BBC Writers Feed

Neil Forsyth on writing the final series of Guilt and adapting the story of The Gold

2023-04-25T08:44:06+00:00

Neil Forsyth is the writer behind Guilt, the multi-award winning Edinburgh-set drama, which returns to BBC Scotland and BBC Two this week. His adaptation of The Gold, the story of the Brink's Mat robbery also recently hit our screens.

Watch Guilt from Tuesday 25th April on BBC Scotland and Thursday 27th April on BBC Two

Watch all 3 series of Guilt now on BBC iPlayer

Watch The Gold on BBC iPlayer

Watch the trailer for Guilt Series 3

When you first thought up the idea for Guilt did you ever imagine you’d be at this point, just about to see the third and final series be broadcast?

I did have a pipe-dream of doing a trilogy but that felt like something that was so distant in those early days when it was just about trying to get the show on the air and keeping it on the air. That’s the big challenge. It’s very hard to get a show on television and it’s even harder to keep it there.

After the second series, when I spoke to the BBC, I said that what I’d like to do is one more and I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity.

How does it feel to have been able to tell a complete story over twelve hours of television?

It’s a fantastic feeling. It’s so rare as a television writer to be the one who actually makes the decision that a show is going to come to an end. To sit down with a third series and think “This is it, how do I want the story to end? Which characters do I want to bring back to tie things up?”. That was extremely satisfying as a writing exercise. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a series where I’ve made that decision as the writer so I found that quite exciting actually, to literally get to the end of a story.

Max (MARK BONNAR);Jake (JAMIE SIVES) in Guilt Series 3 Episode 1 (Credit: BBC/Expectation/Happy Tramp North/ Anne Binckebanck)

In the first series the theme of Guilt was everywhere whereas in the second series Revenge was a strong theme. Would you say there is an over-arching theme to this third and final series?

That thematic approach has been Guilt in the first series, Revenge in the second and in the third it is Redemption. This time around it was interesting to watch the characters in their own ways all seek some level of redemption. What that might look like to each of them was also interesting.

Alongside those big over-arching themes what are some of the other ideas that lie behind the story of Guilt?

I think with the brothers, what I tried to do with Guilt is let the characters guide me a little bit through the story and think “what is it about these characters that I still want to know?” It was about digging deeper with all the characters and really getting into their past and their identities to try and understand their outlook and their motivations in the present. Without giving too much away, with the brothers (Max and Jake) I send them back into their past (in a family sense) and it was really interesting to watch them battle with these issues. I think the big thing with me, in terms of knowing that the story has come to an end, is that there’s nothing more about these characters that I need to know. I think that’s a sign for the writer that it’s time to move on.

Maggie Lynch (PHYLLIS LOGAN) in Guilt Series 3 (Credit: BBC/Expectation/Happy Tramp North/ Anne Binckebanck)

You also recently adapted The Gold for BBC One, the story of the Brink's Mat robbery. What is it about the world of crime and criminality that you like exploring?

I think what I find interesting is murky morality. I think writing a black and white moral world isn’t particularly interesting. I don’t think that’s where you end up with a nuanced story or nuanced characters. The greyness in morality is very interesting. Seeing people get sucked into the grey or try to battle out of it gives a show an interesting energy and a great element of surprise. I don’t want to write an overt ‘baddy’ or ‘goody’ as a character, it’s about finding the shades within them. Crime drama lends itself to that.

What I found interesting with The Gold was characters who would have woken up in the morning and the last thing they would have expected was that by the time they went to bed they would have somehow got involved with a large international criminal conspiracy, and yet they did! Those people – what are their stories? How did this happen? Why people commit crimes is far more interesting than the crimes they commit and that’s something that I explored in The Gold (and indeed in Guilt).

Do you think your background in journalism has fed into that curiosity?

It definitely helped with The Gold, which is a vast, vast story. It was about doing the research, being organised and then really looking at the story journalistically in terms of “Where is the television show within this? How can I tell a sprawling and yet relatively concise version of this quite disorganised, multiple story-lined true story. There was certainly a journalistic approach in terms of just finessing the thing and getting it to a manageable size. Then it became far more creative once I got to actually scripting it out.

The Gold: Three tonnes of solid gold, six armed robbers and an audacious heist that stunned Britain. Stealing it was just the start. Starring Dominic Cooper and Hugh Bonneville and written by Neil Forsyth.

How did you decide what to keep and what to lose from the screen version of The Gold?

It has to be both interesting and part of something bigger. It needs to be interlinked with bigger narratives. There are lots and lots of fascinating little nuggets in the Brink's Mat story, even characters and even whole storylines which are not in the television show because they don’t interweave satisfyingly with the bigger narratives. You’ve got to have something that feels like a whole, with lots of moving parts within it which interplay in a satisfying way. There were things that were very regretfully not included. The show’s researcher, Thomas Turner and I were left with this vast research document with lots of story that we hadn’t used in the TV show so we turned that into a book, so none of that work was wasted.

KENNETH NOYE (JACK LOWDEN) in The Gold (Credit: BBC/Tannadice Pictures/Sally Mais)

How is the sense of place so important in Guilt?

I lived in Leith for a long time. I feel that I have a connection to Leith and to Edinburgh as a whole. I think it’s a fascinating city. One thing that we explore in Guilt (and it’s a well-trodden path) is the duality of Edinburgh. The old and the new, the dark and the light. That’s something which has been used creatively from Jekyll and Hyde onwards and gives the show a validated feel as an Edinburgh-set drama. And then there’s the east coast Scots aspect to it. I’m a Dundonian and I think that the east coast of Scotland has a very particular voice and outlook which is poignant and romantic but there’s a slightly absurdist element to the humour which is something that runs through a lot of my work and certainly through Guilt.

Writing regional television is not about accents but about voice. They are very different things, one of them is much deeper than the other. Hopefully with Guilt we’ve created a show that has a voice, and that’s a voice which has some validation in terms of its setting.

Leith itself is an area in flux but has a history of re-invention and a slight otherness. A lot of people from Leith wouldn’t necessarily see themselves as coming from Edinburgh. One aspect I touch on in the third series is the boundary between Leith and Edinburgh. There was a famous pub called The Boundary Bar that the boundary ran through on Leith Walk and that plays into the plot of the third series, that whole boundary between Leith and Edinburgh.

Kenny (EMUN ELLIOTT);Skye (AMELIA ISSAC JONES) filming Guilt Series 3 (Credit: BBC/Expectation/Happy Tramp North/ Anne Binckebanck)

Despite that local specificity Guilt has found an audience around the world. Why do you think that is?

It’s gone out in dozens of countries and has been remade in India and optioned in America for a possible US remake. Far more people have watched Guilt around the world than in the UK which is incredible really. I think it’s because it’s both extremely distinctive but has enough depth to it that there are characters and relationships that can be universally recognised. But particularly in the first series the fundamental dramatic building blocks are very accessible. Two very different brothers are thrown into an extreme situation and have to uncomfortably work together to get out of it. That’s not a complicated dramatic premise in terms of its starting point. I think that helps to sell it.

Some of the alternative titles have been ‘The Bloody Brothers’ (India), ‘A Small Murder Between Brothers’ (France), ‘Our Little Secret’ (Sweden), ‘Nobody is Guilty (Germany) – which is probably the one I find most confusing!

Guilt Series 3 - Director, Patrick Harkins; Writer, Neil Forsyth; Max (MARK BONNAR) (BBC/Expectation/Happy Tramp North/ Anne Binckebanck)

How difficult is it to get a show like Guilt made?

There was a bit of serendipity involved. I had pitched Guilt in America. I had a spell where I was writing quite a few pilot scripts for the American market, which was exciting – I loved going over there and going around the studios. It was financially welcome but creatively quite dispiriting because none of them got made. These American networks tend to hoover up a huge amount of ideas and order the scripts but they don’t end up in production and it’s very, very difficult to get those scripts back from America. I had pitched the idea of Guilt in America and very nearly got a script order from a big studio. Thankfully I didn’t because that would have been Guilt gone. I would never have got it back.

Having failed to sell it there, when I came back I thought that where I really wanted to set this show was in Leith. That is the place that I know. So I wrote the scripts and pitched it to BBC Scotland who were in the process of launching a new channel. Ewan Angus had originally commissioned Bob Servant from me years before, so I quite tentatively sent him the script as I hadn’t written episodic drama before and he came back to me over the weekend. I was fortunate that BBC Scotland were looking for a drama to help launch the new channel and for something very Scottish. That was in 2019 and now we’re here four years later with the final series going out.

Has Guilt changed your writing career?

I’m not sure many other networks would have given me the opportunity to make a drama series at that point. Guilt has been absolutely integral to my career and made such a difference that I think I was then taken much more seriously when I pitched something like The Gold. Again though, with The Gold, I had first written the pilot script. That’s something that I increasingly do with a new development – I write the opening script. I think it’s really helpful for me to be able to work out the show in my own little world and to be able to present that. I think that writing treatments can just lead to endless conversations before you’ve even written a word of script, which can muddy the mind of the writer a little bit.

The script of The Gold bounced about for years through various incarnations and people before the timing was right with the BBC.

Brian Cox as Bob Servant in Neil Forsyth's BBC adaptation of stories based on his Bob Servant books. Bob Servant was first adapted for Radio Scotland as The Bob Servant Emails.

Do you always write the whole pilot script for a show before approaching broadcasters with the idea?

In an ideal world I’ll go to broadcasters with a pilot script and a series outline because I think it’s far more interesting to read a script than a treatment document. I also feel that I’ve then been allowed to create the show that I want to create. Of course if you go into production then it becomes a collegiate and collaborative process but at least those fundamental building blocks of the pilot script and the overall outline are something that I have written with a clear head and no other voices around me. If they don’t want to make it then at least you feel that you have presented the best version of that show and the version that you believe in the most.

I also feel with treatments that they are such embryonic visions of a television show that it can be quite dangerous for a writer. If you take a fundamental note on that treatment that you don’t wholly agree with – you might think “well it’s only changing this character’s outlook or changing this relationship” but when you extrapolate that out over a six episode series it’s a seismic change to the original vision you had and when you get to episode four you may think “why did I say yes to that because now I’ve got this character I don’t understand” or “I’ve lost what I really liked about this character”.

Having experienced the system in the US do you find it easy to keep generating new ideas?

It helps working off a lot of true stories where it’s a lot of creative writing but the essence of the story is existing. Or with Guilt I’ve spent so long with those characters that they do genuinely help me find story because I understand how those characters are going to react to situations. If you have strong characters then you get strong story. So if you have a really deep and nuanced understanding of a character then you can work out how they might react to situations and drive you on to the next consequence of their actions.

If you are pitching lots of ideas and writing lots of pilot scripts I think there’s a danger that you start to get a little bit ‘hacky’ and start looking at other shows that have sold and slightly tweaking their premise. I definitely reached a period of my career five or six years ago now where I hit a wall and spent too long in that system pitching ideas that were half-baked or superficial and ended up writing scripts that were half-baked and superficial as a result. I had a period where I just took a month off writing and reset and thought back to my days as a journalist, my interest in true stories and writing something that meant something to me. That month I wrote a one-page document that became Guilt. I read Eddie Braben’s book which became ‘Eric, Ernie and Me’ and I wrote a couple of little pitches that became a couple of the Urban Myths that I wrote for Sky Arts. So it was incredibly fruitful.

One of the things I did that month was I wrote (and I keep this on a board in my office) Do You Want To Write This? It’s quite important as a writer that you are writing something for the right reasons. Is this something that you are creatively excited about or are you just writing something because it might sell because it’s a bit like that other show on TV?

Eric, Ernie and Me - the story of Eddie Braben, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. Adapted for TV by Neil Forsyth from Eddie Braben's memoirs.

How would you describe your writer’s voice? How does comedy play into it?

I think I write stories that are dramatically driven – I never come up with a story point just to create a funny situation – comedy should play no part in the outlining. Character, drama and story drive the outline. But when I’m writing a script then humour is always available as a way that a character might react to pressure or conflict. I think six part dramas where no one says anything funny actually feel unrealistic and superficial because that doesn’t really reflect real life.

Any advice you can share?

While it’s always interesting to explore societal issues and touch on bigger themes, you can’t let that outweigh the storytelling. I try to write things that are hopefully nuanced but are also unashamedly entertaining. I do think about people coming home from work exhausted and turning on the TV. When I’m writing a script I always think “Why are they still watching this after ten pages?”, “Why are they still watching after ten minutes?” Also I want to find it exciting if I’m going to have to read a script a hundred times!

My biggest tip for a new writer would be to write something that you believe in, that you’re excited about. Make sure that is your motivation because it might not get made and if it doesn’t get made then you want to have a script that you are really proud of and that you feel made you a better writer while you were writing it. Don’t write a script because you think it’s the kind of show that you think might get made or you’ve read somewhere that people are looking for this kind of thing. Sit and write the show that you want to write because that’s the only way that you’re going to become a better writer.

My practical advice would be – I always know what I’m going to write tomorrow. The last thing I do at night is write myself a little note saying “tomorrow, starting page 10" or "scene 11” and it’s always the biggest problem I’ve got. I always try and write the hardest scene I have to write first thing and it’s amazing how often it’s not challenging at all when you’ve got some reserves of energy. When I’m tired and I’ve still got to do some more I tend to read the scenes that are working, the ones that are nearly there as that gives you a bit of confidence ahead of tomorrow.

The other thing is the importance of stopping. It’s counter-productive to put yourself through huge marathon writing sessions when you don’t need to. Get away from the desk and live your life. It’s when you’re out doing something else that you’re more likely to come up with the little narrative fix that you’ve been looking for rather than staring at a wall for five hours. It’s out there in the world that you’re going to get your ideas and have the experiences – good and bad – that will feed into your work.

Watch all three series of Guilt on BBC iPlayer

Watch The Gold on BBC iPlayer

Read the scripts for the first two series of Guilt

My Scottish Drama Writers' Programme Experience

2022-09-20T09:29:40+00:00

Our Scottish Drama Writers' Programme with Screen Scotland paired eight writers with a Scottish independent production company to support them in developing an original TV script aimed at BBC One or BBC Three. It recently concluded with script read-throughs as part of the Edinburgh TV Festival.

We asked one of the writers, May Sumbwanyambe, to describe the process from the inception of his idea right through to the final read-throughs. May has written a fantastic piece for us which articulates how an idea can be seeded, germinate and take root over many years. He explains why it is so important for British TV not to stereotype black stories as "urban" stories and how his meetings with the different companies involved allowed his idea to develop and grow, to focus and find its correct shape. It's also a great insight into what it means to work as a writer in the development of a TV project.

Read May's post below.

Scottish Drama Writers' Programme (l-r top row Anita Vettesse, James Price, Emma Lennox, May Sumbwanyambe, Jenni Fagan, bottom row Raman Mundair, Rob Drummond, Maryam Hamidi)

Spring 2002. A Black teenager is working on a spring-onion farm in a small town called Spalding. At the side of the farm where he is working, he’s surrounded by other British people doing the same job as he is. Except for him, everyone on this side of the farm is white; everyone working to earn the wage of £10 per crate that they fill – cash in hand – a dream job for someone wanting to earn a bit of extra pocket money whilst studying in 6th Form.

One morning, on the other side of the farm, it seems more workers have suddenly turned up. None of them are white. None of them seem to speak English. These workers are kept very separate from the original group. It’s hard to tell where these workers are living - perhaps in the back of the lorry that is now a permanent fixture on the roadside? That must be where they live, sleep, eat and everything else…. How do they wash in such a place? The pace they are working at is incredible, and dangerous – whilst on the “British” side of the farm, people go up one by one to get individual crates at their own pace. On the “other” side of the farm they are brought in by forklift; the sound of it approaching triggers a race between the “Others” – from a distance it almost looks like a game between them. But it isn’t a game. They are deliberately being given too few crates….. who would do that?

Another worker on the farm speculates to the young boy, that she reckons they are probably only getting paid a penny a crate: the young boy looks at them more closely now. He feels sick to his stomach. There’s something about the way they run towards the incoming crates. The forklift comes in closer and closer. The crates haven’t even touched the ground and they’re fighting each other. They're tearing each other limb from limb; with their fingernails - they’re digging their fingernails into each others’ skin; clawing at each other to get one of those crates.

May Sumbwanyambe

No one on the “British” side asks any questions, not even the teenage boy. Everyone keeps their heads down and minds their own business, children and adults alike. But as the days go on, that young boy can’t help but look across the farm, more and more into this other field. Even when he goes home, it’s in the back of his mind. He starts to dream about it. It’s several years before he would go on to study law at university, and at 16 years old he can’t quite articulate, not even to his parents, what it is that is making him feel so unsettled.

Looking back, what he was probably beginning to question – as he stared down the barrel of the manic logic of globalisation, and the system everyone was very much part of - is, if we benefit tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, are we morally implicated in their predicament? Why, he might have asked – at least on this farm – are those basic rights of human existence (that are supposed to be part of our British value system), why are they seemingly confined to the so-called “civilized” parts of our society that are wealthy enough to afford them?

Scottish Drama Writers' Programme read-throughs rehearsal with May in attendance

Fourteen years later and now 30 years old, ‘After Independence’, the play I had written about post-colonial justice, set in Zimbabwe, has just won the Alfred Fagon Audience Award. I receive a congratulatory e-mail from Angela Galvin and Audrey McFadden, the recently appointed team who are busy setting up the new BBC Writersroom department in Glasgow – they say that the former Head of BBC Writersroom, Anne Edyvean, asked them to get in touch and that it would be great to meet me over a coffee. After being one of the winners of the inaugural BBC script room competition in 2012, I had been anticipating such a meeting. A few weeks later we meet and discuss my interest in writing for TV and radio. The meeting leads to immediate introductions to radio producers at BBC Radio 4. As the years pass we all keep in touch and become friends.

It would be four years later, in August 2020, before Development Producer, Angela Galvin, gets in touch, via email, to see if I have time for a quick chat and catch up about a ‘Television Opportunity’. On the arranged Zoom call, we discuss an invited opportunity for writers to participate in ‘The Scottish Drama Writers' Programme 2020. Angela tells me that I have, “been selected to pitch because we (the Drama Commissioning/Screen Scotland and BBC Writersroom Scotland) feel you have demonstrated both passion and great talent in your previous narrative work, but we are aware you have yet to make your mark with your own authored television piece”.

Three weeks later I finished writing my single page drama pitch idea for BBC One, about Fredrick Douglass and the impact he had on the ‘send the money back’ campaign in Scotland in the 1840’s. I submitted this along with my drama spec script.

A couple of weeks after that I receive another call from Angela. The good news is that I have been selected for an interview and the panel really likes my spec script. The more complicated news is that, although the panel liked my Frederick Douglass pitch, the strong feeling is that Commissioning Editor, Gaynor Holmes is not currently looking to develop a period piece. I have a week to come up with another idea.

Scottish Drama Writers' Programme read-through rehearsals

Days pass and my mind keeps drifting back to that 16-year-old boy stood on the farm in Spalding. Somewhere in my subconscious, is an unresolved question – something that might be ripe to be tackled through the process and prism of drama. Around a week later, sat in my kitchen, staring into a computer screen and my laptop's camera, with Angela, Audrey, Gaynor and Screen Scotland producer Leslie Finlay looking back at me, I pitch them an idea titled, ‘Queen of the Beggars’.

