Alice Ramsey recommended you for this’.

So even when the commission's done, it still continues to sort of trickle and there's not really a limit to the impact it can have for you.

Gary, can you tell us a little bit about your role as an audio drama producer and how you work with writers?

Gary Brown: Audio is a writer's medium. Basically, when I get my budget, the biggest cost is the writer.  So we can't do it without the writer.  The words are everything. So we're here as Producers to facilitate the writer and ABBA is brilliant for bringing on new writers that maybe we wouldn't have been aware of.  I mean, obviously, we've got our tendrils out trying to find writers, but ABBA is a great resource for us, and we’ve picked up lots of writers over the years.  Everybody's probably seen that Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, War Horse), started with ABBA. A few years ago, we had Furquan Akhtar (The Bay, Wolfe) who's now a well-established TV writer.

My job is - I often work with established writers - but I also work with new writers and I guess the interesting thing is that it takes a year from idea to actual transmission. So we spend a long time with writers and that's the main joy of the job, because I basically take an idea that a writer’s come to me with and develop it over many drafts, and then get the joy of going into a studio with the actors, editing it and delivering it. So I go through all the processes. It's a really, really lovely job, but the writer is central.

I mentored Emilie last time for the Alfred Bradley, but she made my job really easy, because I got the script, and I thought, ‘Wow, there's not a lot I can do . I'm very happy with this.’ Sometimes you have to work quite intensively with the writer, but with Emilie I didn't have to work particularly hard, because I thought the script was excellent.  Often, as with Emilie, it isn't just the winner of ABBA that gets produced, often the runners up do as well.

What should the writers be thinking about when writing an audio play, Gary? Is there anything that they should avoid?

Gary:  Well, the most important thing is to listen to radio plays. You'd be surprised when you get some submissions, you think, ‘Gosh! Have you actually listened to a radio play recently?’ because they have changed from the old fashioned type.

The biggest mistake that writers new to radio make is that they think it's like a stage play and it isn't.  I'm looking for filmic scripts and things that move along, that are very visual, and I don’t like too many plays with just people talking in a room. I like to think of big landscapes and big ideas. For me, it's a sort of hybrid between the film and the novel, because sometimes, if you want to, you can get inside the minds of your characters.

What I would say is, be bold. Go for really bold ideas. We're looking for original stuff. We're looking for, obviously your voice, but be bold. Go for a big idea.

Paul, Emilie and Alex - writers that come through ABBA are new to writing for Audio. What did you learn about writing for the Medium? And were there any surprises for any of you?

Emilie: I very much agree with Gary that actually there's so much in common with the novel and that internal world, that you won't get to see done successfully, probably in Film and TV, and that it looks really trite in Theatre.  You actually have such artistic license within audio to get into that internal world.  Also, what initially feel like limitations where you're like, ‘Oh, I can't show a facial expression, or I can't tell them what the boat looks like’, there's so much fun to be had in thinking, ‘Well, how do you do that then?’ Embrace the limitations, I would say, because actually there's so much fun to be had within that remit of sound.

Then there's absolutely no limitation to where it can go, because if you need to be in space - brilliant. You're just going to achieve it with a soundscape.

Paul: I treated it filmically, but once that was down, just being really mindful of all of the audio opportunities. Just little things like a bird's wings, or you know, a car in the distance. You’re then able to sort of see them into the story. It's probably helpful just to close your eyes and just to kind of go through it and discover audio possibilities that you wouldn't if you were just walking around.

It's really concentrated.  I found that I really had to knuckle down in a different way, you know, and be very specific.

Alex: I think that what I learned was about that really lovely relationship between the listener and my words. It's almost like whispering into the imagination of the listener.  It just became like this really lovely, intimate thing where you're not speaking to lots of people, you speak to this one specific person. That might be, I don't know, someone boxing things up somewhere, at work or on the bus to work or lying down in bed, just having a chill.  Once I got my head around that relationship everything just became so much more easy and enjoyable for me than thinking that I had to speak to everybody. I was just speaking to this one specific listener.

It is so much like writing a novel, because when you're reading a novel, the images are coming to you, they’re specific to you and I just think that's like a special kind of magic that radio has too.

For the ABBA submission window we’re not only accepting scripts for Audio, but we’re also accepting TV, Film and Stage scripts as well and, if successful, those scripts will be taken forward for development.

With that in mind, Gary, what elements of those other mediums transfer well to audio, and which ones are perhaps better suited than others?

Gary: I think you can adapt most things to Audio. What I would say is, look at the structure.  Look at fast storytelling. When I see a new script, I always look at how many scenes there are.  If there's more than sort of 30 for a 45 minute play for example, I think, ‘Oh, good! This is going to be fast paced’.

Structure is everything with rising tension all the time.  Every scene needs to lead up to the next one. So you want to go, ‘What happens next?’

Don't worry about set up in scenes. My advice to all writers is get in late and get out early.  If you get people walking through doors at the beginning of the scene, it’s just unnecessary set up. Get to the meat of the scene.  The great thing for TV writing and for radio writing is the 2 words at the end, which is ‘CUT TO’ because then you’ve got to the meat and you’re then off to the next scene.

Those first 10 pages that you are sending to us, those have got to be brilliant, the best that you can do, because basically if you don't hook us, the readers, in those first 10 pages, we’re going to move on. It's the same principles for any great storytelling.

Alex, can you just tell us a little bit about that process of developing your submitted script? Were there any significant changes when you got to the point of developing it for Radio 4?