‘Queen of the Beggars’ is a story about an ordinary farmer/mother/daughter called Queenie Swana, who, under pressure, makes a bad choice for good reasons when she hires “illegal” workers to work on her farm (named the Beggars). At this early stage I knew that I wanted it to be a family drama which explores the legacy of what is passed down within farming families for both good and bad, and also how difficult it is to remain indifferent to the suffering of “illegal workers” when being both directly confronted by it and potentially complicit in it.

In the BBC interview I talk about my interest in expanding the range of stories of Black people in Britain. My idea was still pretty rough around the edges, having come up with it so quickly, but as I began to talk about why I was passionate about telling this story and why I felt it was so important that this story was told, I began to flesh out ideas that had clearly been troubling me for a long time, particularly the strong tendency in British TV to stereotype black stories as “urban” stories. For me that doesn’t show the whole picture; there are plenty of black, middle-class families, like the ones I wanted to explore in ‘Queen of the Beggars’, who face many different issues than gun and knife crime and living on an estate.

As I spoke, It felt like something electric happened in that Zoom meeting. Something authentic was emerging from within me – issues that I had been wrestling with for nearly two decades were suddenly crystal clear. The response from Gaynor, Leslie and the team was enthusiastically positive. They told me that I didn’t need to create another written pitch document, and that the combination of what I had articulated in the meeting and my spec script would be powerful enough if I was put forward as one of the shortlisted writers whose work would be submitted to the eight Independent TV producers (Indies) taking part in the programme. A week later Angela wrote to inform me that I was officially one of nine writers to proceed on to further interviews in October 2020.

The writers at the Scottish Drama Writers' Programme read-throughs at the Royal Lyceum Theatre studio in Edinburgh

The next part of the process seemed relatively straight forward – each of the eight Indies would pick two potential writers they would like to be paired with, and the writers were asked who they would ideally like to work with too. Finally, the BBC would place eight writers with eight Indies and announce the results in December 2020.

The tone and feeling of the interviews with the Indies felt a lot like my initial meeting with the wider BBC team. I’d start by discussing my spec script and move onto a deeper conversation about the story I wanted to pitch to them. The best thing about these interviews with the Indies was the immediate feedback I was getting from them every time I pitched the idea. It gave me lots of opportunities to test out new parts of the idea and keep building upon them.

The first meeting I took was with Freedom Scripted. In its rawest form, what I had originally pitched to Gaynor was a story that deliberately muddied the lines between good and bad; right and wrong. In this new meeting I tried to build on the way I presented the narrative so that the story felt like it was driving towards that larger question of how do we live with the choices that we make in our lives, especially the ones that impact our families? I designed the story focus around how hard it is to be a good person in modern day society, and how people who are often viewed by society as “bad” can do good things and vice versa.

Next up were Balloon Entertainment. Taking on feedback from my previous meeting, I tried to improve the set-up of my story, to increase the stakes and make it easier for an audience to engage with my characters and their through-lines.

With BBC Studios my emphasis started to shift much more onto character. Taking a little more time in my pitch to build up the back-story behind the protagonist made her more relatable and emphasised that she was not just someone who was lucky enough to own/manage a large plot of land.

The story felt like it started to coalesce even better with this change in a way that really benefited my conversation with STV Studios. Now my plot had a protagonist that had an active secret. I continued to develop this in the pitch by broadening my view beyond the earliest parts of the story, so that her secret would be one that gets bigger and bigger, but also one that makes the audience ask themselves what would we do in her shoes? That personal secret had to be something impossible to keep truly secret in a small community. It was something that would eventually not just be personal, but familial before other people in the community would be dragged into it too - everyone needs to be compromised by it.

In my next Zoom conversation, with Synchronicity Films – I focused a little more on the world I was trying to build for my characters. I tried to pitch this in a succinct way, without me waffling on - the key to this was focusing on the three generations of women (grandmother, mother and daughter) living on the farm. My aim was to create a really interesting and complex world by focusing on the contemporary relevance underpinning the idea: that through these generations we could see how Brexit has had a crippling effect on Scotland’s rural economy, particularly in relation to access to casual, seasonal workers from Europe. By focusing more on the three individual POV’s of my characters, I felt I was able to communicate my idea in a way that was very specific and resonant with ideas of modern slavery, morality, and human rights etc.

I continued this pattern of revisions so that, by the time I pitched to Tod Productions I noticed that what didn’t seem to be cutting through in previous pitches was the importance of mental health and wellbeing to the story. I worked to reframe the beginning of the script so that it was clearer to the audience that the precarious and stressful nature of trying to keep the farm working in a “hostile environment” was putting my protagonist’s wellbeing at stake. I paralleled this with the impact on mental health/wellbeing that was happening to the human beings, subjected to the UK Home Office’s “Hostile Environment” policy.

World Productions Scotland delivered some great, straight-forward feedback at the end of our meeting. Perhaps it helped that George Aza-Selinger and I had already worked together on many projects over the years, when he was previously the Literary Manager at the National Theatre of Scotland. Because of this, I began to further interrogate the hook/inciting incident of the series, to ensure that it gives power to the main character and hooks the audience in early.

Scottish Drama Writers' Programme read-throughs. Lois Chimimba bringing May's character of Queenie to life.

By the time I sat down with Marcus Wilson / Kathryn Shrubb (Two Rivers Media) I felt very well versed with what I was trying to say with this piece, that had grown and developed throughout all of the previous conversations.

What struck me immediately about my conversation with Two Rivers was they were the first company that didn’t want to change the original idea. In hindsight, with all the experience they have, they both knew that the process would see the idea naturally grow and change for the better – but it was more than just that. They were also the only company that already had plans to make a story about farming. Everything just seemed to gel in that initial conversation. Our visions about what this story should be and why this story needed to be told aligned perfectly.

We talked about our desire to go beyond the sense of the script being merely an exploration of how people survive under increasingly difficult circumstances. With Marcus and Kat’s guidance, I started to think more practically about how to build the pressure on the protagonist in the earliest parts of the drama so that her decision to use illegal workers really made sense. Two Rivers’ focus on detail, characters and relationships really suited me. Although I could articulate well the important and relevant issues underpinning this story, the team at Two Rivers were very persuasive that the story needed to arise from and be driven through character, rather than the issues imposing on the story. We needed to interrogate these characters and their relationships to one another to find the most specific, believable and personal way of telling the story. I immediately knew this strategy would allow me to catapult the characters into an unexpected world and ask uncomfortable questions about illegal workers, modern slavery and moral responsibility. I knew I hadn’t quite found the perfect shape of the story yet and needed to pin down exactly what the story was. I had no doubt, call it instinct, that Kat and Marcus could deliver me there. Covering so much ground the way that we did within that short conversation, ticked a huge box for me, in terms of what I was looking for in an Indie. And this final meeting set the tone for how me, Marcus, Kat (and also Annabel Macleod, Charlotte Daniel and Callum Ferguson) would go on to work together for the next 18 months.

The Scottish Drama Writers' Programme read-throughs

In early December, Angela wrote to tell me that several of the Indies had picked me as the person that they wanted to work with. That was a fantastic feeling. All of them would have been a joy and pleasure to work with but in my head I had already decided that Two Rivers would be the best option for me. Happily, they were one of the companies that had chosen me too.

What followed over the next 16 months was me writing (and then re-writing several times) the treatment and first episode of the show. Two Rivers surpassed what I had expected of them in every way. Their attention to detail in terms of developing the idea as well as my needs as a developing screenwriter was phenomenal. Whether that was through having someone on the team dedicated to research, Marcus and Kat’s constant involvement in every single meeting, making arrangements for established screenwriters to be my mentor, organising interviews with farmers and lawyers, and team trips to spend time on farms in Arbroath where our story is set. More than that though, it was their patience, alongside constant belief and encouragement, that meant even in those harder moments of learning, I never felt overwhelmed or alone.

All this was supplemented by the BBC who provided me with the brilliant Pamela Hansson as a script editor all the way through the process, whom I could go to for advice and feedback. Getting the opportunity to have group conversations with writers such as Lucy Prebble, Marnie Dickens and Vinay Patel, as well as development producers like Philip Shelley was also a real highlight of the programme. Their dedication to their craft and humility and generosity in being open with us about the ups and downs of their own journeys felt incredibly empowering and inspiring.

The unexpected part about working in television was just how many different voices are involved. It’s a real skill to be able to try and give various producers and commissioners what they want but also stay true to your original vision. In theatre you don’t have to take so many people along on the journey with you. I remember a particularly useful meeting about halfway through the process – we had “finished” the treatment and it was the first time that the team at the BBC had a chance to weigh in on what we had done before we went to script. Gaynor Holmes came with so many brilliant ideas to that meeting; it felt so rewarding and encouraging to see how deeply engaged everyone in that Zoom room was with the story that we were trying to tell.

As we progressed on to script, that meeting encouraged us to think about how the story we were telling could offer both the “high-stakes thriller experience”, that the BBC were asking for as well as deliver the Breaking Bad type “character study” that was driving my vision. As we developed the script we really began to tease these issues out. For the high-stakes thriller experience to land the way we wanted it to, we needed to speak to contemporary issues; namely Brexit, inflation and the cost of living, in a nuanced, dramatically satisfying and surprising way. The thriller experience needed to sit alongside the family saga, “The King is dead/Long live the king” aspect that Gaynor so passionately noted in our meeting. To borrow a phrase from my colleague Marcus, “we needed to find a way to have our cake and eat it”.

The Scottish Drama Writers' Programme read-throughs

The most familiar part of this whole process for me was the build-up to the end of programme readings. I was extremely happy when I heard that my friend Cora Bissett would be directing. She is someone with whom I had wanted to work for a long time, and after this experience I’m sure she is someone I will work with again in the future. The amount of detail she and the brilliant actors (Neshla Caplan, Lois Chimimba, Ryan Hunter, Angie Darcy, Romario Simpson, Stephen McCole and Amy Conachan) found in the script extract in only two hours rehearsal time was phenomenal. It’s only when you get the story up on its feet and hear actor’s interpretations that you really start to understand the little details and nuances contained within your script; the places where you need to ramp up tension; the little complexities that are built into your character that start to make them come alive and the small places that your story is really affecting that you may have previously underestimated.

Seeing Lois Chimimba bring Queenie to life from the page was particularly useful to understanding the character’s voice going forward. The immediate response from the invited industry audience was gratifying. The general tenor of which was, “May, they better bloody make this”. “Yes,” I thought to myself, (many times), “they really better!”. 😉 Also being from Edinburgh, I have long wanted to make my Edinburgh debut – so the fact that Audrey and Stephanie organised for the reading to take place at the Lyceum Theatre during the Edinburgh TV Festival, made it all just that little more special. It was also great to see the brilliant and varied work that the other writers have been developing. Jenni “I’m the best dissector of the dead on this damn island” Fagan, is cooking up something pretty special with her piece “Lilith”.

The only bittersweet moment about the reading was that it marked the moment where Charlotte Daniel (one of the Two Rivers team) would be leaving us to join the team at Lime Pictures. Charlotte made invaluable contributions throughout the year to the development of this idea and has been a really brilliant friend. She will be missed. And I’m sure one day (if I’m lucky) she’ll be my boss!

On the train back from Edinburgh to Glasgow the next morning I bumped into Gaynor and Leslie. They were pleased with the reading and enthusiastic about seeing the whole script. I was… hungover! It felt like a lovely postscript to a brilliant event.

What happens next? Well, as I write this blog post, myself and my Two Rivers family are reworking the pre-title sequences - we want those opening five pages to really encapsulate what the series is about. I’m sure we’ll go through a few more rounds of this to perfect it.

Whether or not we get that coveted opportunity to develop this series further, in many respects I feel I’ve already won. I’ve enjoyed every moment of this process; I’ve learnt such a wide array of screenwriting skills that I didn’t previously have in my locker; I’ve made lifelong friends in my colleagues, and at the age of 36, I finally have answers for that 16 year-old, black boy staring across at an adjacent field, filled with “others” and contemplating the manic logic of globalisation. I can now face myself, in the mirror, and tell that boy, inside me, that our values are not defined by what we will tolerate being done to ourselves; they are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others. I know one thing for sure, the chance to be able to continue on this journey and get the opportunity to ask that question, to a BBC One audience, through the medium of a compelling drama, is truly the stuff that dreams are made of. So, as I come to the end of this drafting process, I will cross my fingers, close my eyes, and hope that the TV gods, along with the gods of luck, timing and personal tastes are on my side. And then I’ll press send.

TIPS for success when submitting to BBC Writersroom:

If you have made it this far in reading my blog post, my only tip is this: read lots of screenplays and watch lots of television. There is no meeting you will have in TV where having reference points and a mutual shorthand language with the other people in the room is not going to be to your advantage. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking we learn how to be a writer by writing. We learn by reading and watching critically. Evaluating the decisions that other writers have made. The two scripts that I found myself reading over and over again when I was writing my pilot were Sally Wainwrights’s magical openings to ‘Happy Valley’ and ‘Last Tango in Halifax’. I’ve never met Sally Wainwright but she is definitely now one of my heroes.

Find out more about the eight writers who took part in our Scottish Drama Writers' Programme with Screen Scotland

Explore our Script Library and read many more BBC TV Drama scripts

Beep - How my Comedy pilot was made for BBC Scotland and BBC Two

2021-03-11T11:57:18+00:00

Beep written by Bryce Hart was broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC Two as part of the BBC's Festival of Funny.

Watch Beep now on BBC iPlayer

Beep is set in Glasgow and focuses on the dynamics and secrets of a working class family as they visit their Dad Tommy, who lies helplessly in hospital, in a coma.

On the day of his wedding anniversary Tommy is visited by his wife Liz and dysfunctional family members, including his emotionally challenged son Martin, sleep deprived daughter Hannah and lonely nephew Nigel.

Boasting a cast of exciting talent, including Siobhan Redmond (The Replacement, Unforgotten), Paul Higgins (The Thick Of It), Victoria Balnaves (Shetland, Garrows Law), Grant O’Rourke (Outlander), Kevin O’Loughlin (The Ginge, The Geordie and the Geek) and BAFTA nominated Lois Chimimba (Trust Me, Doctor Who). Beep was filmed exclusively on set and location in and around Glasgow.

We caught up with Bryce to find out about the show's journey to the screen.

Beep, written by Bryce Hart. Becks (LOIS CHIMIMBA), Dr. Roy (BHAV JOSHI), Hannah (VICTORIA BALNAVES), Liz (SIOBHAN REDMOND), Martin (GRANT O'ROURKE), Nigel (KEVIN O'LOUGHLIN), Father Sydney (PAUL HIGGINS)(Image Credit: BBC / HAppy Tramp North / Robert Michael Wilson)

You have been involved with the BBC Writersroom for several years. What was your first introduction to us?

In 2016 I was working in production as a researcher and managed to convince a producer I was working with to read one of my scripts. It was a day when it was just the two of us out filming so I knew he’d probably feel he had to agree, knowing that the rest of the day would be pretty awkward if he’d said no. But thankfully he did actually read it and liked it. He took it to the BBC and it went into development for a few months but ultimately didn’t get made. The commissioner at the BBC passed it over to the BBC Writersroom who read it and invited me to interview for the Comedy Room development group and luckily I managed to get into it.

How did being part of the Comedy Room help develop your career?

The Comedy Room was an incredible slice of luck for me to get on as it gave me the one thing any writer needs, which is access to the people you need to impress. In our second meet-up we were all put in a room with what seemed like every comedy producer in London. Although I did what most people do at these things, mainly stand in the corner and drink free beer and talk about how I wish I knew how to network, over the course of the scheme I did learn how to network and to build relationships with producers. It’s really simple. Just don’t talk about your work. Talk about comedy. It’s not an official rule but it took the pressure of me – as well as whoever was listening to me.

As well as that, we were given the opportunity to submit material for a whole range of shows and I very quickly managed to get some credits under my belt, which was huge. Mainly it was for things I’d never considered doing before, like radio or children’s TV. I didn’t think I’d be right for these things but teaching yourself to write for different mediums and audiences is a really useful thing to do. Adapting your voice to fit an existing show is really handy when it comes to getting jobs in writers' rooms.

I was lucky as well that the BBC Writersroom regionalised at the same time I was on the scheme so all of a sudden there was a Scottish office. I emailed and asked if I could come in for a coffee (generally good advice – people are always keen to get away from the office – when offices were a thing) and there I met Angela Galvin and Audrey McFadden. They have played such a massive part in my career from that day on and soon got me my first script commission for BBC Three’s The Break and put me up for a writer’s residency at The Comedy Unit in Glasgow, writing on BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad.

Angela and Audrey basically became my unofficial agents until I got my actual agent, who they introduced me to. So everything really goes back to the Comedy Room and meeting them.

Scot Squad

So you are about to have your first network pilot broadcast. Can you tell us how did Beep come about?

Back in 2018 I was invited to interview for the Scottish Comedy Writer’s Programme run by BBC Writersroom Scotland. You had to submit a spec' script which was going to be read by comedy commissioners so I was determined to write something new for it. Beep was an idea I’d been playing with in my head for a while and I used the deadline for the Comedy Writers' Programme to get the first draft done.

I managed to get selected for the programme and through it I met Neil Webster at Happy Tramp North, who is the exec on Beep. Happy Tramp were the perfect home for Beep and working with Neil and the team there was a real joy. We developed the script over the next few months and quickly went to a table read which went really well, despite me spending most of it shaking in the back row. A pilot was then commissioned off the back of that.

Was working with Happy Tramp North your first experience of working with an independent production company?

No I’d worked for the best part of a year at the Comedy Unit in Glasgow as a staff writer, which was the best job in the world. To get up in the morning and not dread going to work was a new feeling, mainly because I was mostly terrible at every other job. Also their office was a five minute walk from my flat so, perfect really.

I also worked in TV for six years in production, as a runner and then as a researcher on various shows. It’s a useful path I think for people wanting to break into writing as it gives you that insight into how the industry works - and I also have a very detailed memory of how a lot of people take their tea, so when this all blows up and I have to go back to it, I’ll be able to pick up seamlessly from where I left off.

Bryce Hart (with script) at the read through for Beep with Anne Edyvean (Head of BBC Writersroom) and Angela Galvin (Development Producer for BBC Writersroom Scotland)

Was the development process for Beep plain sailing?

The development process was challenging in terms of logistics. Beep is mainly set in one hospital room but that room is essentially a family living room and the ‘world’ outside (the corridors and neighbouring rooms) had to feel like a little world of it’s own. Nothing like that existed already in Scotland so we had to have a set built, which was incredibly exciting but naturally took a bit of time.

The pilot was commissioned in May 2019 and we were finally set to film in April 2020. And then...yeah. (The pandemic happened just to be clear).

So then I just panicked for six months but we finally managed to film in November last year. Making my first pilot during COVID was a weird experience. I still couldn’t really tell you what any of the crew look like from the eyes down. But it was great to get lost in the little world we had created and get some respite from the reality outside. We had the best crew in the world basically.

But other than that it was a breeze. I was working with fantastic people at Happy Tramp. Neil was a constant source of support and encouragement throughout – and helped pick me up when the show seemed to be on constant pause during COVID. I was also really fortunate to work with two amazing producers (Ali Marlow and Jane Bell) on the show. Creatively the development couldn’t have gone any better and I’ve met people who I hope to work with for the rest of my career.

I’m also eternally grateful to the BBC for sticking by the show. Their support never wavered really and that meant a lot.

The cast of Beep (Image Credits: BBC / Happy Tramp North / Robert Michael Wilson)

So when can we watch BEEP?