Alex:  There was a lot of changes, I mean the name changed (from 'Poundshop Vanilla Princess' to 'Waking Beauty'). That was one of the big ones. I think, like what Gary was saying - there was a story, and there was a seed, and there was potential because there was really good dialogue in what I'd sent in originally but the structure and the pace, and how we were going to tell this story was not really there. So I was working with Nadia Molinari (Audio Drama Producer), being mentored and getting the different drafts ready for the rest of the Alfred Bradley competition and throughout we were asking what is the best way of telling this story? Because you can tell one story a 1,000 different ways. But what's the best way to grab people's attention and keep their attention right through this 45 minutes because, the thing about radio as well as television is, you can turn over, find something else, flick through. We've got a plethora of stories out there.

It's not like theatre, because if you've paid £30 for a ticket, you’re going to stay till the end. It's the same with cinema as well. You know people are captive. So, unless it’s really bad, they're not going to get up and leave, but with radio they will. They will just go, ‘Oh, this isn't for me!’ They can do that so quickly.

So we went through many, many changes to try and get that pacing right and the vehicle for the story right.  It's like pruning a rose brush. You start cutting things back so other things can grow and come to the front and that process is lovely and really nourishing.

As Paul was saying before, a lot of times it's you writing in a room on your own, so to be able to engage with somebody else who is curious and inquisitive about your work just helps you grow. So it was so valuable that period with Nadia.

And Paul, how was that process for you?

Paul: Yeah, it was terrific, actually, I was with - and I'm working now with Jessica Mitic in developing a second Audio Drama.  It's just that kind of back and forth, and you know I'm always happy to take notes. I mean, I might not agree with them, and I might dismiss them. But for the most part it's a conversation, you know?  I'm sure everybody sends their work to a friend to say, ‘Look, have a look at this, and tell me what you think. Is this terrible or not?’ But you need somebody to bounce work off. And so, being in that relationship with somebody who is invested in it, and not frightened of telling you that's something’s no good, or that needs work, I found that tremendously beneficial, and I'm continuing to do so.

Emilie, Gary touched upon how brilliant you were to work with in the ABBA development process when you were paired up together. How did that work for you for you both?

Emilie: Well, I think Gary’s doing himself a disservice saying that he didn't do anything for a start! What I'd written was designed to have aesthetic possibilities, but it was very much the emphasis was on the dialogue, and it was on a sort of aural soundscape, if you like, so we didn't have lots of recalibrating to do, but there was plenty to be trimmed. There was plenty that needed to be clarified.  

Like Paul said, getting to hear anyone who's took the time to read your script, and who wants to back it, I think, is just invaluable. You've got to learn to love the notes.

What else is unique about Audio Drama?

Gary: For a start, and not a lot of people know this, but you've got a huge audience. There's nearly a million people who listen to the Radio 4 afternoon play, and when you say this, to maybe a younger audience, they go, ‘What?!’ And then after that, there's the life on BBC Sounds so you could probably add another 200,000 - 300,000 on that.  You are talking to a quite a large audience.

We’ve mentioned before that it is an intimate medium. You work collaboratively with the audience to conjure up images, and we try to do what's called, ‘lean forward radio’ where you, instead of it being sort of background, you so stop what you do, and you lean forward, and you listen to it.  When somebody says, ‘I was driving to the shops and I’d arrived and there was still 10 minutes of your play to finish, and I stayed, and I listened’. You think ‘Result: that's fantastic!’ because you've grabbed them.  I think - Alex made that point - you've really got to grab them, because there are so many other things that can go on.

Audio is a great medium and it's very important and the Alfred Bradley feeds into it all with new writers and that keeps it going.

Submissions for the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2023 close at 12 noon on Tuesday 11th April 2023.

Further details on how to submit your entry for the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2023 

Listen to Paul Jones' winning ABBA submission, 'Patterdale' on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds 

Read 'Patterdale' by Paul Jones in our Script Library

Listen to Alex Clarke's winning ABBA submission, ''Waking Beauty'' on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Read 'Waking Beauty' by Alex Clarke in our Script Library

Read 'Pica' by Emilie Robson in our Script Library

The Dos and Don'ts of Audio Drama - plus help, advice and top tips

You can read more about Alfred Bradley's life and work in this blog post by his son, Jez Bradley

Patterdale started life as a short story I wrote in 2015 - part of a collection set in neighbouring roads in south Liverpool.

I’ve always written but didn’t commit until my forties. I did night school classes with the WEA, took an OU degree (unfinished) which led to me having some short stories published and then studied a Creative Writing MA. None of these courses are essential but I find it helpful being in an environment where writing is treated with respect.

During the first lockdown, I was midway through John Yorke’s screenwriting course when I saw on BBC Writersroom's opportunities page that the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award was reopening. Patterdale had a strong central voice and I decided to adapt the story as a radio play. I wrote it like a film script but was constantly on the lookout for moments when sound would benefit the story – a bird’s wings, a swing park, a door being kicked in.

The application process was simple – I already had a BBC account from previous submissions to BBC Writersroom. I answered a few basic questions then uploaded the script. I found out a few months later I’d been shortlisted. I worked with two assistant producers in developing Patterdale, Lorna Newman and Jess Mitic. We batted the script back and forth and their input was essential. Writing is obviously a solitary business, but their critiques and suggestions helped make it stronger.

There were 5 writers in the final and I was surprised and pleased to hear my name called out – the award comes with a £5000 prize and a 12-month mentorship with a BBC Radio Drama producer. Jess Mitic called straight afterwards to congratulate me. I then spoke to Pauline Harris, the director, who told me the play was scheduled for broadcast just two months later – an unusually quick turnaround.