Beep will be on the BBC Scotland Channel on Friday the 12th of March at 10.30pm. It will also be going out on BBC Two as part of the BBC’s Festival of Funny on Sunday the 14th of March at 9.45pm. And of course it will be on BBC iPlayer (watch Beep now on BBC iPlayer). We’d love to make more so I’m not saying watch it three times but I am also saying that.

Any tips advice for writers when you have an idea rejected?

Just keep going. It sounds glib but it’s not. Rejections hurt and it’s fine to take a few days to lick your wounds but ultimately, writers write and soon you’re back in front of the laptop. Also, if the person who is saying no is explaining why it didn’t work for them and where to improve, try to take their notes on board. Some of the best advice I ever got was during rejections. And if they’re giving you that advice, it’s because they want you to come back fighting. I have definitely had lots of moments of sitting up at 4am, writing a spec' script that no one has asked for or is paying me for, wondering if anyone will even read it and feeling so far away from where I want to be. So no one is alone in feeling that. Keep going.

What’s next for you?

I’m currently a writer and associate producer on the UK remake of the French Netflix show Call My Agent! and have a few other projects in development. And hopefully there’s more Beep to come!

Beep was produced in partnership with Screen Scotland, find out more on their website

Find out more about Bryce Hart

Scottish Drama Writers' Programme

2021-02-24T10:50:10+00:00

Screen Scotland, BBC Drama Commissioning and BBC Writersroom announce the Scottish Drama Writers’ Programme 2021. The programme has partnered Scottish based writers with Independent production companies to develop bold, authentic network drama for the BBC.

Following on from the successful BBC Writersroom pan-UK TV Drama Writers’ Programme, the Scottish initiative will fund and partner eight writers with a Scottish independent production company who will support them in developing an original TV script aimed at BBC One or BBC Three.

Within the year-long programme, the selected writers will have access to BBC Writersroom led writer sessions and workshops with experienced British TV writers and industry experts to assist in developing their scripts. The aim is that the writer’s series or serial will be taken into full development by the BBC.

Long term, the aim of the Scottish Drama Writers' programme is to be a catalyst for the selected writers and independent production companies to establish working relationships and to support the wider creative broadcast industry in Scotland.

Scottish Drama Writers' Programme (l-r top row Anita Vettesse, James Price, Emma Lennox, May Sumbwanyambe, Jenni Fagan, bottom row Raman Mundair, Rob Drummond, Maryam Hamidi)

The participants in the 2021 programme and the production companies that they have been partnered with are:

May Sumbwanyambe - Two Rivers Media
Anita Vettesse - BBC Studios
Jenni Fagan – STV Studios
Emma Lennox – TOD Productions
Raman Mundair – Synchronicity Films
James Price - Balloon Entertainment
Maryam Hamidi - World Productions, Scotland
Rob Drummond – Freedom Scripted Entertainment

Find out more about the writers below.

Rob Drummond

Rob is an award-winning playwright and performer who has worked with the most prestigious theatres in the UK. He is an associate artist at the Traverse Theatre and his wide-ranging work includes ‘The Majority’ (National Theatre), the multi award-winning ‘Bullet Catch’ (The Arches), the critically acclaimed thriller ‘Grain In The Blood’ (The Traverse) and dating show ‘In Fidelity’ (HighTide), in which Rob helped audience members find love live on stage.

Rob is currently under commission to Kiln Theatre, The National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in TV, Rob has original series in development with Freedom Scripted Entertainment and Two Rivers Media.

Rob is represented by Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates.

Jenni Fagan

Jenni is a critically acclaimed novelist, poet and screenwriter. Author of four novels and five poetry collections, her work is available in eight languages. Her third novel ‘Luckenbooth’ came out in Jan 2021 and Irvine Welsh described it as “One of the most stunning literary experiences I've had in years. Luckenbooth is the quintessential novel of Edinburgh at its darkest." Her novel ‘HEX’ came out in 2022 to great critical acclaim, described by Alisdair Whay as “a masterclass in how to tell a story”. Her stage adaptation of ‘The Panopticon’ for National Theatre of Scotland performed a sold out, critically acclaimed run and lead role Anna Russel-Martin won a coveted CAT critics award for her performance of Anais Hendricks. Jenni’s ‘libretti’ film for Scottish Opera saw great reviews. She wrote and filmed a short cine poem which will be on Happenings at the Traverse Theatre.

Awards include Granta Best of Young British Novelist and Scottish Author of the Year. Jenni has three degrees, most recently a PhD, and is a Dr of Philosophy. She is currently adapting ‘The Blade Artist’ by Irvine Welsh, as a six part series with Robert Carlyle for Buccaneer Media. They will then be following this with Jenni's adaptations of ‘The Panopticon’ and Luckenbooth for television.

Jenni's memoir was recently picked up in a two-book deal and will be published by Hutchinson Heinemann in Autumn 2023. Her poetry collection ‘The Bone Library’ is out in Sept and her bone art engravings and poetry are on display in Summerhall.

Jenni is Represented by Tracy Bohan, The Wylie Agency

Maryam Hamidi

Maryam has written/directed short films 'Bahar' (Moquette films/Short Circuit/BFI Network) and ‘Bloody Love’ (Clan/SFTN). She was selected for Edinburgh International Film Festival’s Talent Lab 2022, the inaugural BBC Scottish Drama Writers’ Programme, the BBC Writersroom Scottish Voices Comedy scheme and was shortlisted and mentored by Channel 4 Screenwriting 2021. She received the Playwright’s Studio ‘New Playwright’s Award’, Fire Exit’s ‘Pyromania’ Award and her solo show 'the Chronicles of Irania' (co-writer Catrin Evans) was shortlisted for the Amnesty Award.

Her recent credits include ‘The Words’ (a Play, a Pie & a Pint), ‘Ghost Stories: I look down on myself’ (Pitclochry Festival Theatre), ‘United Kingdoms: Govanhill’ (BBC Radio 4), ‘Drivetime’ (BBC Radio Scotland), multiple episodes of kids comedy drama ‘Molly & Mack’ (CBeebies) and more recently on series 2 of ‘Silverpoint’ (Zodiak Kids). She is currently developing TV projects with World Productions, Two Rivers Media, Ossian Pictures, Objective Fiction and The Forge and is also writing for ‘Hollyoaks’ (Lime). Her play ‘Moonset’ is being produced by the Citizens Theatre in the new year.

Maryam is represented by Jessica Cooper at Curtis Brown.

Emma Lennox

Emma is the writer/creator of Unfair- a channel 4 comedy blap set in a showman’s yard in Glasgow. The project was developed from her own experiences which she presented to industry reps at the Young Films Foundation in 2019. She wrote episode three of Channel 5 psychological thriller ‘The Holiday’ (2022) and is currently developing more comedy/drama ideas with Hopscotch Films, Channel X and TOD Productions. She has previously written shorts for BBC Learning, BBC Scotland and radio. Her short film ‘Grimm Street’ was selected for the Scottish Film Talent Network and in 2016 she won the BAFTA new talent award for best actress. She devised and directed web documentary ‘Boswell in Space’ which was selected for the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, 2011. Emma won the best script prize at the Caledonian University Masters in TV writing in 2012.

Emma’s background is in journalism, and she worked in factual TV production for ten years before making the jump to full time writing. Emma enjoys both dark psychological mysteries and comic relief.

Emma is represented by The Agency.

Raman Mundair

Raman is an Indian born writer, screenwriter, director, filmmaker, artist, poet and playwright. She is the award-winning author of ‘Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves’, ‘A Choreographer’s Cartography’, ‘The Algebra of Freedom’ (a play) and is the editor of Incoming: ‘Some Shetland Voices’. Her short film ‘Trowie Buckie’ was shortlisted for Sharp Shorts 2020.
Raman was the recipient of an All3media scholarship award for her scriptwriting and she is a graduate of the National Film and Television School. https://rmundair.wixsite.com/website

Raman's script ‘Tongue’ has been chosen for Sharp Shorts 2022 and her script ‘A Girl Called Elvis’ has been awarded a First Features award. She is currently under commission to the Traverse Theatre and is an IASH Theatre Writing Fellow.

James Price

James is a self-taught BAFTA Scotland nominated writer/director from Springburn, Glasgow. He taught himself how to write screenplays in his teenage years by studying the screenplays of films he admired. His work is usually based on moments or feelings from his life and the lives of those closest to him. He has made short films for BBC iPlayer and had some of his work televised on BBC Scotland.

He is currently in production on a project for BBC Scotland and iPlayer, a 60 minute original work that James has written and is directing. James has film and TV drama projects in development with leading independent production companies.

His semi-autobiographical short film ‘Boys Night’ was nominated for Best Short Film at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019 and won the audience award at Glasgow Short Film Festival 2020. His BAFTA Scotland Best Short Film nomination ‘Dropping Off Michael’ is currently in development as a feature film with Sigma Films.

James is represented by United Agents.

May Sumbwanyambe

May is a librettist, radio dramatist, academic and playwright from Edinburgh. Previous productions include:
‘Ghost Light', (Edinburgh International Festival and National Theatre of Scotland), ‘Joseph Knight’, (BBC Scotland, National Theatre of Scotland), ‘After Independence’ (Arcola Theatre, Papatango Theatre), ‘The Parrot House’ (Guildhall School of Music and Drama) and ‘The Trial of Joseph Knight’ (BBC Radio 4).

He is currently writing new stage plays for The National Theatre of Scotland, the Citizens Theatre and Gridiron Theatre with the National Trust for Scotland, all of which are about the historical visibility of Black people in Scotland. He is also developing a new TV Series for Two Rivers Media and a new radio play for BBC radio 4.

May is currently an artist in residence at Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity. His last stage play, which the Evening standard called “A notable debut play” and the Times called “A debut of astonishing maturity” also saw him described by The Times as “a rare discovery” and The Telegraph as “a writer of terrific potential.”

May is represented by Berlin Associates.

Anita Vettesse

Anita co-created BBC Radio 4’s crime drama, ‘This Thing of Darkness’ (Winner of the British Podcast Award 2021 and nominee for Best Writer Tinniswood 2021). She has just finished writing the latest series which can be found on BBC Sounds. Anita has also written ‘Falling’ for BBC Radio Scotland. Anita was selected for the BBC Scottish Drama Writers’ Programme and has written the pilot episode of a 3-part revenge thriller with BBC Studios. Anita is currently writing on ‘Grantchester’ as well as continuing to be a core writer on BBC’s ‘River City’.

Her theatre work includes: ‘Ringroad’ which was nominated for best new play at The Critics Theatre Awards; ‘Happy Hour’ and ‘From The Air’ for Oran Mor as well as ‘Eddie and The Slumber Sisters’ for Catherine Wheels/National Theatre of Scotland. Anita was writer in residence at The National Theatre Scotland in 2021 as part of the John Mather Trust Award and has written a new dark thriller, ‘Pick Up Point’. She is also currently co-writing another musical for them. Anita has just begun writing a brand new Ghost Story for Perth Theatre called ‘56 Days’ to be performed in autumn next year.

Anita is represented by the Haworth Agency.

Read the Scottish Drama Writers' Programme press release on the BBC Media Centre

Screen Scotland - find out more

BBC Drama Commissioning - find out more

A Million & Me - Two new BBC Radio Scotland Dramas for BBC Children in Need

2020-11-10T12:55:43+00:00

In our line of work, we get to collaborate with the best creative teams around and one of our most productive partnerships has been with the BBC Radio Scotland team. In the last two years alone, we have created opportunities that led to seven original comedies produced and broadcast by Scottish based writers. Not bad results!

While exploring what we could do next with the radio team, they suggested adding BBC Children in Need into the mix. Their impactful programme, A Million & Me, focusses on supporting children’s mental health and in particular 8-13 year olds who are beginning to struggle with it and their emotional wellbeing. We were left inspired by the ambition of this programme and off the back of those conversations our next writer opportunity was created.

Aimed at our past and present Scottish Voices writers groups, we asked for audio pitches that reflected this theme of issues around mental health and young people. Michael Richardson’s and Brian McIver’s pitches stood out and they soon found themselves commissioned for their very first audio drama. Supported and guided by BBC Radio Scotland Drama Producer, Kirsty Williams, Brian and Michael worked across the summer on their audio dramas with Kirsty expertly leading the way. The end result is two thought provoking audio dramas that remind us how difficult and challenging life can be for young people in 2020.

We asked Brian and Michael to share their experience of writing for radio for the first time:

Brian McIver

Fissures by Brian McIver, broadcast Wednesday 11th November at 11.30am, Listen now on BBC Sounds

A group of young people on a respite weekend go on a journey through a mountain cave system which will challenge them in ways they never thought it could….

I wanted to explore how young people can feel trapped by their situation and often struggle to accept help. And having read about BBC Children in Need supported groups who take young people off on outdoor adventures, I thought that’d be a great setting for my characters to get stuck in the dark – literally having to find their voices to progress.

The key advice I was given when writing for radio was to think of it as a visual medium. To be economical with the use of action, language and air and to create pictures for the audience. Thankfully I was in very good hands. And when Kirsty gathered an incredible cast of talented young actors to perform my story, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Listen to Fissures for 30 days from broadcast

Michael Lee Richardson (photo credit: Ashleigh Jane Cosgrove)

The End of the World by Michael Richardson, broadcast Thursday 12th November at 11.30am Listen now on BBC Sounds

A witty and touching drama about a father and son that really need to learn how to communicate better...

I had assumed writing for radio would lean a lot more into the parts of writing I’m really comfortable with, writing dialogue and jokes. So I was surprised to hear Kirsty say that radio drama is the most visual medium to write for - and I soon learned what she meant! It’s been a really interesting challenge; creating a world for the listener through context cues and sound, and it was absolutely fantastic to hear that world brought to life in the studio and work with two really amazing actors.

I’ve been a youth worker for ten years now, so I’m really aware of the stigma there can be around young people opening up about their mental health, especially amongst boys and young men. I think A Million & Me offers to meet young people where they’re at, and help them access support that’s relevant to their age group, hopefully before some of those stigmas have settled.

Listen to The End of the World for 30 days from broadcast

BBC Radio Scotland Drama Producer Kirsty Williams

If this has piqued your interest, Producer Kirsty Williams has some top tips for first time radio writers…

Audio drama devours story. Feed it.
Paint as few characters as you possibly can. Make each of them emotionally rich and psychologically complex. Thin characters sound thin when there are no visuals to hide behind.
It’s an interactive medium. Help your audience paint vivid and tangible pictures in their imagination. That applies to the entire sound world you’re creating as well as to the stories characters tell and share.
Audio drama isn’t about sound, it’s about significant sound. Give your audience subtle clues to understand any sounds that are not characters speaking. And don’t disembody the sound world when you write a script (eg. “SFX: a door opens”) – link everything to the characters and world you’re creating.
Always think about rhythm and pace – playing with these elements changes nearly everything.

The Scottish Voices 2020

2020-02-28T12:20:33+00:00

We’re delighted to announce our Scottish Voices for 2020. These 31 writers have been selected to take part in our annual year-long development programme consisting of masterclasses, script editing support, bespoke writing opportunities and networking.

The Scottish Voices writers for 2020/21 are:

RAISAH AHMED

Agent: Jessica Cooper, Curtis Brown

Raisah is a Scottish Asian Muslim Writer/Director, based in Glasgow, currently working across television and film. She has been shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab twice - in 2015 with Meet Me By The Water and in 2018 with Safar which is currently in development with Producer Zorana Piggott. She is in development with Zorana Piggott on a WW1 feature, Half-Moon Camp, for Film 4. Her writing credits include CBeebies shows Feeling Better, Molly & Mack and Control a BBC The Social phone drama and Aden’s Journey a short drama about a refugee unaccompanied minor for the Celcis course ‘Caring for Children on the Move’. Alumni of the EIFF Talent Lab 2014, Raisah had her first commissioned short as writer/director Meet Me By The Water premiere at EIFF 2016, it went on to be programmed by BBC Scotland’s ‘Next Big Thing’ programme. She directed one of BBC 3’s The Break III, 2018, was a shadowing director on CBeebies Molly & Mack S2 and most recently directed on CBBC’s ‘Sparks’.

TIM BARROW

Agent: Rachel Daniels, Berlin Associates

Born in Edinburgh, Tim is an actor, writer, director & producer who trained at Drama Centre London. Tim founded Lyre Productions to make contemporary Scottish feature films. He wrote and produced award-winning Scottish road movie The Inheritance and Edinburgh love story The Space Between. His new feature Riptide – a schizophrenia love story road movie – is currently playing film festivals worldwide.

Tim’s play Guy was produced at London’s Pleasance Theatre, and directed by Michael Fentiman. Union premiered at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, directed by Mark Thomson, and is published by Playdead Press. Neither God Nor Angel played at Oran Mor / Traverse, directed by Ryan Alexander Dewar. A War Of Two Halves (co-written with Paul Beeson) played at Tynecastle Park stadium, directed by Bruce Strachan. Sweet F.A. (co-written with Paul Beeson) plays at the Edinburgh Fringe 2021. He received a New Writers Award from Playwrights Studio, was selected for the Wellcome Trust Ideas Lab at Edinburgh International Film Festival, and has worked as a Starter Artist at National Theatre of Scotland. Tim is currently a participant on BBC Writersroom’s Drama Room 2021-22.

PAUL BEESON

Paul is an Edinburgh born actor, writer, and co-founder of This Is My Story Productions. He has many theatre credits and has previously toured the U.K. and internationally with acclaimed company Nonsense Room Productions, performing in children’s shows including You Choose, which he also devised and wrote. Paul’s first venture into writing was sketch show A Beginner’s Guide to the Fringe in 2005, and then he co-wrote and performed in the critically successful Edinburgh Fringe sellout production of A War of Two Halves in 2018 and 2019. The play received many 5 star reviews and was one of BritishTheatre.com’s Critics Choices of 2019. The play will be returning in 2021. He has also written two short films, The Hardest Hobbit to Break and Route de Sort.

Paul is currently developing and writing two comedy drama series, The VHS Diaries and Theatre in Education, along with a companion piece for A War of Two Halves, called Sweet F.A., which will premiere in 2021. He has also recently filmed a pilot for Scottish sitcom Game of Cones and recorded an audio drama called From An Island.

MICHAEL BURNETT

Mikey is an Edinburgh playwright and screenwriter who writes predominantly in the east coast vernacular. His past work comprises both drama and comedy. Focusing mainly on working class stories and characters. His most recent stage play, The Bookies, is a co-written piece which will be produced by The Dundee Rep in May, 2022. His short film, In Her Corner, adapted from his Fringe 2019 hit play of the same name is currently in post production. The stage play version was shortlisted for The Papatango new writing prize as well as being longlisted for Theatre 503's new writing award. Mikey is currently developing his Scots language adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's classic, Pygmalion. As a playwright he has previously won an attachment to The Traverse Theatre, as part of the prestigious ‘Traverse fifty’ and throughout the years he has had many different plays staged all over Scotland. He has also written on commission for the London theatre company, Paines Plough.

LOUISE GRANGER

Louise graduated from The National Film and Television School with an MA (Distinction) in Screenwriting in May 2021. Throughout her two years there, she wrote three television drama pilots, one sit-com, two feature length films, four video games and had a short play, 'Boy & Man', performed at The Soho Theatre in October 2019. Her first IMDB credit as Screenwriter was for 'What The Eye Don’t See', a short film made in collaboration with NFTS student producing and directing students. Graduation Showcase piece, 'A Thousand Words' was performed live at The Unicorn Theatre in London in June 2021.