I only wanted native Liverpudlians as the dialect is rooted in local knowledge. The production team found the children via local drama groups, and Pauline was open to my suggestions for the adult actors and in understanding the need for authenticity. I turn a programme off if I hear a dodgy accent, so this was vital.

At the readthrough on the first morning Patterdale ran 15 minutes short – it’s a pacy play but this took everyone by surprise as the word count/page count was usual. I sat in the recording suite with Pauline and Sharon Hughes (Shush), the sound engineer, writing new scenes and passing Pauline new bits of script, while Simon Highfield supported the actors inside the studio. Pauline also contributed ideas for key scenes and line changes while trying to direct. This made the process stressful at times, but Pauline and Shush remained remarkably calm. Monday evening was spent looking through previous drafts of the script for scenes that with a bit of rewriting could be worked back into the play.

Handing your work over to other people is like watching your child go off to school for the first time, and like an over-anxious parent it was hard to let go. Now I’ve listened a few times and have a little distance, I can see it for what it is - a standalone drama that read well on the page but didn’t complete its journey until the actors and production team brought it to life - excellent performances and direction, sound design that deepened the world both inside and outside Tommy’s head, and music that helped drive the story forward.

Patterdale was broadcast last month on Radio 4 and was selected as Drama of the Week.

Over the past year I’ve written another radio play, adapted from a story in the collection I was working on a few years back, a comedy-drama for theatre, and two television scripts.

Winning the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award was a huge surprise and a terrific confidence-booster. I’m grateful to Alfred’s family for continuing his important work in supporting new voices and to BBC Radio 4 Drama for enabling those voices to be heard.

If you’re thinking of writing a radio play, do it. What have you got to lose?

Listen to Patterdale on BBC Sounds

Download and read Paul Jones' original script for Patterdale from our script library

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary for writers in the north of England who are new to audio drama

Our opportunity Write Across Liverpool closes for applications on Thursday 10th March at noon - find out more 

From 342 submissions, the finalists were:

• Jilly Sumsion
• Emilie Robson (Special commendation)
• Houmi Miura
• Paul Jones (Winner)
• Duncan MacInnes

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a £5000 award for a Northern writer who is new to radio. The winner also gets a 12 month mentorship with a BBC Radio Drama producer and the opportunity to gain a BBC Radio 4 drama commission.

The winner of the 2021 Award, Paul Jones said:

“I'm very pleased and proud to have won the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and am looking forward to hearing Patterdale performed. Thank you to the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award judges and to Lorna Newman and Jessica Mitic for their support in its development.”

Alison Hindell, Commissioning Head of Radio 4 Drama said:

“Radio 4 is delighted to continue supporting this important award recognising the talents of new writers in the North of England. We look forward to hearing Paul’s play on the radio next year and to watching his future progression.”

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer. Previous winners include Lee Hall, Peter Straughan, Cat Jones, Furquan Akhtar and most recently Alex Clarke.

Find out more about the shortlisted writers, read synopses of their scripts and their biographies

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

The five writers and their shortlisted plays are:

Driving Lessons by Juliana Sumsion (Lancaster)

Kelly Ann is twenty-one and wants driving lessons, but she has Downs Syndrome. Everyone including her own family doubts her ability to learn. Can she prove them all wrong?

Pica by Emilie Robson (Newcastle)

There's something about Kae; something earthy, creepy even; as if she's done a few laps of this world already. And if folk weren't talking about her before, they are now she's vanished.

Mabel by Houmi Miura (Manchester) 

Awaiting the outcome of a school investigation, teacher Suzi, is trying to stay vegan and not having a nervous breakdown, until she finds an unlikely saviour in a brutally honest talking houseplant.

Patterdale by Paul Jones (Liverpool)

A young boy in foster care runs away to his nan's house. As he runs, his story unfolds.

Dagger Lane by Duncan MacInnes (Hull)

A retired DCI George Young enlists his carer, Simone to help unearth past evidence exonerating his dead West Indian best friend from 1956 before George's Alzheimers erases any possibility of justice.

The five shortlisted writers are now busy developing their radio drama scripts with mentorship from a BBC Radio Drama North Producer ready for the final judging process this summer. The selected winner will be announced in September and awarded a £5,000 cash bursary in addition to receiving a 12 month development mentorship with a Radio Drama Producer where they’ll continue to develop their drama script for a chance to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

We wish everyone the best of luck and look forward to announcing the winner later this year.

Find out more about the writers below.

Juliana (Jilly) Sumsion is a writer from Barnsley. Initially training as a teacher of the Deaf, she went on to make original plays and cabarets with Disabled adults at the Dukes Theatre Lancaster. She has also devised plays in British Sign Language and is passionate about Disability rights.

A course with New Writing North in 2017 ignited her desire to write for television, theatre and radio. Since then, she has been longlisted for BBC Writersroom and Box of Tricks/Sky Studios Award. New Pictures have just optioned an original drama series, which is now in development.

Jilly’s writing is inspired by real people, lesser-heard voices and her working-class background. She is currently writing a comedy drama series set in Preston which jumps into the world of social work. She is also developing ideas for children’s television that celebrate neurodiversity. Jilly is half-way through an MA in Scriptwriting at Manchester Writing School, which she is loving!

Emilie Robson is a screenwriter and playwright originally from South Shields. In 2019, their play Moonlight on Leith (co-written with Laila Noble) was named runner up at Theatre Uncut’s Political Playwriting Award ceremony. In 2020, Robson’s play GAME was selected for artistic development with The Traverse in Edinburgh. Robson’s short Sebastian (et moi) was broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb and her audio drama PICA received a full production with BBC Radio 4 after receiving special commendation at the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2021. She was one of 12 participants on the Channel 4 2021 Screenwriting Program, selected from a record 3,800 submissions and currently has projects in development with Home Team, DNA films and Firebird Pictures amongst others.

Houmi Miura is a Japanese British female writer, theatre-maker and performer based in Manchester. She’s a graduate of the BBC Writersroom’s Northern Voices 2020 scheme, has been in the writers room for HATTORI HATCHI (Red Productions), written sketches for CBBC’s THE AMELIA GETHING COMPLEX and has recently written and performed a monologue for New Earth Theatre’s SIGNAL FIRES. She is also currently developing her solo show, IN THE BEGINNING WOMAN WAS THE SUN, which has been supported by HOME, Eclipse, Unity Theatre and Arts Council England. Houmi loves to playfully explore themes of identity within the everyday, through a fantastical lens and her name's pronounced "homey", which is both the gift that keeps giving and the bane of her life.

Paul Jones is based in Liverpool and writes fiction and drama.

He was an actor until his early 40s, when he returned to education, studying with the Open University, before going on to complete an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. Since graduating he has studied screenwriting courses run by John Yorke and Jed Mercurio.

Paul has been shortlisted/longlisted for the Galley Beggar prize, The Bridport prize, and the Quiet Man Dave prize.

He was commissioned in 2017 by Ten Ten Productions to write a play for teenagers, as part of the government’s Prevent strategy. 'Civilised' centred on how young people are recruited into white nationalist movements. He is currently under commission to the same company to write a series of short films about a teenage friendship group.

Patterdale is the third radio play that Paul has submitted to the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award and the first to be shortlisted.

Duncan MacInnes is an actor/writer from Hull. After starting his creative career at The Northern Theatre School in Hull and then at The Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts (LIPA), he has gone on to have a career as an actor spanning twenty years. His writing highlights include ‘Waste’ which was written for the ‘Boom’ festival at The Bush Theatre, ‘Why Are We Whispering?’ a one-person show for Theatre Royal Stratford East / Home Theatre Project and short film ‘Echo Road’ which was supported by Channel 4. Duncan’s first full length play ‘Dagger Lane’, is a crime suspense thriller observing northern England’s relationship with immigration both in the past and present through the eyes and mind of an ex-police officer with dementia.

We received over 300 applications and after careful consideration we’re delighted to announce the 21 writers who have reached the longlist.

Adam Bennett-Lea
Al Lockhart-Morley
Alexandra Hannant
Amandeep Singh
Amy Drake
Duncan MacInnes
Emilie Robson
Emma Doherty
Houmi Miura
Jemma Buntin
Juliana Sumsion
Kevin Cuffe
Lydia Hirst
Matthew Kirton
Nick Maynard
Nicole Joseph
Paul Jones
Paul Roberts
Sara Cocker & Léonie Higgins
Susan Pierce
Tamsin Rees

The shortlist will be announced in March, with those writers then working with BBC Radio Drama North to develop their radio drama play for the final judging process in September. 

Thank you to all who entered, it was a pleasure reading your work and we would encourage you to keep submitting to BBC Writersroom opportunities.

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a £5,000 writing bursary to Northern writers new to radio and the chance of a Radio 4 drama commission.

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer and is run by Radio Drama North in conjunction with BBC Writersroom.

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award including previous winners, great tips and advice on writing for Radio and read scripts in our online Script Library.

Cat, can you tell us a bit about your writing career and how much writing you had done before applying to the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award? 

CAT:

Not very much actually. At the time of applying I was working at Doncaster prison, running arts initiatives for prisoners there, so the writing I had done was mainly little bits and pieces that I had written for prisoners to perform or to workshop, looking at particular kind of issues. The play I entered with was something that I had written having worked with a group of prisoners who had all been in the military before they had arrived at the prison and who all felt that their military experience had contributed to them coming to prison. The play seemed to connect really well with a wider group of prisoners at the prison, and so I decided to enter it. 

What impact did winning the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award have on your writing career? 

CAT:

I didn't really have a writing career at the point of entering. I mean, I think with any prize really, or winning any kind of recognition, there is the validation, the thought that somebody might think you are good enough to do this. There are a lot of prizes that you can enter that do that and then even better than that, is a prize that gives you validation but also gives you some money and obviously, this did that. I think the gold standard of awards or prizes is something that also then gives you some real-world professional experience and with this bursary, you get a commission, you get the opportunity to make a piece of radio. So, it had a huge impact. 

Tell us about your role as a producer Gary, what you do and how you work with writers. 

GARY: 

I am an enabler really. As you know, radio is a writer's medium, we are constantly on the lookout for new writers and that is why the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is so important to us. I'm here to enable the voice of the writer to get to the listener, and it should be a very enjoyable process. Usually it starts from an idea to an offer, then it goes to the commissioner and then if the commissioner likes it and commissions it, it takes about a year to be developed, and will go through probably four, five, six drafts if it is a new writer. Hopefully we develop a good relationship together, a trusting relationship and my job is to get the best out of the writer and then we have the fun part of casting it, going to the studio and having lots of fun in the studio.

What should a writer think about when writing a radio play? 

CAT:

I think all the things you would think about in terms of writing for any medium, a really good story and compelling characters and taking an audience to a world that they will want to spend time in. All those usual things. But beyond that, the unique opportunity of radio is the relationship with sound. I like to think of it as silence is the canvas and every word that's uttered and every sound that's made and every note of music is a mark being made upon that canvas and the offering that you make to the audience. It's just an incredibly intimate medium, radio. If theatre is all about the collective experience, radio is almost the opposite. It's usually a person on their own, relating to this play, which is a really cool thing. 