Louise completed NFTS Scotland's Producing Your First Feature short course led by Carolynne Sinclair Kidd in October 2021, and has a completed finance package for her feature film, 'The Other Half', with Scottish BAFTA award winning Director Garry Anthony Fraser attached to direct. She is currently in development with an original TV Series with MediaPro UK, and has recently been selected to take part in Series Mania Institute's Eureka Program in Lille, France.

TARA HEPBURN

Agent: Emilie Loldrup Hansen at Kitson Press

Tara is a Glasgow-based writer, originally from Aberdeen. She was shortlisted for the BBC Comedy Room in 2019. In the same year was awarded a scholarship to attend the NFTS Scotland screenwriting course “Writing the TV Pilot” where she developed her comedy/drama mystery “All Killer, No Filler” which was longlisted for the 2020 BBC Drama Room. During her time on Scottish Voices, Tara has broadened her writing experience: writing jokes for BBC Scotland’s Breaking The News, Drama for Radio 3 and sketches for BBC Short Stuff. She recently earned her first credit in TV drama, writing an episode of the three-part series Granite Harbour, broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC One in December 2022.

Tara is passionate about television which celebrates the diversity of modern life, and particularly things which shine a light on the humour and heart of the working-class experience.

BELLE JONES

Belle trained as an actor at the RSAMD (now RCS) where she won the Percival Steeds Prize for Spoken Word and the Norah Cooper Mulligan Award for Verse Speaking. Her first piece for the stage, an adaptation of Aesop’s Fables had a successful run at the Arches in 2011. She wrote several short pieces for the Village Pub Theatre before she was a mentored playwright with the Playwrights Studio Scotland and shortlisted for the Tron’s Progressive Playwright Award.
Her mixed media show “Shame” ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Club Award. The following year she returned to the Fringe with “Closed Doors”, a spoken word storytelling piece supported by Summerhall and was commissioned to write a play for Hopscotch Theatre company which toured Scotland.

In 2019 her show “High Land” was premiered at Coastival in Scarborough and she has developed this idea into a pilot episode with support from BBC writersroom’s Scottish Voices. Also in 2019 Belle received the ICONS commission from Perth Museum and Art Gallery to develop an installation about the life of Flora MacDonald, another project she has developed for TV format. During 2020 Belle studied Screenwriting and Script Editing with NFTS and was invited to write and direct a short film “Lapse” as part of the web-series The End. Most recently, her comedy short “Showing Face” was released as part of BBC Scotland Short Stuff.

LISA KEDDIE

Lisa is a Glasgow based writer who writes for the stage and screen. She has created short form comedy for BBC Scotland and Channel 4's online platforms. Her BBC Short Stuff 'Internal Monologue Girl' series of sketches has over 3.2 million views to date. She has written 4 web series’ for theatre company Visible Fictions, has sold out Glasgow Comedy Festival with her sketch group Who Fed Benny?, was one of the writers for stage sketch show Witsherface, and her short plays have been performed across Scotland. During lockdown she has adapted Romeo & Juliet for zoom, which was nominated for best film at the Shakespeare Shorts festival, written and directed an episode of The End, a collaborative filmmaking project, and created a short film about talking pigeons for Visible Fictions.

Lisa has an MA in Television Fiction Writing from Glasgow Caledonian University, for which she received a full academic scholarship from Shed Media. She was one of the Playwrights’ Studio mentored playwrights in 2015.

HANNAH LAVERY

Hannah is an award winning poet, playwright and performer. Lavery’s poetry has been published widely and her poem, Scotland, you’re no mine, was selected by Roseanne Watt as one of the Best Scottish Poems 2019. The Drift, her autobiographical play toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Season 2019 and in 2020 she was awarded a New Playwrights' Award by the Playwrights Studio Scotland and selected by Owen Sheers’ as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council. Hannah is one of Imaginate's Accelerator Artists and an Associate Artist with the National Theatre of Scotland. In November 2020, her play Lament for Sheku Bayoh was directed by Hannah in a co-production with the Royal Lyceum Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland and Edinburgh International Festival.

EMMA LENNOX

Agent: Julia Kreitman, The Agency

Emma is a comedy and drama writer based in Glasgow. She currently has a sitcom in development with Young Films and Channel 4, and an episode of Channel 5 mini series The Holiday is in production with Projector. She has worked on original TV ideas with Carnival Films, Banijay and has a feature script with Hopscotch Films. Emma was awarded a place on the Young Film Foundation 2019/2020 programme and is currently in development with TOD productions awarded through the Scottish Drama Writers’ Programme.

Emma has a filmmaking background and developed her short film Grimm Street through the Scottish Film Talent Network. Grimm Street premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival before screening internationally and winning a BAFTA new talent award for lead actress Sarah Miele. Emma started out writing comedy for BBC Radio Scotland, and educational shorts for BBC Learning and Bitesize.

SEAN LIONADH

Agent: Emtpage Hallet

Sean is a poet, writer and filmmaker from Glasgow, known for his visual poem Time for Love, which reached millions of people online, won a 2019 Royal Television Society award and was translated into five languages. It also inspired a Ted talk, and a movement called the Time for Love Project. Sean’s poems are studied as part of the English curriculum in International Schools. On Creative Scotland’s Bellrock Residency, Sean developed his first feature script, Nostophobia, a psychological horror and relationship drama exploring a gay relationship, and the terror where intimacy and trauma meet. The project is currently in development with producers. Sean published his first poetry collection in 2019 with Speculative Books. Aside from creating work, Sean runs poetry workshops with young people, and is keen to work closely with the LGBTQ+ community within schools, community groups and institutions.

ERIN MCGEE

Erin is a playwright and dramaturg, born and based in Edinburgh. She graduated from Queen Margaret University with a BA in Drama and Performance in 2016 and, more recently, the University in Glasgow with a Masters in Theatre Studies in 2018. She first began to explore playwriting through the Traverse Young Writers programme in 2017 and has been writing ever since, her work being rooted in feminism, gallows humour, and the Scottish identity. Erin has had her plays performed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, with her one woman show Scuttle being performed at the Assembly Roxy and at Gilmorehill. Her play Mooning was commissioned by the Traverse Theatre as part of their 2019 festival programme. Currently, her play Crickets is in development with Edinburgh based company Shift Theatre.

EDEN LUKE MCINTYRE

Eden Luke is a script consultant, editor, performer, and writer for TV, radio, stage, and online. He completed his Master's Degree in TV Fiction Writing at Glasgow Caledonian University in September 2020, writing an original comedy-drama pilot as his dissertation. Previously studying at the University of Stirling, he received BA Honours Degrees in English Studies and Film & Media Studies - specialising in scriptwriting - under the tutelage of writer Stuart Hepburn.

Eden began his professional writing career in 2018 when he was part of the BBC Scotland Writersroom 'The Biggest Weekend.' His original sci-fi comedy shows 'Jettisoned' and 'Intergalactic Layabouts' aired on Stirling City Radio between Summer 2019 and early 2020, alongside a sketch comedy series 'Well-Fired Radio' and 'The News Where You Aren't'. His online comedy series for The Comedy Crowd TV, 'Well-Fired Comedy', won a place at the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival in Summer 2019.

Currently, Eden is freelance writing and consulting for various companies, competitions, and productions. He was appointed as a judge for NYC Midnight 2021 and provides script support and scriptwriting blogs for Screenwriters Network. He also creates original content with his production team, 'Well-Fired Productions', which debuts online on various platforms. He is hopeful that several stage shows, radio plays, and other projects commissioned before lockdown will be produced and performed soon.

Additionally, Eden has a selection of TV projects in early development and is looking forward to adding more to his creative slate in 2021.

LINDA DUNCAN MCLAUGHLIN

Linda is currently writing for BBC Scotland's flagship drama, River City, and is an award-winning playwright, novelist and screenwriter. She's had several audio-stories commissioned for BBC Digital Learning, ‘Time for a Story’, and has written for BBC Alba’s FUNC and story-contributed on Waterloo Road. Her debut novel, Original Sins, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award, and was recently announced as runner-up in the Grindstone International Novel Prize; and her play, Descent, was nominated for Best New Play (CATS Awards), and won a Spirit of the Fringe award. She’s had a number of short stories published - most recently, Fly, Sissy in the Edinburgh International Prize anthology. She’s also a graduate of Glasgow Caledonian's MATV and a professional actor.

Linda's currently working on an adaptation of Original Sins for TV; a YA story, Winging It, about a young woman who begins to grow a pair of wings; and Sub Rosa, a new four-part TV thriller about a female undercover officer caught up in the 2010s outing scandal.

KIRSTY MCNEIL

Kirsty is a Glasgow born writer who graduated from Caledonian University with an MA in Television Fiction Writing. Her 60-minute one-off drama Moira and Margaret was longlisted for the 2019 BBC Writersroom’s Drama room. She has also developed and written a pilot for an original continuing drama based around the Circuit in Glasgow. She’s currently Script Secretary at BBC Scotland’s River City. She has also been involved in generating both factual and scripted online content for River City’s Social Media Team. She was involved in co-writing an online commission for River City surrounding child sexual abuse and grooming. During lockdown, she wrote a monologue for River City character Bernie, which was received well on River City’s Social Media accounts. Most recently Kirsty has been given the opportunity to write a shadow script for River City. Starting in April she’ll be joining the Story Room, at River City, as a trainee story liner.

MARA MENZIES

Mara is an award-winning performance storyteller based in Edinburgh. She has written and toured several storytelling shows over the last few years, the latest Blood and Gold being presented as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase 2019. It was nominated for the Filipa Braganca award and continues to tour in 2020. Mara has toured and opened the Lagos International Theatre Festival in 2018. She will be the International Teller in Residence at the International Storytelling Centre in Jonesborough, Tennessee in October 2020 and is an invited speaker at the 2020 Clinton Global Initiative University on digital storytelling. She is also currently working with The Royal Lyceum Theatre developing a script of the alternative story of British heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua.

SHERRY MORRIS

Sherry is a prize-winning flash and short story writer originally from the American Midwest now living in the Highlands. Since 2015, she has had over sixty short stories and flash fiction pieces published online or in literary journals and has recently transitioned into script writing. Highlights in 2020 include a shortlisted play about the #MeToo Movement with Pint-sized Plays, and an ongoing collaboration with Kilter Theatre where her humorous story about rude Christmas lights was performed on Bristol doorsteps in December. She will work again with Kilter in April 2021 with a surreal story about a woman who falls in love with a bear. Previous performance work includes a black comedy monologue about a misguided superhero and his cancer-sniffing dog with London’s The Space theatre which received a four-star review. Sherry has also written a comedic sex-positive story featuring women over 50 that won an award. During her time as a Scottish Voice she wrote short scripts starring strippers who cope with the pandemic in novel ways and a charming female barber who collects her clients’ hair for inventive purposes. Sherry likes to write quirky stories about women who find their own alternative way in a man’s world and is delighted that Arachne Press intend to publish a collection of her stories in 2021 because she thinks spiders are tops.

Currently, she is writing a comedy drama that flits between Kansas and Scotland about donuts, dogs and drag queens.

HANNAH ELIZABETH MORTON

Hannah is a twenty-eight-year-old, Glasgow based, up in coming actor/playwright. After studying acting at City of Glasgow College and touring with Children’s theatre groups Theatre& and Kapow! Theatre Scotland, she moved into writing comedy. Hannah started writing sketches when she was a part of critical acclaimed, all female, comedy collective sketch group “Witsherface”, starring alongside comedy power houses, such as Karen Dunbar and Maureen Carr. She wrote and performed her first play A Work in Progress with the Guilded Balloon at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to rave reviews, before it moved in 2019 to the Glasgow comedy festival to sold out audiences. In 2020 she was in development with her new play Sad Girls Club, which sadly had to be put on hold because of the pandemic. The play takes a comical look at what makes young women sad in modern day Scotland. Hannah is dedicated to giving a voice to the youth of today who feel “A bit lost in the world” through her writing.

Recently Hannah, made the leap into writing for camera, when she was commissioned by BBC Short Stuff. Her debut sketch "Cusp" was released last year, with sketches "A Total Boys Club", "Alone With My Thoughts" and "People Pleaser" to follow. She returned to the fringe this year in which she wrote and starred in her own show 'Sad Girls Club' at the gilded Balloon. With sold out shows and multiple 4 star reviews, you'll feel like a Sad Girl that you missed it.

LYNSEY MURDOCH

Agent: Christina Pickworth at Imagine Talent (UK); Sarah Arnott at Zero Gravity Management (US).

Lynsey is an award winning playwright, her work has been performed at venues such as The Arches and the Tron Theatre. A Glasgow native, Lynsey’s short film Eat Me was directed by the award winning Tom Shrapnel and her second short, Goon was directed by David Goodall and starred Jane McCarry (BBC's Still Game). Her debut TV pilot The Roar was named in the Top 100 script at Content London 2017 as well as making the Top 10 Drama Scripts list on Coverfly. Her play for young people, Escape Speed, was developed with support from the National Theatre of Scotland. Lynsey was selected for the London Screenwriter's Festival Talent Campus 2018 and shortlisted for the BAFTA Rocliffe Film showcase 2018. Lynsey is currently in development with Blazing Griffin Productions on an original TV drama and with Pirate Productions on an original horror feature film. Last year, Lynsey was selected for the EIFF Talent Lab with her feature project Little Hazard which is now in development with Inceptive Films. This year, she was longlisted for the Sundance Episodic Lab and gained representation with Zero Gravity Management in the US.

RUARAIDH MURRAY

Ruaraidh’s critically acclaimed shows Big Sean, Mikey and Me, Bath Time and Boxman (Diana Rigg Edfringe Award) and plays Allie (BBC Scriptroom Drama Finalist) and The Club premiered at Gilded Balloon Edfringe 2012-16, toured Scotland, England, Vault Festival, Park Theatre London and Under St. Marks Theater New York. He starred in award-winning feature Night Bus (BFI LFF Official Selection), Trainspotting (UK Tour), Borgia (Netflix) and Bob Servant (BBC). Development: TV Drama Highlifers (BBC Scottish Voices), TV Comedy Drama Salt ‘N’ Sauce (co-writer Megan Shandley), short film The Finger and feature films Edinburgh Chosen Few and No Trees on Tiree (EP Douglas Mackinnon). The pitch for his drama T is for Tracksuit is shortlisted to be commissioned by BBC Audio Drama Wales.

UMA NADA-RAJAH

Agent: Giles Smart, United Agents

Uma is a playwright based in Kilbarchan. She is the current 2021 Writer- in- Residence at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and was recently Female Political Comedy writer- in- residence at the National Theatre of Scotland. She is a graduate of École Philippe Gaulier and the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers Group. Uma is a previous winner of the New Playwrights Award from Playwrights’ Studio Scotland and currently works as a staff nurse with NHS Scotland.

AMELIA NASHE

Amelia is an award-winning screenwriter, new playwright, published poet and short story author. Originally Cotswoldian, she moved to Glasgow to complete the MA TV Fiction Writing course and never left. She has written and produced two short films - What The Cat Dragged In (Best Screenplay, CKF International Film Festival March 2019, co-produced with CotswoldTV), and The Flame, made in lockdown. Both available to view on SVoD service, Indie-clips. A third short film script was long-listed for BBC Writersroom’s InterConnected, from almost 7,000 entries.
Amelia’s play for teenagers, Blood Ties, was programmed in the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2020, and is currently being rescheduled due to Covid. She has explored comedy via sketches for Witsherface and jokes for BBC Scotland’s Breaking the News.
Amelia is currently developing a spoof film noir stage musical with MTN and MMD, a comedy drama TV spec and is in talks with international indies and broadcasters on a paranormal crime drama series. Common themes in her work include mental health, climate change, and the power of play. When she’s not writing she’s subtitling a vast range of British TV output in her work for Red Bee Media, and working as the Ambassador and Head of K Studios, the film and TV department of a global sustainable development company, K Enterprises."

GEORGIA NELSON

Georgia is an award-winning playwright who’s play Soft Boy won the ELT and National Newspaper’s playwriting prize. Originally from Edinburgh, Georgia grew up in New Delhi in an international school environment. Her international background inspires her writing which often explores cultural intersections that can exist at once. She began developing her writing while living in Hull during the City of Culture 2017 year. Her work was showcased as part of Hull Truck Theatre’s GROW festival and within the City of Culture 2017 programme. Based in Glasgow and working as a freelance theatre practitioner and director, Georgia devises youth theatre and community projects across Scotland. Georgia is eager to tell stories that reflect Scotland’s diversity. More recently, she worked in the writers room for an upcoming young adult drama with Balloon Entertainment for BBC. She is also developing several sketches for BBC Short Stuff, and ghostwriting similar short form content for individual social media platforms.

ALISON O’DONNELL

Alison has been a professional actor for 15 years, working across theatre, TV and radio and is in the very beginning stages of pursuing a career in writing. In 2019 her first sitcom script, co-written with fellow Scottish Voices member Tara Hepburn, got to the interview stage for BBC Comedy Room. She is currently working on a sitcom pilot and a Christmas-themed romantic comedy film set in Glasgow.

MHAIRI QUINN

Mhairi is a Glasgow based theatre and screenwriter and has had work performed at the Tron, Traverse, Assembly Roxy, Dundee Rep, The CCA and Oran Mor. A finalist of the Tron Theatre’s Progressive Playwright Award with her play ‘The Bridge Street Flats’. Her short play Preparing for the Afterlife was commissioned and directed by Andy Arnold for the Take Me Somewhere festival. Mhairi has written comedies for In Motion Theatre Company's Winter Words and ReWrite Festivals. She was selected for the Mentoring Programme by the Playwrights Studio Scotland to develop her play ‘Politics of the White Stuff’ under the mentorship of playwright Morna Pearson. Mhairi makes up one third of The Tandem Writing Collective with her new work showing at the Tron and Traverse in April and May this year.

Mhairi was one of BBC Writersrooom’s ‘Scottish Voices 2020’ cohort. Her short film script ‘Little White Lies’ was shortlisted by Underwire Festival and co-produced by INDELIBLE INK through the Glasgow Film Accelerator Scheme run by Sigma Films and the SFTN. Mhairi is currently developing two comedy series pilots for TV and has a range of experience in writing for younger audiences. In 20/21 she was part of the writing team for Winduna Enterprises LTD’s new children’s show ‘Winnie and Wilbur’ based on the best-selling books by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul for Milkshake! on Channel 5. Interest in her submission for the CBBC’s Children’s Comedy Monologues opportunity led her to be invited onto the ‘BBC Children’s New Voices Scheme’ for 2021. Most recently, Mhairi was credited for her work as part of a BBC writers’ room for the development of their new ‘CBeebies Presents’ show. Following this she was then recommended by Kay Benbow (ex CBBC Controller) to be part of the development and writers’ room for Three Stones Media’s ‘Attention Action Ayshia’ which was funded by the BFI’s Young Audience Content Fund. Mhairi is a drama and pastoral care teacher and works closely with many Glasgow based theatre companies such as Solar Bear and Wonder Fools. Mhairi writes and performs spoken word poetry and she can communicate in British Sign Language.