Radio is a really immersive medium as well. With theatre, you have, however intimate the space is, you have always got some kind of barrier between an audience and a stage and with screen you have always got the barrier of the screen itself. But with radio, you can actually put the audience absolutely right in the middle of the action. You can have this incredibly intimate thing going on between two characters and you can literally put the audience on the table between them. That is such a powerful thing. I think that's just the beauty of radio really, that kind of intimacy and that immersive experience. 

Also I think it's collaborative, you know. I don't think there is another medium where the audience is sort of a co‑creator in a way. You are making a movie, but you the writer or producer are bringing the aural aspect of that movie and the creator is going to bring the visual. That collaboration is unique. You don't get those things with other mediums. 

GARY: 

Cat has said it all! You just summed it up absolutely perfectly. It's the most collaborative medium, it is the most immersive medium. It is a film for the mind in many respects. You are in the most intimate space. That's why listening to radio is often so good with headphones on. 

I think the biggest mistake that writers new to the medium make is that they think it's closest to theatre and it isn't. If it's close to anything, it's closer to film and also the novel, because you are conjuring up the images with a novel. For me, it's a hybrid between film and the novel. 

In the same way as a novel, if you want to, you can get inside the mind of your characters with voice overs and internal monologues. It isn't mandatory, but it is an option for you. I have worked in most of the mediums, but radio to me is the most exciting, and I am a writer as well, so as a writer, it's extraordinary, because you are building from nothing, it's a visionless medium, but yet you are creating images. It’s a very, very powerful medium for a writer to have. The writer is the absolute key to it all. 

Because this is a one to one relationship, how quickly does the writer need to get into that main part, the main action of the story. When does the inciting incident need to happen in a radio play? 

GARY: 

As quickly as possible. A mistake that writers can make is that there's too much of a set‑up. Often you look at a script and you go, “I don't need these beginning scenes, just get into it as quickly as possible”. It is when you start looking at your own script, your first draft, you will overwrite, but then when you go over it and start doing more drafts, you think, what do I need, how much essential action do I need, and often you strip away stuff and it's usually the set‑ups. 

You should get that inciting incident in there quite quickly. I mean, for the Alfred Bradley Award, I would say make sure the first ten pages are the best that you can write, because basically, that will be what will grab the reader. Don't worry about setting up stuff, don't worry about exposition, because the exposition will come through the characters, just hit the ground running. Get some action going, get the inciting incident going. You will find that you will grab them straight away. All the information that they need to know about the characters and story will develop as you go along. Exposition should be just seeded as you go along. But hit the ground running I would say. 

Cat, do you have writer tips for grabbing people's attention in the first few minutes of a radio play? 

CAT: 

I think writers generally, we want to give too much information. We want exposition, we feel like audiences need to be orientated and I don't think they do. Audiences like to be thrown in and if they have to run a bit to catch up and work stuff out themselves, that's fine. I think it's absolutely just about being bold and being brave, being brave with the opening. 

GARY: 

Pose questions straightaway, right from the word go, you are creating dramatic problems and you want the collaboration of the listener, the audience to think what's going on here, you don't want them to be passive, you want to engage them from the word go, so they are hooked. It's just really important to hook them straightaway.

How do you deal with the fact that if people aren't hooked straightaway, they will change the channel? 

GARY: 

There used to be a phrase we used to use, which is “lean forward radio”, which is when you are driving your car, when you are doing the gardening and listening to it on headphones, you stop and you lean forward and you listen and you think right, this has grabbed me, I'm stopping from doing the usual things that I'm listening to radio with, because this drama has grabbed me. Occasionally, I get missives from the public and they will say things like "I stayed in the car park to listen to the end of your play for another ten minutes, because it had grabbed me and I needed to know what happened". When you do get e‑mails from listeners like that, you go, yeah, we grabbed them. That's it. You are telling a story. It's a very privileged position to be in. You are grabbing the hand of the audience and taking them on a journey and so you've got to make sure it's a flipping good journey and interesting and surprising and not run‑of‑the‑mill. You are taking them to surprising places. A very privileged position to be in, to be able to have a platform where you tell a story. 

What are your tips for using sound in radio, how should it be used, how should it not be used? 

GARY: 

Because of the nature of radio, the great thing about it is that you are not limited by expense, so you can go anywhere. So you could be on the moon. Recently I did a play set on a spaceship. That would be a very expensive set. It had a very, very specific sound because we tried to get a huge station with a very metallic sound, very spacious. We are lucky that we've got some fantastic sound engineers, sound designers in audio drama north, who can create amazing spaces. 

I would say to writers, be bold. Don't set things in a room - you can if you want to, but you can be bold, and you can set it anywhere. You can be in Barbados, you can be in the earth, a colleague of mine did a drama, which was made into a podcast and it was set in the future, and the earth was flooded (Listen to 'No Place But the Water'). The soundscape is extraordinary, because of the water and the idea of the earth dying. So be bold, think of unusual places to set your drama. 

However I think the most important thing is still story and character, that's what the audience is really, really interested in. Really, that's our job, to fill in and texture up all the rest of the stuff. Sometimes writers get carried away, for instance with music and they will tell us what music they want to include. That's fine, but then there will be the lyrics and the lyrics from a commercial song, interspersed and then that's not your voice. What we are interested in is your vision and your voice. So what I would say is, set it in an interesting place but then concentrate on the story, concentrate on the characters. I think the interesting things come with the collaboration with the sound designer and the producer and see what comes out in the studio and in post‑production.

Are there any other things to avoid when writing a radio play? Are there any things that you come across a lot and you think that's somebody who maybe doesn't listen to radio, or that's just a misconception about radio? 

GARY: 

First of all, listen to radio, it's really, really important. A lot of people start writing for radio and they don't listen to radio. So listen to it, there are plenty of radio plays on. You will find that if you haven't listened to radio for a long time, radio has changed. It's much quicker. One of the first things I do when I look at a script, I have a sneaky look at how many scenes there are in a play. If there are only a few, I start to think, well, maybe they haven't been listening to radio, because the thing about radio is that it's quickened up, it's much pacier. So you can have a lot more scenes. It can move on. You can tell a story with a lot of scenes, like a film. So I would encourage people to do that. 

The other thing is not to have too many characters in a scene, because the audience can't grab on to too many characters. If you have those characters in a scene, establish them very early on in the scene, because if you have characters in the scene and all of a sudden somebody comes up who you haven't established, the audience will go, "What, where did they come from, have they been hiding in a corner?" It's really, really important to establish your characters. If you have four characters, establish them straight away in that scene. 

The usual rule of thumb, getting into a scene as late as possible and coming out of it as quickly as possible. And don't have people coming in through doors, don't start a scene with people coming through a door, it's really boring. You can cut that out straightaway. Get them in the room, just cut into the room. Don't worry about it. One of the best things that you can have as a writer is cut to. When you finished the scene, cut to. That's it. The meat of the scene, move on. 

Cat, what was the main thing you learned about when writing for radio? 

CAT: 

I think trying to keep in mind how the idea that you want to explore connects to the medium of radio. You could tell this story probably in a different way, you could probably put it on the screen, but why is it going to work particularly well on the radio, why is that intimate collaborative space the right idea for this idea, if you can start from that place of finding that connection between the idea and the medium, that's a really, really sound place to start. 

What is a Radio 4 afternoon drama like, what are the dos and don'ts, are there any topics to avoid, any things to avoid, what should people be working towards or thinking about when trying to fill that slot? Or write for that slot? 

GARY: 

Just think of a very bold and exciting idea because that's what I'm looking for as a producer, it's what I'm looking for as a listener. I want to go to places where I've never been. Just look at situations and come at them from a different angle. We are looking for originality.

I have a little maxim in my mind when I am producing stuff and it is how would the Coen brothers do this because I find them the most interesting of artists that are producing work at the moment. What I always find with their work is that they are constantly surprising you, you are going one way and then they will do this about-turn, but it will be totally truthful. You can sort of go with it because they will take the rug from under you and you go in a different place, but there is always a truth about it, or very rarely do they get that wrong. So that's the sort of maxim I have, that the Coen brothers always surprise me. That is what I am looking for in any drama that I am watching. Surprise me. The biggest thing, the biggest ‑ I don't want to be bored. If I read a script. I just don't want to be bored. Life is too short. I am an old geezer and I don't want to waste my time on stuff that's really, really boring or reading stuff. So just, please, make it surprising.

Submissions for The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2023 will open for applications for writers resident in the North of England from 12 noon on Monday 27th February 2023 and close at 12 noon on Tuesday 11th April 2023

Find out more and meet the previous winners of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

Download and read scripts by previous winners and runners-up in the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award:

Monique and Me by Jill O'Halloran

Human Resources by Piers Black

Shamed by Furquan Akhtar

Hangdog by Cat Jones

Abigail Adams by Mark Shand

Visit our Radio Drama Script Library to download and read many more scripts

Alfred Bradley had great success with a BBC radio programme called the Northern Drift that was produced in Leeds from 1964 and ran for ten years. It was developed with Alan Plater, a young architect who later became a well-known playwright.

Alfred and his wife, Judith, had six children of which I was the eldest, and we kids would regularly visit the studio to watch the recordings. Sometimes we would contribute if the program needed a child’s voice to speak, cry or shout. I didn’t always know whom I was meeting at the time but now know that the new actors and writers included: Stan Barstow, Barry Hines, Beryl Bainbridge, Bernard Cribbins, Brian Thompson, Carla Lane, Trevor Griffiths, Alex Glasgow, Henry Livings, John Braine, Sid Chaplin, Bill Naughton and many more Northern voices. Alan Ayckbourn was a young production assistant!

Alfred loved the physics of radio. As a child, he built small radio receivers and fitted one into a toy robot so that it appeared to talk. When, aged about nine, I received a transistor radio as a Christmas present, he couldn’t wait to open it up to analyse the circuitry.

He was conscripted in 1943 and became a captain in the Royal Signals, operating radio communications in India, Egypt and Burma. When war ended, the army sponsored him to study a physics course at Oxford University. His first job was at Leicester Theatre (having done army theatre productions) before moving to the BBC in Leeds. When the BBC began to develop broadcast in stereo, Alfred demonstrated how it might be done inexpensively by wiring his domestic hi-fi amplifier into the mixing desk!

Alfred had a deep love for the BBC, especially in the North. He was later based in Manchester, and even produced The Archers in Birmingham after he had ‘retired’. The irony was that he was brought up in London and went to school in High Wycombe. However, Alfred was born in Newcastle and moved to London when his dad found work as a scenery painter at Pinewood studios.

He had a really strong belief that there was much new Northern talent that needed help to be heard. The BBC and Bradley family have maintained the Alfred Bursary Award for almost three decades and we are proud of its many successes. We are extremely glad that it continues to encourage and support new writers based in the North of England.