AMNA SALEEM

Agent: Matthew Dench, Dench Arnold

Amna is a Scottish Pakistani screenwriter based in Glasgow with original series TV projects in development with Hat Trick, Blazing Griffin and FilmNation. Her first pilot (BETA FEMALE), was performed as a live table read sponsored by Sky featuring Nina Wadia and later broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019. Beta Female was then recommissioned for a full series with a transmission date of the 5th of January 2021. Amna's script, Psychic Overload, was one of only ten chosen, from a record breaking 6408 submissions after a BBC Writers Room nationwide call out. The resulting short, was produced and shot entirely over video chat in keeping with the rules of lockdown. She has also written sketches for Channel 4 and BBC Short Stuff. Amna is also a journalist, broadcaster and author. Her work can be found in publications such as the Guardian, BBC News, Huffpost and Glamour. As a broadcaster she has been featured on the BBC, SKY and ITV amongst others. She was also featured in two literary anthologies and her first ever Tedx Talk is available online. Her parents are still waiting for her to get a real job.

NASREEN SARAEI

Nasreen (Nas) is a 2017 1st class BA Film graduate from Screen Academy Scotland and Brooklyn College NYC. Following her degree, she worked as an Intern Producer at Edinburgh Napier University, producing award winning short films for The Scottish Prison Service and The National Museum of Scotland. Nas was selected for The SFTN Writer/Director New Voices on Screen Lab 2016 and The Edinburgh TV Festival's Network Talent Scheme 2017 where she wrote and directed a scene with the cast and crew of Casualty. She has written, produced and directed the short films IS THIS IT?- selected and screened at Glasgow Short Film Festival 2018 and winner of Best Film at Girls on Film 2018, and HEARTS- selected and screened at The Scottish Queer International Film Festival 2018, The Scottish Short Film Festival 2019 and winner of Campbell X's Wahala Film Fund. In 2019, Nas was awarded a scholarship from the NFTS Scotland - Writing the TV Pilot- developing her pilot episode, CARPET ARMS, which was a Quarter-finalist in the Screencraft 2021 TV Pilot Competition and a Semi-finalist of WeScreenplay's 2021 Diverse Voices Competition. CARPET ARMS was then commissioned by UKTV as part of Comedy 50:50’s Female Writing Initiative 2021/22 is now currently in development with Eleven Film.

Nas was also recently commissioned for BBC Short Stuff, has been in a development writers' room with Beano Studios, and was selected for The Young Film Foundation Development Scheme 2021/22. Her second pilot, SUCK IT UP, was commissioned by BBC and is in development with Bonafide Films.

KARELIA SCOTT-DANIELS

Karelia Scott-Daniels is a commissioned writer for BBC Doctors and is in development with a US producer to write a children's comedy Christmas film. She is a Scottish screenwriter living in Port Glasgow and has written and directed five short films, one of which had a theatrical release. Her work has placed in a plethora of writing and film competitions including Austin, Page, Screencraft, Euroscript, Blue Cats and others.

Prior to embarking on a writing career, she launched an award-winning property business from scratch, was Chairman of the Central London branch committee of the Institute of Directors and was made a Freeman of the City of London, which entitles her to drive her sheep over London Bridge. By nature a cathartic writer, she writes witty emotional family drama and thrillers with laugh out loud moments and intriguing characters. She is particularly interested in themes of injustice, mental health and ways in which to make the world a better place.

This is a link to her most recent broadcast episode:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015g0t/doctors-series-23-19-in-loco-parentis

ASHLEY STORRIE

Agent: Corrie McGuire, Corrie Maguire Management

Ashley is an award-winning comedian, writer, presenter and content creator. Ashley’s online work has amassed over 40 million views across her own channels, BBC Scotland’s Short Stuff and Channel 4’s Sparks. Her writing credits include two radio pilots “Cat’s Crime” and “Conundrums My Dad Says”, both broadcast on Radio Scotland and 5 Edinburgh Fringe shows. She has a BA in film making and is currently developing several long-form scripted projects. She is the star of BBC Scotland’s Up For It! which returns for its second series in 2020, and has a radio show on Radio Scotland. She has also appeared on The Blame Game (BBC NI), Breaking The News (BBC Scotland) and Fred MacAulay Live At The Stand (BBC Radio 4).

MANJOT SUMAL

Glasgow based actor-writer Manjot is best known for playing the role of PC Surjit Singh in BBC Scotland’s BAFTA award winning sketch-sitcom Scot Squad, and Mr Wasu in CBBC’s The Demon Headmaster. A former radio presenter/producer, Manjot wrote, produced and performed in sketch show The CraZians and sitcom Da Southsiderz, for radio station Awaz FM.

In 2012 Manjot co-wrote his first play How To Make A Killing In Bollywood. The play toured extensively throughout the UK and played to rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Manjot is currently writing a sitcom pilot and screenplay for his second feature for the Punjabi film market. He is also developing TV treatments for a dark Scottish-Asian comedy, a coming-of-age mini-series and a psychological horror series.

JOERN UTKILEN

Originally from Norway, but based in Scotland, Joern is an award winning writer and director who graduated from both the Edinburgh College of Art and Screen Academy Scotland. He has written and directed a range of films that have been presented at numerous international film festivals and broadcast on several television channels. Joern gained a BAFTA Scotland nomination for his controversial film Little Red Hoodie. His black comedy Asylum, funded by Film 4, was in 2011 nominated for an Amanda. In 2018 Joern completed his first feature length film, Lake Over Fire, an experimental film showing in competition at the Munich international film festival.

Joern is currently developing various new projects including a new feature film and a comedy crime TV series, both supported by the Norwegian Film Institute. He is also developing a new TV comedy series with Channel X Hopscotch.

If you wish to wish to make contact with any of the Scottish Voices Writers Click Here to contact BBC Writersroom

What does it mean to be a Scottish Voice? Find out below from two of the 2019 alumni, Niki Rooney and Maryam Hamidi.

The launch of the 2020 BBC Writersroom Scottish Voices

Niki Rooney

There have been a few things I didn’t expect to get out of the Scottish Voices group. First of all, the amount of opportunities to pitch for paid work with actual credits. I’d never considered doing anything for radio before, so getting the chance to write a BBC Learning audio story and a CBBC podcast took me out of my comfort zone in a positive way. I’d never considered sketch writing either, but I also ended up writing an episode of Swashbuckle and taking part in a shadow scheme for The Dumping Ground has led to a commission for the show. Being part of the Scottish Voices group added credibility to my name, and I’m definitely seeing the benefits of that reflected in the amount of interest I’ve had in me and my work recently.

I also didn’t expect to meet so many other writers and become friends with them! In such an isolated, freelance career, it often feels like you’re screaming into a silent void. Now we all scream into a WhatsApp group and support each other through the ups and downs of writing life, as well as sharing advice and information about what’s going on in the industry. For me, that sense of community has been one of the most valuable additions to my career over the last year and a half! It’s been a fantastic an opportunity and the BBC Writersroom team work really hard to support emerging writers and open doors for us that might otherwise feel impossible to access. The TV industry can feel quite unwelcoming at times, so it's brilliant to have advocates for fresh (Scottish) voices, to ensure that they are heard.

Maryam Hamidi

The Scottish Voices group is not an egotistical show boat or about looking good on twitter. It’s a very practical gig with real opportunities which is a bit unsettling after rattling around this industry trying to prise open its doors. Like a lot of good things that happen they creep up unexpectedly. Sitting in the Scottish Voices Writers Hub room at BBC Glasgow as we tap out various adventures for screen has been one of the most revelatory experiences for me. What? Sharing opportunities with other writers is nourishing? Celebrating their successes is fun? Having writers around you who take an incisive interest in your work is beneficial? Yes reader, these rhetorical questions are getting embarrassing now. Sorry, I’ll stop. Good things have happened for me. I have managed to wrangle some meetings and convince producers to allow me to write for CBeebies. I had a radio comedy pilot produced. I think some other things happened - but it’s all a joyful blur now. I have built really brilliant friendships with other writers who often attend events together for the ulterior aim of getting a drink together afterwards, but how lovely to not show up at free wine events on your tod, but strut in slo-mo flanked by pals.

Ultimately though, my writing’s got better. Almost imperceptibly at first and then one day you wake up and all that confidence, nurturing and talent championing has given you the space and time and support to believe in your work, your skills and your voice - and that’s the tipping point. Writing for TV and Film is one continuous merry dance between success and failure, and sharing the successes and failures with fellow writers is way healthier than doing it all on your own.

Daly Grind - Bringing a pilot for a new sitcom to the screen

2020-01-17T14:59:48+00:00

Dominic and John Reynolds are two comedy-writing brothers who were previously part of our Comedy Room writer development group. We spoke to Dom about creating the pilot for their new sitcom, Daly Grind, which launches on BBC One Scotland and BBC Scotland next week.

Watch the trailer for Daly Grind - Daly life goes on and on..

Dom, you write together with your brother John, how did that happen?

Our dad used to write sketches for shows like Scotch & Wry and Spitting Image back in the 1980’s. He never made it full time, but we got our interest in scriptwriting from his influence. By the time we were teenagers we ended up studying the same film and TV course at University, then an opportunity to submit sketches to a small show on BBC Radio Scotland came up and we decided to give it a go. John and I have always had the same taste and sensibilities so working together seemed an obvious thing to do.

How did you get started with taking writing seriously, as something you could consider doing professionally? Do you remember the first time you got paid for writing?

Yes! We managed to get a twenty second gag on that radio show. Think we made about twelve quid each. Around that time, John read an autobiography called ‘Which Lie Did I Tell?‘ that was written by the famous screenwriter William Goldman. He gave the book to me and I remember rattling through it in a day then going back almost immediately to read it again. Something clicked and I made the decision that scriptwriting was what I wanted to do. John felt the same way.

What’s your process for developing work together? Do you have specific roles in the writing process?

I do the typing but we’re always in the room together when the pages are written. If we’re not writing a script we’re coming up with new ideas, trying to create strong one-pagers that we can use to pitch to our contacts.

John (l) and Dominic (r) Reynolds

What are some of the projects that you’ve worked on before? Were any particularly important in your development as writers?

We worked for years on a radio sketch show called Watson’s Wind Up then a TV sketch show called Only An Excuse. Thereafter we moved away from sketch work and started making our own radio comedy and drama programmes for the BBC. That was great because it finally gave us the opportunity to start telling longer form stories which was ultimately where we wanted to be.

It’s hard to pick one project in particular. We learned and developed by working on all of them. That being said, I do remember working on a pilot script for So Television a few years back and our script editor (a very talented woman called Barunka O'Shaughnessy) gave us a bit of advice that’s always stuck with me. I was lamenting the fact we had to cut – what I felt – was a very funny scene in order to service the story structure and she said, “so what, if you think you’re a good writer then throw it away and write a better scene”.

That was good advice. Do what’s right for the story first and foremost.

How did you find out about BBC Writersroom in Scotland and get involved with our Comedy Room group?

We were working with Angela Galvin at CBBC in Glasgow, then she moved departments to start BBC Writersroom Scotland and asked us to keep in touch. Overall it’s been a great experience. BBC Writersroom has widened our network and it has helped to cement relationships with some great people.

How did you come up with the idea for Daly Grind? How would you describe it?

In early 2018 we had a meeting with Steve Canny (who’s an exec at BBC Studios) to talk about ideas. The new BBC Scotland channel was launching and they were looking for sitcom concepts. After we left the meeting, John and I brainstormed the central premise for the show in the car journey back home. I think we sent a pitch to Steve later that day and he immediately liked it (which doesn’t happen very often!).

How would we describe Daly Grind? Think The Royle Family meets Malcolm in the Middle! It’s a comedy that takes place entirely in the home of the Daly family. It focuses on the morning rush to school, work, etc, then picks up in the evening when everyone comes home. It’s a family sitcom that you can watch with your kids and we’d like to think it’s warm and portrays the Scottish people in a positive way.

Daly Grind

What was the pitching and development process?

It began with the Steve Canny meeting. He gave us a brief for what they were looking for (at that time it was content for the new BBC Scotland channel) and we put something together which he immediately liked. We wrote a one page pitch then we were asked to write a longer outline. After that we were asked to write some sample pages and eventually a full pilot script.

Owen Bell came on board as development producer in the early days then when he had to leave to work on a project in Wales, Jacqui Sinclair took over. We loved working with Owen and we’d worked with Jacqui on a few projects in the past so there was a very smooth transition. Daly Grind is the first project we’ve managed to get over the line with Jacqui so that’s been very satisfying. Maybe it was fate.

This is a pilot episode, has it changed much from your original pitch? What’s the function of a pilot?

The core premise and central characters haven’t changed but we went back and forth on the title a good few times. Originally, the father character wasn’t meant to be in the show. We saw him more like Maris Crane from Frasier, someone who’s never in the show but is always referenced. We were asked early on if we could include him and I’m glad we did. It’s a much better show with Joe Daly (Jordan Young) onscreen.

The function of a pilot is to test the water really. Find out what the audience liked, what they maybe didn’t like, and take that feedback into the series (if we’re lucky enough to get one).

What are your ambitions for the show?

First and foremost we want people to enjoy it. We really hope our audience find it funny, relatable and make a connection with the characters. There’s a great deal of polarisation in the world right now and we hope Daly Grind is the kind of show that has something for everyone. As I say, we’ve always wanted to write a comedy that portrays Scottish families in a positive way. Hopefully we have.

Dominic and John with our 2018/19 Comedy Room writers

What other things have you got going on? Is it important to have lots of ‘irons in the fire’?

We’re making a comedy series for CBBC called School Bus and have a few scripts which are about to go to market. We’ve also recently adapted a famous book for an independent production company (but we’re not allowed to say much more than that right now!). Having irons in the fire is extremely important. The failure rate in this industry is extremely high, even for the most successful people. The more plates you have spinning, the less disappointed you feel when one of them comes crashing down.

From the day we first pitched Daly Grind to the day the pilot is to be broadcast will be two years and nine days (and that’s considered a reasonably quick development period). You can’t just have one thing on the go. You need to have as many as possible.

What are the most important things you’ve learnt during the process of seeing Daly Grind make it to the screen?

Simply that it’s a process. A very long one. It can be frustrating and tiring but that’s the job. You’re under pressure and getting pulled in every direction but you’re not the only one. Producers, Directors, Execs, etc, they all have frustrations to deal with as well. If you have a good team around you who value and respect each other's contribution that’s half the battle.

There was one moment where we were asked to scrap the entire central plotline and start from scratch after we had already completed a few drafts. It’s easy to go into your shell at that point but John and I took the attitude that we just needed to dust ourselves off and go again. Ultimately, that request was coming from a good place and from an experienced mind. Looking back, we’re glad we did it because it’s made the show better.

Do you have any advice for writers who are thinking of writing a comedy script?

Push yourself. Write the best draft you possibly can. Before you send it to anyone, give your script to people who aren’t afraid to tell you what they really think. Mum will always say it’s good. What you need are savages. Readers who will leave you gasping at their critique. That’s good for you. Nobody gets better by surrounding themselves with people that are only going to tell them what they want to hear.

Be different. Fleabag was massive, and it was recent, so don’t write something that feels like Fleabag. New writers can fall into the trap of trying to script their own version of the current hit. Whatever’s in vogue, write the opposite.

Ask yourself, what haven’t we seen in comedy before or what haven’t we seen for a very long time? That will increase your chances of scripting something that’s fresh and different.

Watch Daly Grind on BBC One Scotland on Monday 20th January at 10.35pm and on the BBC Scotland channel on Friday 24th January at 10.30pm or on BBC iPlayer

BBC Writersroom Scotland Christmas Update

2019-12-19T14:49:04+00:00

Hello,

Before we head off for the Christmas break, we wanted to say a huge thank to everyone who has helped make 2019 a productive year. This includes all the writers who submitted to our opportunities, to the Indies and teams who have partnered with us on various schemes and programmes and to the wider industry sector in Scotland who have worked and supported us across the year.

Below are just some of the highlights from the past year.

See you in 2020!

Angela & Audrey

What we got up to in 2019...

Scottish Writers Festival

Over 200 writers attended our bi annual one day festival in May to hear from writers including Nicole Taylor, Kayode Ewumi and Ford Kieran and Greg Hemphill. Watch interviews here

Scottish Voices

We set up our first Scottish Voices writers groups in 2018 working with 34 writers. In November 2019 our current Voices groups finished their 18 month programme and we will start with a new writers group for a 12 month period in 2020.

BBC Scotland - Digital Drama Pilot

3 of the 4 writers came through BBC Writersroom. View the shorts on BBC iPlayer here

BBC Radio Scotland - 4 x 15 minute Radio Comedies

4 x 15 minute projects were produced for BBC Radio Scotland and broadcast in April 2019. Find out more on our blog

Talks – Central Belt/Inverness

Getting out and about in Scotland meeting new writers groups around the country.

BBC Learning - Audio Stories

Writers developed audio stories for the BBC Scotland Learning team and for the younger audience as part of the Scottish Curriculum. Listen here and find out more on our blog

We also partnered with a range of productions to help writers gain broadcast credits including BBC Radio 4 Sketchtopia, CBeebies - Molly and Mack, Only an Excuse, Scot Squad

Festive Networking Event

A great event to finish off the year with 150 writers in attendance from all over the country at the Grand Ole Opry.

Find out more about BBC Writersroom in Scotland

The Scottish Voices 2019

2019-12-18T16:35:00+00:00

SCOTTISH VOICES – COMEDY GROUP

Brian McIver

Agent: Marc Simonsson, MMB Creative

Brian is a comedy/ drama screenwriter with years of national newspaper experience covering intriguing stories all over the world. He is now working to bring some of those influences and inspirations to television comedy and drama. He wrote a Glasgow Film Theatre commissioned comedy short, Fantasy Football, and was awarded a distinction in screenwriting from Screen Academy Scotland for a family sitcom pilot and has been in the final stages of three BBC Writersroom script opportunities. As a member of BBC Scottish Voices 2018/19, he has had a sketch commissioned for BBC Radio Four’s Sketchtopia comedy series and an audio story produced for the BBC Digital Learning Time for a Story strand called The Parrot Who Lost His Pirate. His play Fissures was broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in 2020.

Brian is currently working on several new TV comedy projects and was shortlisted for Channel 4's 4Screenwriting 2020 programme and the All3Media New Comedy Script Award at Edinburgh TV Festival's New Voice Awards 2020. His comedy drama series Careless is in development at Lime Picture having been optioned by an Emmy award-winning producer.

Colin McLaren

Agent: Emily Hickman, The Agency.

Colin is a BAFTA winning screenwriter. He wrote the film The Legend of Barney Thomson directed by Robert Carlyle and the film DONKEYS starring James Cosmo, Martin Compston & Kate Dickie and both films won Scottish BAFTAs for best film. He wrote HOME, winning the BAFTA for best short. In 2018, Colin was shortlisted for the Comedy Writer’s Programme and his radio sitcom pilot Weekend Survivalist was developed for Radio Scotland with the BBC Writersroom and transmitted in Spring 2018. He is currently developing a number of films and TV projects.

Fiona Connor

A BA graduate, Fiona is an award winning playwright whose work has been performed at The Citizen’s Theatre in Glasgow. She has written a range of fantasy books and her first piece of writing for screen won The Biggest Weekend Monologue opportunity in 2018. Her monologue, Something Blue, was produced by the BBC Writersroom and well received across social media. Fiona is currently working on new screenplay with a focus on strong female characters and unique comical stories and her audio story The Wee Shop of Magic was commissioned for the BBC Digital Learning Time for a Story strand and is now available online via the Time for a Story page.