Submissions for The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2023 will open for applications for writers resident in the North of England from 12 noon on Monday 27th February 2023 and close at 12 noon on Tuesday 11th April 2023

Find out more and meet the previous winners of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

Download and read scripts by previous winners and runners-up in the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award:

Patterdale by Paul Jones

Monique and Me by Jill O'Halloran

Human Resources by Piers Black

Shamed by Furquan Akhtar

Hangdog by Cat Jones

Abigail Adams by Mark Shand

Visit our Radio Drama Script Library to download and read many more scripts

I was beginning to realise just how tough the industry is and so thought I should try to be as broad as possible in my approach. I applied to the inaugural Liverpool Playhouse and Everyman Playwrights’ Programme where I met some of the nicest and most talented writers in the city, whose friendship and support has been invaluable to me over the past few years.

My first experience of BBC Writersroom was their Rapid Response competition In the Red. My script, HAVEN, was selected as one of the winners. Following that I was put in contact with LA Productions in Liverpool. I had several meetings with them over the course of several years and they were, and still are, incredibly supportive of me and my writing. One day I was asked into a meeting only to find it was with Jimmy McGovern. Pretty much the first thing he said to me was “You can write.” I came out of the meeting thinking that I didn’t care if my work was never produced, Jimmy McGovern thinks I can write, and that’s all I need to hear. That meeting eventually led to a commission for MOVING ON; I wrote Episode 4 of Series 9 NEIGHBOUR and the series went on to win the Best Daytime Series at the RTS North West Awards 2018.

I can’t remember where I first heard about the Alfred Bradley Bursary, but as I didn’t know anybody who worked in radio I knew it was something I had to have a go at. I had no expectations whatsoever that I would be the runner-up, but I knew I would kick myself if I didn’t meet the deadline.

Discovering I was a finalist was a huge shock to say the least. I was partnered with the radio producer Pauline Harris. She pushed me to take my script to the point of being the very best it could be and I am grateful to her for that. Writing drama is, at its essence, a collaborative process and I have been lucky to work with some incredible people, of which Pauline is one. We pretty much instantly had a richly creative collaboration and I always felt that I was in safe hands with her. I hope that this is a relationship which we can continue in the future. The three months of mentoring was challenging because I was trying to give the script everything I could whilst believing that nothing was likely to come from it. This however, is the stark reality of writing. It’s a leap of faith.

At the heart of the story is the relation between Cara and Monique, a daughter who is caring for her mother. Like many other people, I have had experience of being a carer, and so I wanted to tell a story on that theme. It was poignant to discover that many of the people involved in the making of MONIQUE & ME, had been, or are currently carers. There are experiences I believe are common to most carers, exhaustion, isolation, grief to name a few. However I wanted to push the characters to the very extreme of their relationship and so their story incorporates other, darker themes too.

As I’d tried a few different platforms for my writing before, theatre, features, television, I wasn't too worried about having a go at writing a radio script. It does require a different way of thinking about the script, but I tried to focus on the fact that the essentials are still the same, a good story, well told.

I didn’t grow up in a house where we listened to Radio 4. I suppose, because of that, I did wonder whether writing for radio was for me, but I’m glad I gave it a shot. What is lovely about radio is the intimacy, not just of the storytelling, but also the smaller cast and crew and I was chuffed to bits to discover that unlike television, radio writers are required to attend the recording. Radio, like MOVING ON, attracts incredibly talented actors, and the actors who Pauline cast all exceeded my already high expectations with their performances.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that MOVING ON and MONIQUE & ME are both forty-five minute original stories. The experience of having written MOVING ON probably did help me get MONIQUE & ME into decent shape. To have a script brought to life in this way and then broadcast to an audience is quite simply a privilege and to have gone through this twice now makes everything worthwhile.

Like most other writers, I don’t know what’s next for me. I am developing ideas and writing, as well as trying to get an agent. Whatever happens, I’ll still write because I want to.

I have been asked if I have any advice for other writers. I suppose my best advice is to have a long, hard look at yourself and decide if writing is really something you want to do, because it is incredibly tough. However, if the answer is yes, then do what I do. Work hard and act like you don’t know when you’re beaten.

Listen to Monique and Me on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 28th November at 2.15 or on BBC Sounds

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for Radio Drama and get advice on writing for Radio

Read Radio Drama scripts in our script library 

We are delighted to announce that Alex Clarke is the 2019 Winner of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award with BBC Radio Drama North.

From 279 submissions, the finalists were:

Geraldine Lang
Mandip Dhesi
Jill O’Halloran (Runner Up)
Stephen Collins
Alex Clarke (Winner)

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award is a £5000 award for a Northern writer who is new to radio. The winner also gets a 12 month mentorship with a BBC Radio Drama producer and the opportunity to gain a BBC Radio 4 drama commission.

The winner of the 2019 Award, Alex Clarke said:

“I didn’t expect to win. I dared not dream it, just in case I broke my own heart. As it sinks in it feels magnificent, like space opening up and expanding before me. I guess it’s the feeling of freedom. The shape of my life has changed overnight – the bursary means I can focus on writing and deepening my craft further with the help of exceptionally talented people at the BBC. I also get to tell a story to the world and this is no easy task for an autistic like me (who has selective mutism) I don’t often get to speak, let alone tell a story. So this is my personal fairy-tale come true. I cannot thank my mentor Nadia Molinari, the judges, and the family enough. I’m still lost for words. But I’m looking forward to the year ahead, feeling freer than ever before.” 

The Runner-Up, Jill O'Halloran said:

“I am shocked, thrilled and incredibly honoured to be the runner-up in the Alfred Bradley Award. Like many other people, competitions like Alfred Bradley have been my only chance to break into writing. It’s a huge leap of faith to commit a story to paper and then have it judged by other people and so I am pleased I finished my script and pressed the submit button. Many congratulations to everyone else who did the same and entered the Alfred Bradley Award and of course, huge congratulations to the winner. “ 

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer. Previous winners include Lee Hall, Peter Straughan, Cat Jones, Furquan Akhtar and most recently Piers Black.

Find out about previous winners of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

Read about the previous winner, Piers Black, and what happened next

We are delighted to announce the five writers who have been shortlisted for this year's Alfred Bradley Bursary Award with BBC Radio Drama North.

The writers are:

Geraldine Lang 
Mandip Dhesi 
Jill O’Halloran 
Stephen Collins
Alex Clarke  

These five writers have now each been assigned a mentor and will undertake a three month development process with BBC Radio Drama North to work on their submission, ahead of the winner being announced.

The Alfred Bradley Bursary is a £5000 award for a Northern writer who is new to radio. The winner also gets a 12 month mentorship with a BBC Radio Drama producer and the opportunity to gain a BBC Radio 4 drama commission.

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer. Previous winners include Lee Hall, Peter Straughan, Cat Jones, Furquan Akhtar and most recently Piers Black. 

This year we received 279 submissions in total of which 12 percent made it to the longlist.

Find out about previous winners of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

Read about the previous winner, Piers Black, and what happened next

When entering my play into the competition a few months before, it was very much with the attitude of having nothing to lose. As the lists got shorter, and my involvement became more serious, I spent every second trying to soak up what I thought was left of the opportunity. Eventually I found myself being interviewed on the day of the award ceremony, and going in without the usual burden of nerves. I still had nothing to lose.

The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award has changed things. I don’t fear the question any more. ‘I write’ comes much easier as a response, because the award has allowed me to do exactly that. Ironically, writing a play about the anxieties of zero-hour contracts has led to me (almost) being removed from that world. Now, I write. Sometimes it is about the things that make me angry, sometimes it is about the things that confuse me, but always it is written with gratitude. As someone who used to snatch at the spare minutes of the day, I am particularly conscious of what a privilege it is to have been afforded this time to focus. I can see that reflected in my work. Everything offered by Alfred Bradley, his family, and the BBC, has allowed my writing to develop in a way that it wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. So today, I write with gratitude, to say thank you.

Having just recorded my first radio drama at the BBC, I wanted to highlight the three most astonishing aspects of the experience.

Number One: The Speed

It flies by! Having written largely for theatre, I have grown accustomed to the time and space given to that creative process; character development, backstory, improv' etc and all the other tools that feel essential for the theatre practitioner in order for them to realise a piece on stage.

Radio drama politely bypasses these requirements for a much more direct approach.

After a read-through in the morning, director Nadia Molinari and the cast got straight on their feet and into the first scene. With scheduling allowing for only a handful of takes, the pace of the day was fast and deliberate. And the outcome was far beyond what I could have expected. Thanks to the ingenuity of the actors and the passionate skill of the director, the result was incredibly immediate and responsive. In a world much closer to film, this process caught the live energy of the day, and propelled it forward with the dedication of all involved.

Number Two: The Sound

In a medium that can take you half way around the world in a matter of seconds, radio has to find ways of providing an exotic aural soundscape, as well catching the day to day sounds of modern life. Over the course of the day, sound managers Sharon Hughes and John Benton summoned a huge range of different items, backdrops and sensations, and in increasingly creative ways; whether that be Cel Spellman chomping an apple into a microphone, or Mathew Baynton micro-jogging down a corridor.

The sound team added an extra dimension that I hadn’t anticipated. A whole world beyond the words and the actors, that brought the piece to life, and almost always by thinking outside of the box. It was amazing to watch, and even more impressive to listen, as they proved what a powerful tool the ear can be in telling stories.

Number Three: The Team

More of a continuation of the above; the whole team who put the piece together were outstanding. Nadia the director, whose delicate and insightful touch steered the whole process, was also responsible for casting a cracking group of actors. As the time is limited in the studio, it is essential that this part of making the show is done well, as each artist has to nail down their character almost immediately. Thankfully, those on board smashed it out of the park. With a mix of humour, menace and sincerity, each one of them raised the piece beyond what I had imagined when writing at my little desk in my bedroom.

It’s been a privilege to be involved, and I can’t wait to hear the result in full.

Listen to Human Resources on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 17th July 2017 at 2.15pm and on BBC iPlayer

Watch advice videos from the Radio Drama team in Salford:

General scriptwriting advice

Specific advice on writing for radio 

The shortlist for this year's Alfred Bradley Bursary Award has been announced. The following writers will receive 3 months development with BBC Radio Drama North, working towards the final judging process:

Piers Black - Hand To Mouth

Andrew Crowther - The Wakefield Courier

Phil Davies - GIRL X

Karen Featherstone - The End of Sleep

Mike Heath - The Big Things

This year we received 232 submissions, with 25 picked for the longlist - including the 5 shortlisted above.

Sue Roberts, BBC Editor Audio Drama and The Verb said of this year's scheme "We were really impressed by the high standard and wide range of entries this year and are looking forward to working with the shortlisted writers over the next few months".

The winner of the Award will be announced in early April 2016.

A big thank-you to everyone who submitted a script this year and congratulations to all those longlisted and of course to the 5 shortlisted writers.

Find out more about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award for Radio Drama

Watch two great advice videos from the team at BBC Radio Drama North:

General Script Advice

Advice specific to writing for Radio Drama