Gillian McCormack

Agent: Georgia Kanner, Independent Talent Group

Gillian is a Scottish writer from Glasgow, currently a participant on BBC Writersroom’s Drama Room 2021/22. She has a project in development with Emanata Studios (formerly Beano Studios) and two of her own original ideas are in development with Balloon Entertainment, with one of these projects, Savage, recently optioned for further development by a Global SVOD.

In 2021, she was part of the Writer’s Room for a new untitled Balloon Entertainment project and also part of the script writing team for Secret Cinema’s Stranger Things. Her script Rewind was a finalist in the Thousand Films Competition 2021, run by Sid Gentle and Edinburgh TV Festival. Selected as a participant of the inaugural BBC Writersroom Scottish Voices writers group in 2018, she received her first credit with a comedy short Poo Girl which was produced by BBC Scotland and BBC Writersroom and received her post grad diploma in script development from the National Film and TV School the same year.

Gillian loves telling darkly comic stories that combine people and characters who are relatable with something a little bit out of the ordinary. When she is not writing she works in events and PR in the music and entertainment industry.

Justin Lee Anderson & Juliet Cavanagh Anderson

Justin and Juliet met when they both entered the BBC's Last Laugh writing competition, in which Justin was a runner-up. They began writing sketches together, moving on to sitcom, drama and film scripts. Their biggest project to date was adapting Julian May's epic novel, The Many-Coloured Land, into a film script for an independent producer. In 2019 their audio story The Great Bumpkin King was commissioned and produced for the BBC Digital Learning Time for a Story strand. They are currently working on an adaptation of Justin’s debut novel, Carpet Diem, which won an Audie Award for humour in 2018. The Lost War, Justin’s latest book, was published in 2019.

Taqi Nazeer & Kawser Quamer

Taqi is an accomplished stage actor and has a BA in Acting from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Taqi began writing after being frustrated by the lack of diverse Scottish stories being told and was accepted on to the National Theatre of Scotland’s Breakthrough Writers’ Scheme. His first play, Rishta, a comedy about navigating the unpredictable world of an arranged marriage was a sold out success in 2017. He is currently writing a new stage play.

Kawser is an award-winning journalist and reporter, as well as an accomplished television and radio presenter, most often seen presenting for BBC Scotland. Kawser is a keen comedy writer and is currently finishing her debut fictional novel.

Together, Taqi and Kawser created and produced Scotistan a very popular podcast on BBC Sounds which was commissioned by The BBC Asian Network, with Taqi as one of the main presenters. Most recently they have been writing sketches for BBC Scotland’s comedy Scots Squad. Together with Taqi, she is currently developing an idea for a new Scottish sitcom and a screenplay for a feature film.

Kevin P Gilday

Kevin is an award-winning writer and spoken word artist from Glasgow. He is the curator and co-host of spoken word cabaret Sonnet Youth, a National Theatre of Scotland Breakthrough Writer and a BBC Writersroom Scottish Voice. Kevin has performed his work all over the world at a range of major festivals including BBC 6Music Festival and Glastonbury, at various Fringes such as Edinburgh, Toronto, and Vancouver as well as large scale tours of the UK, Germany, Canada and the US. He has supported artists such as Akala, Saul Williams, Sage Francis, Alabaster DePlume and George the Poet. He has published four books of poetry, with his most recent - Sad Songs for White Boys (published by Speculative Books) - bringing together nearly ten years of work. His Edinburgh fringe show Suffering from Scottishness played to critical acclaim this year gaining a four star review from The Scotsman, amongst others. His theatre work has been performed at a range of Scottish venues including Oran Mor, Tron Theatre, Assembly Roxy, Lemon Tree, Byre Theatre, Beacon Arts Centre and Eden Court as well as venues further afield such as The Revue Stage (Vancouver) and Tarragon Theatre (Toronto). He has twice been shortlisted for the Scottish Short Play of the Year Award.

Kevin Walls

Agent: Peter MacFarlane, MacFarlane Chard Associates

Kevin attended the Glasgow School of Art where he wrote and directed his first short film, Identical. The science fiction film was awarded the British Academy Scotland New Talent Award for Sound in 2015. He has just graduated as student of the year on the MA TV Fiction Writing programme at Glasgow Caledonian University with a scholarship from Warner Bros. Creative Talent.

Kevin recently wrote and directed a short comedy monologue, When Pish Comes to Shove, for BBC Writersroom and BBC Scotland and was commissioned to script for a new Digital Drama Pilot Scheme for BBC Scotland in 2019. Kevin’s short film When Abbie Met Emmy premiered at BFI Southbank for BFI Flare in 2019. He is currently co-developing a comedy-drama web series for BBC Scotland and an international broadcaster.

Liam Hollywood

Liam graduated from the University of the West of Scotland with a BA (Hons) in Filmmaking and Screen Writing. His feature length screenplay ‘Sweet Nothing’, a thriller described as “The Graduate meets Fatal Attraction”, was selected by writer-director Eleanor Yule for the Best Screenplay Award at the 2014 UWS Showcase Awards. His latest short film 'Living Arrangement', a relationship drama about a father and daughter, is currently being considered by film festivals around the UK & Europe. He was shortlisted by BBC Writersroom for The Biggest Weekend 2018 and has recently received credit for material featured on BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Newsjack. He is currently writing a television drama pilot and developing his first written stage play.

Maryam Hamidi

Maryam’s a Scottish based writer and an experienced actor working across stage, screen and radio. Her first short film, Bloody Love, a zombie romantic drama, was developed through Scottish Film Talent Network’s while her short film script Bahar was part of the SFTN’s Scottish Shorts programme 2017. She was awarded Fire Exit’s Pyromania award for her play End of and a Playwright's Studio New Playwrights Award for her play Moonset which she is adapting for screen with Blue Iris Productions. She co-wrote Amnesty Award nominated The Chronicles of Irania which she also performed and she is co-writing a 360 degree film and live performance, Nervous: Stories to Save your Life for Unlimited Theatre and 4Pi productions.

She was one of three writers selected to take part in the Sky TV table read programme and her sitcom pilot, Slipping was read as in conjunction with GMAC. Her first radio sitcom pilot Drivetime was developed for Radio Scotland with the BBC Writersroom and transmitted in Spring 2018. She has now written sketches for the radio comedy series Sketchtopia and has written multiple episodes for Series 1 & 2 of CBeebies live action Molly and Mack. Maryam was also one of 12 shortlisted writers for the BBC Writersroom Comedy Writers’ Programme 2018. Maryam is part of the BBC Writersroom Scottish Voices Comedy for 2018/19 and is currently part of various development/writers rooms for a range of shows including Scotch Production's sitcom Talibams and Molly & Mack and Biff, Chip and Kipper for CBeebies.

Morna Pearson

Agent: Charlotte Knight, Knighthall Agency

Morna Pearson is an Elgin-born Edinburgh-based playwright and screenwriter. She has been a recipient of the Channel 4 Playwright Scheme and the Meyer-Whitworth Award. Her first short film I Was Here (SFTN) was a BAFTA Scotland and an EIFF nominee for Best Short Film. Past theatre productions include plays for Traverse Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland, National Theatre Connections, Catherine Wheels, Lung Ha Theatre Company, Grid Iron, Dogstar, Frozen Charlotte, and A Play, A Pie & A Pint. She has written two radio plays for BBC. Current projects include a pilot sitcom script for BBC Studios, and a play for the National Theatre of Scotland. Morna was also shortlisted for the Comedy Writers’ Programme 2018 and one of eight writers shortlisted for the Drama Pilot Scheme for BBC Scotland. Most recently Morna was selected for selected for the EIFF Talent Lab 2021.

Niki Rooney

Agent: Hannah Porter & Freddie Best, United Agents

Niki started her career on Hollyoaks, where she progressed quickly through the ranks, until she was Head of the Story Department by the age of 24. She later joined the core writing team, writing 20 episodes over two years.

Since then, Niki has written 4 episodes of Nickelodeon’s Ride, for Breakthrough Entertainment and Buccaneer Media. She created all of the live shows for CBeebies Land at Alton Towers, working on live action shows and immersive interactive experiences for brands such as The Furchester, Octonauts, Postman Pat, Bing, Hey Duggee, Mike the Knight, Mr Bloom’s Garden and most recently, Teletubbies! She was also commissioned to write a tween comedy horror podcast pilot called Bump In The Night for CBBC and her audio story Thistle and the Circle of Champions was commissioned for BBC Learning. She was also a core member of the writers room for Ben Chanan’s new Sky Atlantic show You, which is being produced by Kudos.

In 2020, Niki is writing an episode of Swashbuckle for CBeebies, and has been commissioned to write an episode of CBBC’s flagship show The Dumping Ground after successfully participating in the Writers Room’s shadow scheme. She is also writing an episode of a brand new CBBC show created by Dan Berlinka and will be joining the writers room on a new YA drama for Bandit Television for Phillipa Giles. Niki has an original dark comedy drama pilot script, Swipe Right, in development with Mike Ellen at Freedom Scripted Entertainment. Niki also won the Kudos North Writers Award, resulting in her original comedy drama Spoonies being optioned. The series is now in development with BBC One (pilot script stage).

Steve Lawrence

Steve is an Edinburgh based writer with credits across comedy, drama and interactive storytelling. He was selected for the BBC Writersroom Comedy Room, the first BBC Writersroom Scottish Voices group and is a member of the BFI Network x BAFTA Crew. Credits include BBC Comedy Online, The Essay on BBC Radio 3, The Leak on BBC Radio Wales, Newsjack, multiple sketches for the award-winning Sketchtopia on BBC Radio 4, Swashbuckle for CBeebies and a sketch starring Mel & Sue for Red Nose Day 2021.

He recently shot a series of tasters with director James Kayler (Catherine Tate’s Hard Cell) and Burning Reel Productions for a sitcom starring Kieran Hodgson, Stevie Martin and Thanyia Moore and has a couple of other projects in development with exciting comedy talent attached.
Steve also has experience in the world of interactive storytelling with creative technology company Charisma Ai, most recently writing on a demo for a major Warner Brothers property. He’s a lifelong comic book fan and has written for the character Nemesis as part of Mark Millar’s Millarworld universe.

Tom Worsley

Agent: Dominic Lord, JFL Agency

Tom is a comedy and children’s writer based in Glasgow, originally from Gloucestershire. He gained his first credits in 2008 on a Channel 4 Comedy Lab sketch pilot and the subsequent series School of Comedy. Since moving to Scotland he was later a contributor to BBC Radio Scotland’s Breaking the News and in 2017 was a finalist In the Nickelodeon Writing Programme.

Tom's 15 minute radio comedy Sue & John was developed by the BBC Writersroom and transmitted on BBC Radio Scotland in Spring 2019. Sue & John was later nominated for a Celtic Media Festival Award 2020 in the Radio Comedy category. He has written for the latest 2 series of the CBeebies comedy gameshow Swashbuckle and was previously one of three writers commissioned to develop and write an original 10 minute script for a Children’s Podcast opportunity. He was also a commissioned story writer for BBC Scotland’s comedy Scot Squad in 2019 and again in 2021. Tom is currently pursuing further writing opportunities for children’s productions.

SCOTTISH VOICES – DRAMA GROUP

Ali Taylor

Agent: Jean Kitson, Kitson Press

Ali was awarded a place on the inaugural The Writers’ Lab UK & Ireland 2021, part funded by Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films. She regularly writes for BBC Scotland's continuing drama, River City and was shortlisted for Sky’s Best Debut Writer Award in 2021 for her work for the show. Her Radio 4 Afternoon Play ‘The Apple, The Tree’ was Pick of the Week and she has written two other original radio dramas, produced by Kirsty Williams as well as a radio sitcom pilot, produced through BBC Writersroom. She has written for children’s, including Molly & Mack, and was also a participant on the Young Film Foundation 2019. She has twice been shortlisted for the BBC Writer’s Prize for Drama and continues to develop her own original work.

Apphia Campbell

Apphia is originally from Florida and after graduating from college she moved to New York where she performed Off-Broadway. In 2013 she wrote her critically acclaimed piece, Black Is The Color Of My Voice and opened in Shanghai to rave reviews before performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014 where it sold out and continued to sell out on a UK wide tour.

In 2017, her new show with Meredith Yarbrough, Woke, was presented as part of the Made In Scotland Showcase, won a Scotsman Fringe First, a Highly Commended award from Amnesty International, and was shortlisted for The Filipa Bragança Award and Scottish Art Club Theatre Award. In 2018, she continued to tour Woke and was featured in the guardians 50 shows to see at the fringe and Vogue’s 5 shows not to miss in 2018 fringe. In 2019, she made her west end debut with Black Is The Color Of My Voice which had rave reviews and a sold-out run. She also had a London premiere of Woke at Battersea Arts Centre which had a successful run. She has recently been commissioned for an audio story for the BBC Digital Learning Time for a Story strand 2019.

Charlie Ward

Agent: Katie Williams, The Agency

Charlie is a Glasgow-based writer. He is currently writing a television pilot, An Evening With… for 1A Productions and developing a radio play, The Book of Jamie for BBC Radio Scotland and was invited to join the BBC Writersroom Drama Group for 2018/19. In 2017 he completed his feature, Out There and his play AlphaMail was included in the Tron 100 Festival at the Tron Theatre. He graduated from the MA Television Writing course in Glasgow courtesy of a scholarship from Shed Productions.

Declan Dineen

Agent : Jennifer Thomas, United Agents

Declan is a writer originally from South Wales now based in Glasgow. He is currently focussing on a varied slate of projects, including a sci-fi audio series for Echoverse, a horror TV series for World Productions, and his feature film debut Bloom which is being supported by EIFF Talent Lab Connects. He has previously written for the radio and stage, including the BBC afternoon play Finding Love at the End of the world. Prior to focussing on fiction, Declan worked as a freelance writer with a diverse portfolio across multiple magazines and web sites.

He has a keen interest in technology and its role in telling stories. In 2020 he worked with Story Futures on their VR Lab, and worked with ISO design on various projects from interactive commercials to playful museum displays. This interest in tech comes largely from his love of video games, best illustrated by Checkpoints, a podcast he created and hosted from 2016 to 2019, in which he interviewed various videogame luminaries about the games that shaped their life. Because it's important to have something to fall back on, he is also a magician. He's written and performed several magic shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a sell out show called #meetandtweet based on an idle whim he had to meet everyone who followed him on twitter, which inexplicably became international news for a weekend in 2015.

Jane Livingstone

Jane won a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award for Best Writer in 1996 for her screenplay Roses of Picardy, written during her 20 year career in corporate communications. She gained a Masters in Creative Writing in 2014 and her first play, Thieves of Dunfermline, was staged in the same year. She has had four commissions for A Play, A Pie and a Pint, including the award winning Jocky Wilson Said, which have been performed in Glasgow, Aberdeen and at the Edinburgh Festival. Jane received a Playwrights Studio Partnership Award to develop a full length original play, The Quarry, with an abridged version of this play being broadcast on Radio 4 in 2022. She is currently working on her first short film as writer and director.

Jaimini Jethwa

Jaimini has worked as a writer, independent filmmaker for over twenty years after graduating from film-school in London. She wrote and directed several short films including No Dowry No Date and Careless which screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and international screenings. Her documentary Stigmadies won the best short Documentary Film at the SEE ME Mental Health Film Festival 2007 while her documentary Teen Mum, gained over a million views on You Tube. Her theatre writing includes Last Queen of Scotland with National Theatre Scotland, Stellar Quines and Dundee Rep which sold out Edinburgh Fringe 2017. She has been short-listed for Hollyoaks, River City, and Casualty and mentored by BBC Films for first feature film ’Dancing Shiva’. She has recently been working on the R4 sketch series, Sketchtopia, Radio drama ideas and on a new play at The Royal Lyceum. Jaimini was recently shortlisted for a Radio Scotland Comedy Opportunity.

Kate Bowen

Kate was the 2012 winner of the annual New Writer's Award (Playwright's Studio Scotland) and participant in the 2013 Traverse 50 programme at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. She was awarded a place on the Channel 4 Playwrights’ Scheme in 2016 and a Starter for Ten residency from the National Theatre of Scotland in 2017. Her short plays have been performed at The Traverse Theatre (The Prize Fighter), Glasgow's Play, Pie and a Pint (The Lawyers) and on STV (Super Sunday). Her first full length play, Close Quarters, was put on by Stockroom in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres in 2018, directed by Kate Wasserberg; and was named by The Observer as one of their top ten theatre productions of 2018.

She was nominated by Stockroom for the James Tait Prize in 2019; and in the same year a production of Close Quarters was staged at RADA in London directed by Zoe Ford-Burnett. In 2020 she worked alongside Tod Productions and STV to develop a sixty minute drama pilot, Storm Warning for the BBC, and was awarded a grant by Playwright’s Studio Scotland to develop a new project with Director/Dramaturg Lu Kemp and Sound Designer Zoe Irvine. 2022 started with her undertaking a six week attachment at the New Work department of the National Theatre, London, to create a new stage play.

Mariem Omari

Mariem lived and worked across the Middle East and North Africa for five years, and during that time worked with refugees and survivors of violence. She has since committed to promoting stories that are not often heard to advocate for greater equality. Her first play, If I Had A Girl..., on honour violence in Asian communities in Scotland, sold-out in Glasgow in 2016, and toured nationally in 2017. She was one of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Starter for 10, selected to develop her play, One Mississippi, which showcased at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2017, and will be touring Scotland in 2022.

She had three commissioned plays in 2019 – The Trojans, performed by Syrian Refugees; her first children’s play, Paper Memories, which was part of the 2019 National Puppetry and Animation Festival; and Walkin’ the Line as part of SMHAF 2019. In 2021 she was commissioned by BBC Scotland to create Breaking Point - a series of five short monologues for radio and digital platforms. Her new play, Revolution Days, about her experiences as an Aid Worker, had its world premier in November 2021. She is Co-Founder & Artistic Director of Bijli Productions, Inaugural Company in Residence at the National Theatre of Scotland.

Michael Lee Richardson

Agent: Louisa Minghella, Blake Friedmann

Michael is an award-winning writer based in Glasgow. His short film My Loneliness is Killing Me - about queer men, loneliness and hook-up culture, directed by Tim Courtney - has been shown at film festivals around the world, including EIFF, Outfest LA and BFI Flare. It won the 2018 Scottish BAFTA for Best Short Film and was commended for the Iris Prize 2019. His drama script Station Road was shortlisted for BBC Writersroom’s Drama Room and C21Media’s Drama Series competition, and has since been optioned.

He is currently developing a Young Adult drama project for Kindle Entertainment. In 2019, Michael was awarded a place on the Young Films Foundation residency in the Isle of Skye, where he developed Out, a drama series about queer nightlife.In 2018, he was one of 8 writers shortlisted for the Digital Drama Pilot Scheme for BBC Scotland and was invited to join the BBC Writersroom Scottish Voices Drama group. His original writing has been shortlisted for BBC Scotland’s Frank Deasy Award, the Trans Comedy Award and the BAFTA Rocliffe New Comedy Award. He is a Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award winner. His short story The Other Team appears in PROUD, and he has written children’s nonfiction for Puffin. He edited We Were Always Here, an anthology of queer Scottish writing, published by 404 Ink in January 2019. Michael’s work focuses on queer and working class characters and stories. When he isn’t writing, he is a community campaigner and works at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Marcus McPeake

Marcus’s first feature-length screenplay, Oh, Danny Boyd is currently in development with producer, Wendy Griffin, and the Scottish Film Talent Network. His first short film, Your Picture Gets Mine (featuring Kate Dickie), was acquired by Channel 4 and screened as part of The Shooting Gallery, which lead to the channel commissioning a second short, For Gracie (featuring Gary Lewis). He was selected for the EIFF Talent Lab 2016, where he won 'Best Pitch'. Marcus is currently working on a new feature-length screenplay and a pilot script for a spec TV show. He was recently shortlisted for a Radio Scotland Comedy opportunity.

SCOTTISH VOICES – THE BREAK GROUP

Anita Vettesse

Agent : Georgina Ruffhead, The Haworth Agency

Anita co-created BBC Radio 4’s crime drama, This Thing of Darkness (Winner of the British Podcast Award 2021 and nominee for Best Writer Tinniswood 2021). She has just finished writing the latest series which can be found on BBC Sounds. Anita has also written Falling for BBC Radio Scotland. She was recently selected for the Scottish BBC Drama Writers Programme and is currently writing an original 3-part revenge thriller with BBC Studios. Anita continues to be a core writer on BBC’s River City.

Her theatre work includes: Ringroad which was nominated for best new play at The Critics Theatre Awards; Happy Hour and From The Air for Oran Mor; Eddie and The Slumber Sisters for Catherine Wheels/National Theatre of Scotland. Anita was writer in residence at National Theatre Scotland in 2021 as part of the John Mather Trust Award and written a new dark thriller, Pick Up Point. She is also currently co-writing another musical for them. Anita has just begun writing a brand new Ghost Story for Perth Theatre to be performed later this year as well as writing the book for The Big Noise; a co pro with Dundee Rep and NTS.

Bryce Hart

Agent: Simon Blakey, The Agency

Bryce was on the BBC Writersroom Comedy Room 2016 and listed on the BBC New Talent Hotlist 2017. He was a Writer in Residence with the Comedy Unit in Glasgow, where he wrote and developed ideas for Scot Squad as Assistant Story Producer. He has written on Only an Excuse, the BBC N.I series Soft Border Patrol, the Brexit sitcom set along the Irish border and on Wow Wales! a comedy about the Welsh tourism industry. He was one of eight writers shortlisted for The Break, Series III for BBC Three. He has had sketches commissioned for FUNC a Gaelic sketch show, BBC Alba and on the CBBC series, Class Dismissed. His teen drama Unfiltered, has also been commissioned to treatment by CBBC. Radio work includes sketches for Pam Ayre’s Radio 4 show Ayres on the Air and he was shortlisted for BBC 3’s Valentine themed sketch for FaceBook. His first radio sitcom pilot Winging It was developed for Radio Scotland with the BBC Writersroom and transmitted in Spring 2019. He is one of four writers on the BBC Writersroom Comedy Writers’ Programme and is currently developing ideas with Happy Tramp North and projects with other Indies.

Grace Knight

Agent : Hannah Boulton, The Agency

Grace is a Glasgow-based writer who works across TV, theatre, radio and VR work. She is one of eight recipients of the High-end Television Levy Writers’ Bursary Scheme under the mentorship of Kay Mellor. Her episode of BBC Three’s The Break, Gloss (2018), is currently available on iPlayer, and was nominated for a Broadcast Digital Award 2019 in the short form drama category. Grace's VR film is due to be released on the BBC’s new VR app. She has two Big Finish audio dramas due for release this year: a 60 minute play for their Dark Shadows range, and a 30 minute episode for their Doctor Who: Short Trips range and was recently commissioned for the Torchwood series. She has had two BBC Radio commissions including After Exile, for Radio 3 starring Julie Hesmondhalgh (2017). Her first professional stage credit was How to Cheat, and Be a Winner! at Cambridge Junction Theatre (2015) and extracts from her work have been performed at the Tron Theatre and London’s Jermyn Street Theatre. She was one of ten writers on a BBC Writersroom Children’s Residential in 2017 and was a member of the Scottish Book Trust’s highly competitive BBC Radio Lab. She was also commissioned for an original Digital Drama Pilot for BBC Scotland.

James Pearson

Agent : Georgina Carrigan, United Agents

James is an actor and writer whose acting credits include Lip Service (BBC/Kudos), Control (Anton Corbijn) and New Town Killers for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Scotland. James has recently been commissioned to write an original comedy pilot, MY LIFE IN ART, for Channel X Hopscotch about an arts administrator in charge of making public art who doesn’t have a creative bone in her body. His feature film MAKING NOISE, about the life and work of deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, has recently attached Embankment Films for financing and global distribution and will be directed by Hope Dickson Leach.

In 2018 James was selected from across the UK to be part of the BBC Writersroom's Drama Writers Programme. He has a number of projects in development: JACK, a feature film about a gay couple trying to start a family, is currently in development with FoxCub Films. ROSIE - a six-part psychological thriller in development with LA Production; and SUPERFAN - an 8-part drama in development with Balloon Entertainment about an obsessed fan who kidnaps his K-pop idol.

Omar Raza

Omar is a multi award-winning actor who was listed by ‘The Scots Magazine’ as a ‘Funny Five Scot’ comedian alongside Kevin Bridges and Susan Calman. His BBC performing credits include: Limmy’s Show!, CBBC’s Annoying Things Adults Say and BBC Radio 4’s Fags Mags and Bags' & ‘Beta Female. As an RTS nominated writer, Omar’s first writing was the CBBC co-written sketch Burn Down The House for CBBC's Annoying Things Adults Say. Strand. His solo screenwriting debut, Soul Journey, was for the BBC Three series The Break, Series III. It was shortlisted at: the ‘MIPCOM Diversify TV Excellence Awards 2018’, the ‘Edinburgh TV Festival: New Voice Awards 2019’ and the ‘Royal Television Society Awards 2019’.

Samara MacLaren

Agent : Jonathan Kinnersley, The Agency

Samara is an actress and writer and was part of the BBC's 2018 Drama Room Scheme with BBC Writersroom. Her debut play, Ailsa Benson is Missing premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival and was nominated for the Scottish Theatre Awards and a Filipa Braganca Award. Her first full length television spec script, "Sabrina Healey" has been optioned by Andrea Calderwood at Potboiler Productions and her second, "East Neuk", has been optioned by Tally Garner at Mam Tor Productions.

Sophie Wu

Agent : Jessica Cooper, Curtis Brown

Sophie is an actress and talented writer for screen and stage. Her debut play, Sophie Wu Is Minging, and Looks Like She's Dead, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and transferred to the Soho Theatre. Sophie’s short film, Franny Wong, was one of the 5 films made for The Break, Series III for BBC Three. She is working with the Bush Theatre as part of their new writing programme and is developing an original TV project with Charlie Brooker's company, House of Tomorrow.

Stewart Thomson

Agent : Matthew Dench, Dench Arnold Agency

Stewart is a graduate of the National Film and Television School and his film, Bill's Visitors, was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA and a Scottish BAFTA New Talent Award as part of Channel 4’s Coming Up strand. His debut feature, Rocket Surgery, is set for production in early 2020. Beating the Drum, his second feature has been developed by BBC Films and Creative Scotland. In September 2016, Stewart’s sitcom pilot, Pumped, was transmitted on BBC Three and BBC2. Stewart's comedy pilot SKWIBS was a previous winner of the BAFTA Rocliffe New Comedy Award and was performed on stage at the New York Television Festival. Stewart was part of BBC Writersroom Comedy Room 2017/18. His short film, A Vocal Minority, was produced for The Break, Series III, for BBC Three and was nominated for a Celtic Media Award 2019. He is developing a new sitcom for The Comedy Unit in Glasgow and a comedy project for CBBC. Stewart has also written for theatre, with his debut Frank's Dead premiering at Oran Mor in Glasgow where it later won their audience award for best comedy that year. His script Dash is being produced with Blazing Griffin for the Digital Drama Pilot Scheme for BBC Scotland and his project Elastic has been developed by Big Talk and has recently been commissioned to script by BBC Drama.

Scottish Writers' Festival - Watch Interviews

2019-08-06T13:40:40+00:00

The Scottish Writers’ Festival is now done and dusted for another year and based on the feedback, everyone had a great day. A phew and woo hoo! We had set the bar high at our previous festival with the fantastic Steven Moffat headlining, but we cracked it once again with a brilliant opening conversation with Nicole Taylor who was honest, funny and inspiring. In fact, all our guests were. We can’t thank them enough.

Several weeks later, and the slalom-like office obstacle course made out of hundreds of attendees’ goody bags and nice, fancy snacks (that we were too busy to eat on the day) are long gone but we’ve not been lolling around, we’ve been busy pulling together post-festival content for this very website. We know not everyone can get a ticket for the festival, or can travel to Glasgow, so alongside our tweets and posts on the day’s events, we strong armed/gently encouraged… our panellists and guests to answer some more questions on writing and development.

You can catch up with all the interviews below, packed with advice and inspiration, and with all of these and many more in the Be Inspired section of our website

Watch an interview with Neil Webster

Neil Webster is a writer and experienced Executive Producer, Producer and Script Editor. Neil co-founded the comedy production company Happy Tramp which has produced a range of scripted series for the BBC, and a number of half hour films for Sky Arts’ URBAN MYTHS series.

Prior to Happy Tramp, Neil co-founded the comedy production company Zeppotron, working as Creative Director until 2012. Before Zeppotron, Neil’s credits included script editor and writer on THE 11 O'CLOCK SHOW, writer on THE SKETCH SHOW, GAS, ATTACHMENTS, and SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND. Neil has also worked as a writer for various stand ups including Lee Mack, Jimmy Carr, Frankie Boyle, Mickey Flanagan and Jason Manford.

We asked Neil about how he got started in Comedy writing, his favourite comedy characters and tips for new writers.

Watch an interview with Lizzie Gray

Lizzie Gray has recently joined Glasgow based indie Blazing Griffin as Head of TV. Prior to that, Lizzie was Executive Producer at SKY on award winning series PATRICK MELROSE and SAVE ME, as well as YOU, ME & THE APOCALYPSE. She oversaw the return of Sky Atlantic’s ground breaking series FORTITUDE. Lizzie’s background is in long running, popular drama series having produced both WATERLOO ROAD and RIVER CITY.

We spoke to Lizzie about the Producer-Writer relationship, the Producer's role in the writing process and pitching tips.

Watch an interview with Philip Shelley

Philip Shelley initiated and runs the Channel 4 screenwriting course and works as both a Producer and Script Editor. His speciality is identifying and working with new screenwriting talent and helping them find opportunities in the UK TV and film industries. He also runs independent screenwriting courses.

We spoke to Philip about identifying a Writer's voice, common pitfalls and his latest TV favourites.

Watch an interview with Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan

Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan are a writing-duo. They have written for various shows together, including SHAMELESS, CALL THE MIDWIFE, OUR GIRL and COLD FEET and have several projects in development. Prior to writing, Amy was in Drama development and production at BBC Scotland. She co-produced FIELD OF BLOOD, script edited WATERLOO ROAD and was Story Producer on a Scottish BAFTA nominated series of RIVER CITY. After working in production for several years, Loren moved into script editing on various shows including CORONATION STREET and SHAMELESS.

We spoke to them about how they met and got their first writing break, what they think is currently missing from TV and what it's like to write in a partnership.

Watch an interview with Rab Christie

Rab Christie is the MD of the Comedy Unit, creator of BAFTA and RTS Award winning comedy programmes and currently producing TOURIST TRAP (BBC Wales), SCOT SQUAD (BBC Scotland) and SOFT BORDER PATROL (BBC Northern Ireland). Other comedy credits include BURNISTOUN, LIMMY’S SHOW!, GARY: TANK COMMANDER, THE STATE OF IT, ONLY AN EXCUSE? RAB C NESBITT, STILL GAME, BADULTS, BLOWOUT, RORY GOES TO HOLYROOD, SCOTLAND IN A DAY, OFFSIDE, CHEWIN THE FAT, SKETCHORAMA and FAGS, MAGS AND BAGS.

We asked Rab about how he got started in Comedy, the biggest struggles in making Comedy and his favourite characters.

Watch an interview with Rob Williams

Rob Williams began his writing career in 2008 after attending The Writers Academy with John Yorke and gaining his first script commission on DOCTORS. Rob went on to create the ITV crime drama series CHASING SHADOWS as well as writing episodically on KILLING EVE, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, DCI BANKS, HOLBY CITY, CASUALTY, EASTENDERS & DOCTORS. Most recently, Rob created and wrote the original series THE VICTIM with STV Productions for BBC One and currently has several pilots in development.

We asked Rob about how he got his first break in writing, how he deals with receiving notes and the development process.

Read an interview with Rob Williams about creating THE VICTIM

Download and read the complete scripts for THE VICTIM

Audio Stories for Young Listeners

2019-05-21T12:00:40+00:00

The team at BBC Writersroom Scotland recently worked with BBC Learning on an exciting new project to develop and produce audio stories for children. Producer, Anne McNaught, explains more:

“Stories, stories and more stories.”

That’s what one primary school teacher said she’d like when BBC Scotland Learning conducted some research into audio for schools recently. “Stories on any topic,” she said. “Real life or fiction, either’s good.” (And someone else reading them would be a bonus, as “they’re sick of the sound of my voice …”!)

This was a pretty universal response from the teachers we asked – more stories please, and make them easy to play. Everyone knows how ear-grabbing a good story can be, and in the Scottish school curriculum, listening skills are considered every bit as important as reading skills. A key difference between listening and reading though is that most classrooms have lots of books, but they don’t have lots of audio resources.

BBC Scotland has been making audio for teachers and children since the original days of school radio, and it all lives online now, so it’s got the potential for a long and useful existence.

At the end of last year, we were in the market for some new stories, and some new writers we’d not worked with before so we got together with the BBC Writersroom team in Glasgow, and presented their Scottish Voices writers with the opportunity to write a five minute story for a primary school audience via Time for a Story. (“You may have worked on gritty dramas or topical comedy up till now, but how are you with 6 year olds?” That’s how it felt, as I described what we were looking for!)

Loads of great ideas came in, with the range of subject matter we’d been hoping for. We had script editor Jamey Claffey and schools’ literacy consultant Grace McKelvie on board.

Listen to Rory Bear and the Totally Completely Boring Weekend written by Ali Taylor, narrated by Gayanne Potter and illustrated by Ashlee Spink.

In the end, five new stories were selected to be given the full audio treatment, including Rory Bear and the Totally Completely Boring Weekend by Ali Taylor, about a young girl’s very mixed feelings around her new baby sibling’s arrival; The Day the Stories Ran Out by Linda MacLaughlin, about a quest through a fantasy landscape to the home of stories… and a poem, The Great Bumpkin King by Justin Anderson and Juliet Cavanagh Anderson.

Actors were invited in to read the stories for us – including James MacKenzie (of Raven fame, and Molly & Mack), who read Niki Rooney’s story, Thistle and the Circle of Champions.

Listen to Thistle and the Circle of Champions written by Niki Rooney, narrated by James MacKenzie and illustrated by Darren Gate.

Music was selected, and sound effects found - and at times created specially.

The part of the process that was totally new to me was sourcing and commissioning freelance illustrators to create an image that would complement each story. We needed graphics with enough big shapes to look good on a tiny phone screen, but also enough detail to look interesting on a large smartboard at the front of a class.

The illustrators were a joy to work with. I was amazed at their creations and the amount of time they were happy to spend getting everything just right

Listen to The Day the Stories Ran Out written and narrated by Linda McLaughlin and illustrated by Meg Owenson.

Edinburgh-based illustrator Tom Morgan-Jones created a colour-tastic image for the Great Bumpkin King, on a very loose brief involving fantasy animals, a scary neighbouring country, and a landscape “a bit like The Lorax”.

… and Sophie Humphreys found a way to depict the idea of a dull day in the playground, with a simultaneous escape into a magical other dimension for the main character. Impossible for me to describe to her visually, but that’s why you hire a professional...

Listen to The Wee Shop of Magic written by Fiona Connor, narrated by Toni Frutin and illustrated by Sophie Humphreys.

We launched the collection, Time for a Story just before the Easter holidays, including all five stories from the BBC Writersroom writers.

I like to think of it giving as many teachers as possible an enjoyable five-minute breather – with some great material to discuss afterwards with their pupils, that might even inspire them to write and draw their own stories.

Listen to The Great Bumpkin KIng written by Justin Anderson and Juliet Cavanagh-Anderson, narrated by Helen Mackay and illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones.

Two of the writers, Juliet Cavanagh-Anderson and Justin Anderson, explain how they approached their story, The Great Bumpkin King

When we got the brief for this project, what really struck both of us was the question: “Why is it important to tell your story now?” As parents, it didn’t take us long to come up with a topic that worries both of us: the constant flow of disturbing news and how that affects kids. Between us we have a psychology degree (Juliet) and a deep interest in politics (Justin) so the bones of the story around dealing with scary news came together fairly quickly. We hadn’t written in this rhyming style together before, so we wrote a sample for the pitch.

We’d already pitched a few ideas through Scottish Voices before this one, and had collected some “thanks but” emails, so when we got the “delighted to tell you” email, we both had to read it a few times! We couldn’t believe how positive it was. The producers seemed to love it; we got a real sense of excitement from the feedback. Once we’d written the rest, there were a few tweaks to be made. Working with the script editor and producer, who were both hugely encouraging, was a real pleasure. In the end, the biggest challenge was cutting it down - we could easily have written twice as much! When we saw and heard the finished product, we were delighted. Tom Morgan-Jones’ illustration completely sums up the feel we had for the story, and Helen Mackay really brings it to life. We hope people enjoy it as much we enjoyed writing it!

Explore and listen to the whole Time for a Story collection

Follow BBC Learning Scotland on Twitter

Comedy Writers' Success at BBC Radio Scotland

2019-05-07T13:12:25+00:00

It was last year when BBC Radio Scotland Commissioning Editor, Gareth Hydes, asked for more BBC Writersroom Radio Comedies and we were more than happy to oblige!

This latest opportunity came off the back of the success of last year’s three radio comedies but now we were funded for four. We kicked it all off with a targeted briefing session for our Scottish Voices Group in November where Gareth and Gavin Smith gave an insight into the BBC Radio Scotland audience and what they were looking for editorially. A few weeks later and a range of very funny radio ideas were being read and after much discussion, we shortlisted six projects to be developed further before finally commissioning four to go into production.

These last three months have been a whirlwind of script meetings, notes, some more notes and copious drafts before we got into the radio studio. As you’ll read in the writers' own words below, it was a full on process, but a thoroughly enjoyable period. I can’t thank Ali, Bryce, Tom and Donald enough for their immense work ethic, resilience and good humour throughout. It was a privilege to direct these four comedies and work with a brilliant cast and production team from beginning to end.

We hope you enjoy listening to The Showstopper, Sunday Roast, Winging It and Sue & John.

Listen to The Showstopper, written by Donald Cameron

The Showstopper - by Donald Cameron

They say true writing is re-writing. What they don’t say is that true re-writing is sitting in a radio studio editing a script to the necessary length just before the actors actually start recording... then you go for a take. That’s true re-writing. I’ve learnt more from this one short production process than I had in the past two years of screenwriting studies and spec' script writing combined.

The Showstopper - writer Donald Cameron with the cast

The BBC Writersroom Team guided me through umpteen drafts across both the planning and script stages, especially as my story started life as a pitch for a comedy monologue, before morphing into a sitcom. Hearing actors bringing words you’ve written to life is really quite something, and Victoria Balnaves, Gavin Mitchell and Anita Vettesse did a grand job with the madness put before them. It’s been a massive boost to get a BBC credit under my belt and I’m hugely grateful to Angela, the BBC Writersroom team and BBC Radio Scotland for giving me the opportunity.

Listen to Sunday Roast, written by Ali Taylor

Sunday Roast - by Ali Taylor

For me, it's pretty apt that Sunday Roast is all about the unexpected happening when a mix of folk get together in a confined space because that's exactly how this project panned out too. I'd wanted to write a piece inspired by an advert I’d seen, so when the pitch opened for submissions I got to work and revisited my idea and notes. I didn't realise, on getting the commission, just how much more digging and revisiting was to be done. But once the Producer/Director and Script Editor came to the table it became a far more family affair.

Sunday Roast - writer Ali Taylor with the cast

One particularly insightful note they gave helped me put meat on the bones; write about the mother that isn't there. Maggie's deceased mum, being the antithesis of Elsie, was what ultimately, would help draw Maggie and Elsie together. Thanks to Jane, Steven, Barbara and Eubha for their wonderful performances and to the fantastic sound engineers for helping us cook, so catastrophically, with gas. I hope you'll pull up a chair and have a listen. And if you've got one spare, invite an Elsie. Just don't let her bring her own bottle.

LIsten to Winging It, written by Bryce Hart

Winging It - by Bryce Hart

I’ve been lucky to work as a writer on great existing shows, ones with their own established voice, but Winging It would be the first time something I had written in my own voice was going to be produced. Like any writer, I was thrilled to be given this opportunity. And once the panic attacks subsided, I got to work.

Winging It - writer Bryce Hart with the cast

I decided to write about the world of parenting. Where privately you can have your fears about being good enough and question the long-term ramifications of every decision you make - whilst publicly striving to give the impression that ‘you’ve got this’. A lot like writing really. The world of the show was brought vividly to life by an incredible cast and I am hugely indebted to director Angela Galvin and script editor Stephanie Modlin for all their help and guidance throughout the process.

Listen to Sue & John, written by Tom Worsley

Sue & John - by Tom Worsley

When I was given the chance to pitch a 15 minute radio comedy to the BBC Writersroom I knew instantly what I wanted to do thanks to my regular weekly phone call back home. Both my Mum and Dad had just retired and so my dear Mum always had an anecdote about their new lives, and quite frankly, I feared for their sanity. From this, Sue & John began to emerge.

Sue & John - writer Tom Worsley with the cast

I'd previously written topical gags and some sketches but my ambition has always been narrative comedy so when I heard my idea was going into production, I was blown away. The whole process was incredibly supportive and I was encouraged to push the characters and really dig deep for the comedy. It was hard work (and cutting your favourite lines is never easy!) but I learnt so much about story and character, it was all invaluable. The recording day was fun, seeing everyone from production to our hilarious cast investing in the project was genuinely lovely. I have to thank everyone at the BBC Writersroom and BBC Radio Scotland for giving me the chance to realise an ambition I've had since I was a kid. And I should also point out to any family or my parents' friends that this is a fictitious comedy. Mostly...

Find out more about BBC Writersroom Scotland

BBC Writersroom Scotland - Winter 2019 Update

2019-01-24T15:24:15+00:00

We had a busy year in 2018 and are looking forward to the year ahead. We are currently pulling together the content for our Scottish Writers’ Festival which will be held in Glasgow this coming May and will post a save the date in the coming weeks, so please keep a look out for that!

In the meantime, find out about everything that we’ve been up to in 2018 in Scotland and beyond.

Angela & Audrey

Scottish Voices

We set up our first Scottish Voices writers groups in 2018 and are currently working with 34 writers over the course of 18 months. During this period, we will run a range of sessions and practical help such as industry talks and workshops, script editing support, targeted writing opportunities and space to write two days a month within the BBC Scotland Pacific Quay Building.

In November 2019 our current Voices groups will finish after their 18 month programme and we will start with a new writers group for another 18 month period across 2020/2021.

Meet the Scottish Voices

Scottish Voices

Writer Events in 2018

We ran a range of events last year and hope to do more in 2019. The sessions were either open to all writers or smaller talks for our Scottish Voices groups. They included In Conversation with Nicole Taylor, Q&A with Rob Williams, Q&A with Paul Logue and In Conversation with Annie Griffin. You can watch interviews we recorded at the time with Nicole and Annie below.

Watch an interview with the BAFTA and RTS Award-winning screenwriter Nicole Taylor

Current Active Opportunities for 2019

BBC Scotland - Digital Drama Pilot

4 writers each received a 10 minute paid script commission and two of those projects have now been selected to go into production in February 2019. The two successful writers are Stef Smith and Stewart Thomson.

BBC Radio Scotland - 4 x 15 minute Radio Comedies

6 x 15 minute script commissions of which 4 scripts will be selected and go into production in March 2019 for broadcast in April and May 2019 on BBC Radio Scotland.

BBC Learning - Audio Stories

A targeted opportunity for writers to develop an audio story for the BBC Scotland Learning team and for the younger audience as part of the Scottish Curriculum.

BBC Children's Podcast

A targeted opportunity for 1 or 2 writers for podcasts aimed at the CBeebies and CBBC audience.

Watch an interview with writer and director Annie Griffin

Coming Up or In Development for 2019

BBC Radio Drama - The Lexicon of Murder

We ran a bespoke residential in conjunction with the BBC Radio Scotland Drama team in 2017 and the team have now had a Radio 4 Drama commission for 7 x 45 minute radio plays and 7 x 44 minute simultaneous Podcasts, which are due to be broadcast in early 2020. Gwen Adshead (one of the UK's leading forensic psychiatrists) is consulting on the drama.

4 writers have been commissioned - Anita Vettesse, Audrey Gillan, Eileen Horne, Lucia Haynes

Scottish Writers' Festival

An open invitation to over 200 Scotland-based writers. We are planning the festival to take place in May 2019 with full details to be announced.

Find out more about our 2017 festival which included a Q&A with writer and showrunner Steven Moffat

Watch the Biggest Weekend (Perth) Festival Monologue 'Something Blue' written by Fiona Connor and starring Hannah Rudge. Music by Malka.

2018 Writers' Successes and Commissions

River City Writers' Shadow Scheme

5 new writers were selected for River City’s first Writers’ shadow scheme. All five writers are Scottish. Two of the writers were success in gaining commissions for the next series in February 2019 - Richard Flynn and Damian Mullen.

CBeebies - Feeling Better

A script commission for writer Raisah Ahmed

Children's Digital Project

4 writers were commissioned to treatment for CBBC Children’s digital ideas

The Biggest Weekend Festival Monologues (Scotland)

In collaboration with BBC Introducing/BBC Music we ran an open script callout for writers in the Nations and Regions.

Something Blue by Fiona Connor was produced by BBC Writersroom Scotland at Scone Palace. Watch it above!

We also put two more shortlisted scripts into development and produced them in collaboration with BBC Scotland - Poo Girl by Gillian McCormack and When Pish Comes to Shove by Kevin Walls. Watch them below.

Find out more about the Biggest Weekend monologues and watch all 4 from around the UK

This external content is available at its source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzDCuTfO-Q

This external content is available at its source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2C_xb-Zstw

Comedy Writers' Programme

A new programme in collaboration with network BBC Comedy Commissioning in which we paired four writers with Scottish Indies to develop a comedy script. Four writers were given a paid commission for a 30 minute script each.

Keiron Nicholson – Young Films
Bryce Hart – Happy Tramp North
Lorna Martin – BBC Studios (Comedy)
Susan Riddell – The Comedy Unit

BBC Radio 4 - Sketchtopia

3 writers were commissioned for this new BBC Radio 4 sketch show - Maryam Hamidi, Joanne Lau and Ling Low.

CBeebies - Molly and Mack

4 x 15 minute Script Commissions for writers Xana Marwick (1 episode) Maryam Hamidi (2 episodes) and Seyi Odusanya (1 episode).

BBC ALBA - FUNC

This open call for a new Gaelic Sketch series resulted in 19 writers receiving sketch commissions.

Scot Squad (produced by The Comedy Unit)

3 writers were successfully commissioned for the TV comedy show Scot Squad - Steven Lawrence, Martha Barnett and Tom Worsley.

Keep up to date with what's going on at BBC Writersroom Scotland

Explore the latest writing opportunities from the BBC and across the industry

BBC Writersroom Scotland Summer update

2018-08-15T11:30:00+00:00

Find out what the BBC Writersroom Scotland team have been up to recently. This includes specific Scotland-based opportunities and contributing to opportunities and schemes from the BBC Writersroom which run across the whole UK.

THE BIGGEST WEEKEND

The Biggest Weekend was a call out in collaboration with BBC Music/BBC Introducing to produce 4 x 1 minute short films across the Nations and Regions and set in the 4 cities which were hosting the Biggest Weekend festival – Belfast, Swansea, Perth and Coventry. We were delighted to be part of the process at BBC Writersroom Scotland and whittled down 56 submissions to one finalist, Fiona Connor’s Something Blue.

Find out more about the Biggest Weekend project and watch all 4 short comedies

Fiona Connor with her successful script

Fiona Connor - Something Blue

The idea of writing for screen always gave me the fear as my background is entirely in stage plays and fiction so I was just a bit apprehensive at first. But, I’m so glad I plucked up my pen and my courage as one thing the BBC Writersroom does is see the potential in you (no matter how misshapen at first), nurture you and most importantly challenge you as a writer.

It was such an intensive experience with two days of workshops to develop our first drafts to final script. We were brought together as a room of finalists: all likeminded writers from different backgrounds and all striving to produce a 60 second monologue. If I can write to 60 seconds – I can now do anything!

The support across the two days and the ability to bounce ideas off of each other was incredible as was hearing from industry professionals who were not only inspiring but gave us all lessons for life. For me, just being in the iconic PQ (Pacific Quay) building at the BBC gave me more drive. One of the most memorable moments was seeing our work brought to life by actors. The whole thing is like a dream I haven’t woken up from yet. It’s given me the confidence to move forward with developing new Scottish comedy & drama without the fear of the screen. Thanks to all at the BBC Writersroom & my fellow finalists. I hope everyone enjoys ‘Something Blue’.

Watch 'Something Blue' written by Fiona Connor and starring Hannah Rudge. Music by BBC Introducing act MALKA. Filmed at Scone Palace in Perth, Scotland.

FESTIVAL MONOLOGUES

We're delighted that two additional scripts from The Biggest Weekend submissions also got funded and made, Gillian McCormack’s Poo Girl and Kevin Walls When Pish Comes to Shove.

Watch Poo Girl (on Facebook)

Watch Pish Comes to Shove (on Facebook)

Gillian McCormack

Gillian McCormack on 'Poo Girl'

Whoever said childbirth was the most terrifying thing you could do in your life, had quite clearly never attempted to write a 60 second monologue…

As someone who has spent most of their adult life working at music festivals, I thought this was going to be easy. I definitely had plenty of material to draw from - 15 years-worth of muddy fields and overflowing Porta Loos to be exact - but I think trying to get a visa for North Korea would have been less challenging, although, it's fair to say, not nearly as much fun.

60 seconds to convey a character and tell a story might seem like loads of time - I mean it seems like an eternity when you’re absolutely bursting, standing in a never-ending toilet queue - but it really is nothing, and as the BBC Writersroom Team showed us, every second really does count.

I definitely wanted to make every second of my Writersroom experience count. To be in a room in BBC Scotland HQ for two days, being given completely invaluable advice and encouragement was such an incredible opportunity. There was also a real sense of camaraderie between all of the writers, and thankfully - given it was a comedy initiative – lots and lots of laughs. The whole experience was amazing and it was totally, and unexpectedly topped off with ‘Poo Girl’ being fully brought to life… now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write...

I can’t thank the BBC Scotland Writersroom team enough for their time, their support, and for giving my very first BBC credit! Yes, it was terrifying at first, but like childbirth, the whole experience was an unforgettable one and something pretty awesome came out the other end…

Kevin Walls

Kevin Walls on 'When Pish Comes to Shove'

I was in two minds whether to submit my monologue to the BBC Writersroom. On one hand: what did I have to lose? On the other: someone might actually read it and be so offended by its terribleness that they’d write to me, personally, to tell me never to write another single word ever again for the duration of my sorry existence.

After a wee think and a freshly baked croissant – the one with the hazelnutty chocolate inside – I decided to stop being such a big dafty. I clicked submit. My heart started to race. Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was the delicious continental pastry, distilled into pure sugar, coursing through my bloodstream. Either way: I felt alive.

Fast forward a few weeks and I’m sitting in a room at BBC Scotland, surrounded by a group of ridiculously talented writers, feeling suitably out of my depth. No amount of buttery baked goods could save me now. Not even a pain au chocolat. Thankfully the finalists were incredibly welcoming and approachable, as were the BBC Writersroom team. Through their teaching and guidance, I was able to turn my sketch of an idea into a fully polished monologue. Although the two days of workshopping were incredibly intense, it was an immense amount of fun. Being able to bounce ideas around a room of other writers was a rare and delightful privilege. Instant feedback from the BBC Writersroom team was so encouraging and it kept the energy at a consistently high level across the two days. This was my first submission to the BBC Writersroom and it certainly won’t be my last. If, like me, you ever find yourself in two minds about submitting your work, treat yourself to a freshly baked croissant – or a suitably tasty gluten-free alternative – and ride that sugar train to confidence town. Just make sure you buy a single because where you’re going you won’t need a return.

Please enjoy ‘When Pish Comes to Shove’ which is, one-hundred percent, definitely not, in no way, shape or form, remotely inspired by something that may or may not have happened when I was at a music festival.

THE COMEDY WRITERS' PROGRAMME

BBC Writersroom Scotland and BBC Comedy Commissioning have announced a brand new Comedy Writers’ Programme aimed at supporting Scottish / Scottish based comedy writers and the Independent sector. It follows a similar model to the successful BBC Writersroom TV Drama Writers' Programme which partners writers and Indies together to develop TV drama projects.

Find out more about the Comedy Writers' Programme

The 4 writers on the Comedy Writers' Programme 2018 (Bryce Hart, Susan Riddell, Lorna Martin, Keiron Nicholson)

SCOTTISH VOICES 2019

The Scottish Voices writers’ groups were launched in May 2018 engaging 34 writers from across Scotland. The majority of the writers were still fairly early in their career but came to our attention through one of our schemes, opportunities or through readings or a performance of their work. The groups worked with us over a period of 18 months to develop their writing skills through attending workshops, masterclasses and accessing script editing support, giving the writers a clearer insight into writing for a range of genres and mediums and the tools to have a sustainable writing career.

The Comedy Writers' Programme 2018

2018-08-06T10:27:03+00:00

BBC Writersroom Scotland and BBC Comedy Commissioning have announced a brand new Comedy Writers’ Programme aimed at supporting Scottish / Scottish based comedy writers and the Independent sector. It follows a similar model to the successful BBC Writersroom TV Drama Writers' Programme which partners writers and Indies together to develop TV drama projects.

The Scottish Comedy Writers' Programme will partner a writer with a Scottish based Independent company to develop and write a pilot episode script for an original comedy series for BBC One, BBC Two or BBC Three Online through a fully funded script commission by BBC Comedy and BBC Writersroom. This is also about supporting the indie sector in a tangible way while working alongside comedy commissioning.

Over a period of 6 months to a year, the writers will work alongside an Independent Production Company to develop their idea while attending various workshops to enhance their writing and knowledge of TV comedy through the BBC Writersroom team.

The 4 writers on the Comedy Writers' Programme 2018 (Bryce Hart, Susan Riddell, Lorna Martin, Keiron Nicholson)

The Writers

This is not a scheme for untested writers OR overly experienced writers with significant television comedy credits. This is an opportunity for writers in the early stages of their career and is set up to allow them the space, time and financial support to produce their best work to date. The shortlisted writers have at least one professional credit to their name and have already demonstrated talent and passion in their previous comedy work, and are ready to make the next step. They have all written for theatre, television, radio or film.

Final Outcome

We hope that each writer will deliver a compelling script for the Network Comedy Commissioning team to consider and hope that the four projects demonstrate enough potential that one or two can move to the next stage of development post script delivery. Long term, our programme will hopefully be a catalyst for our selected writers and Indies to have a continued productive working relationship.

"Nurturing new talent is absolutely central to everything we do in BBC Comedy so we couldn’t be happier to announce this joint initiative with BBC Writersroom. Script development is the engine room of comedy and it’s crucial that writers are given the license to find their voices and hone their craft in a supportive environment, which our excellent producing partners will provide. Scripted comedy in Scotland is at an all time high but we’re always looking for the next great idea and can’t wait to see what the selected writers come up with."

Gregor Sharp, Commissioning Editor for BBC Comedy

The Writers and Production Companies

HAPPY TRAMP NORTH & BRYCE HART

"Happy Tramp North is delighted to have been asked by the BBC Writersroom to participate in the inaugural Scottish Comedy Writers’ Programme. The standard of the shortlisted writers in the project was exceptionally high, and we couldn’t be happier that we’ve been paired with Bryce Hart. In a strong field, Bryce’s writing stood out for us."

Neil Webster from Happy Tramp North

"Since being a part of the 2016 Comedy Room scheme, BBC Writersroom has been a huge champion of my writing and their support has continually allowed me to take the next step in my career. I am thrilled to be taking the next step with Happy Tramp North. I am a huge fan of their work and believe together we can come up with something special – and hopefully funny."

Bryce Hart – Writer

BBC STUDIOS COMEDY & LORNA MARTIN

"We’re delighted to be part of a programme for developing and supporting new comedy writing talent. Without this talent, the industry would soon fall apart, and support like this feels significant. In particular, we’re delighted to be working with Lorna Martin who writes brilliant characters, straight from the heart, and has a great knack for capturing the chaos and comedy of our everyday lives."

Owen Bell from BBC Studios Comedy

"I've received fantastic support from BBC Writersroom over the past few years and I'm delighted to be selected for this programme and excited to be working with everyone at BBC Studios Comedy."

Lorna Martin – Writer

KEIRON NICHOLSON & YOUNG FILMS

"It’s very exciting to be a part of the BBC Writersroom Comedy Writers' Programme as the quality of the participants has been very high. I’m always interested in working with new Scottish Talent and so I’m thrilled to be working with Kieron Nicholson as we go to the next stage. His spec script really made me laugh and I’m looking forward to developing it further."

Chris Young – Young Films

"I’ve always loved comedy, and getting to be a part of the first-ever Comedy Writers’ Programme is just a dream come true for me. The chance for new writers to write an original TV pilot script doesn’t come along very often. I couldn’t be happier to be working with Chris Young and Young Films, who have been producing award-winning comedy and drama for over 30 years."

Keiron Nicholson – Writer

SUSAN RIDDELL & THE COMEDY UNIT

"The Comedy Writers Programme represents a tremendous opportunity to develop new comedy for BBC network. Scotland is home to a host of established, new and up and coming comedy writers bursting with great potential.The Comedy Unit is really delighted to get to team up with Susan Riddell as part of the scheme. Susan is a superb stand up and writer and we’re really looking forward to developing a new script with her as part of the scheme."

Rab Christie – The Comedy Unit

"I'm delighted to be selected for this new Comedy Programme and very excited to work with The Comedy Unit. I grew up watching Chewing the Fat, Burnistoun and Still Game so this is an amazing opportunity to be part of."

Susan Riddell – Writer