WRITERS' GUILD (GB) AWARDS 2018
-for work done in 2017

2018 WRITERS’ GUILD AWARDS WINNERS, announced on 15 Jan 2018 at the College of Physicians in London; information sent by Charlie Wainwright.

Guests included Paul Merton, Caryl Churchill, Steve Pemberton, Daisy Goodwin, Helen Lederer, Brenda Gilhooly, Howard Read, Lucy Kirkwood, Jed Mercurio, Gabriel Bissett-Smith, Will Hislop, Barney Fishwick and Kevin Eldon.

Given the ongoing discussion about gender inequality, there are 9 female winners in the 15 categories across theatre, TV, radio, comedy, books and videogames.

WRITERS’ GUILD AWARDS 2018 WINNERS

- Taboo, Holby City, Inside No. 9 and The Witness for the Prosecution also amongst winners -

Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) have announced the winners of the 2018 Writers’ Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for film, television, radio, theatre, comedy, books and videogames at a ceremony at the College of Physicians in London. MC was writer and actor Vicki Pepperdine; the event honoured the best of British writing talent in front of an audience from a broad range of creative industries.

Caryl Churchill was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award. The presentation was made by playwright Lucy Kirkwood in honour of her outstanding body of work and her career which has spanned over six decades since writing her first play, 'Downstairs', in 1958. She has written for theatre, radio and TV and has had work staged in London and New York, including productions at the Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic and the National Theatre, and on BBC television. Her works include Ants (1962), Lovesick (1967), The Judge's Wife (1972), Fen (1983), Three More Sleepless Nights (1980), Serious Money (1987), Mad Forest (1990), The Skriker (1994), Far Away (2000), A Number (2002), A Dream Play (2005), Love and Information (2012) and Ding Dong the Wicked (2013). Caryl has seen a number of her works recently re-imagined, including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976), Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982), alongside new recent works including Here We Go and Escaped Alone, which premiered in 2015 and 2016.

Accepting her award after a standing ovation, Caryl said that she was overwhelmed and that it meant a great deal to be recognised by her writing colleagues and the Writers' Guild.

It was also was a big night for other female writers, who received 9 of the 15 awards across theatre, TV, radio, comedy, books and videogames categories.

Best Short Form TV Drama winner was Sarah Phelps for 'The Witness for the Prosecution'; Best Radio Drama went to Ming Ho for 'The Things We Never Said'; Sarah Kendall took home the award for Best Radio Comedy for her Australian Trilogy ‘A Day In October’; Sheena Kalayil picked up the Best First Novel award for her debut 'The Bureau of Second Chances'; and the winner of the Best Play went to Lucy Kirkwood for 'The Children'. Sarah McDonald-Hughes received the award for Best Play for Young Audiences with 'How to Be a Kid'.

Best Writing in a Video Game was won by Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe together with Tameem Antoniades for dark fantasy action-adventure game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice; and writer Emily Ballou formed part of the writing team alongside Chips Hardy, Steven Knight and Ben Hervey, who picked up the award for Best Long Form Drama for the drama 'Taboo'.

Other winners included Inside No. 9 ‘The Bill’, written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, which received the Best TV Situation Comedy award. Best Screenplay was awarded to Miss Sloane by Jonathan Perera; Best Long Running TV Series award went to BBC drama Holby City, Series 19, Episode 2 ‘Rocket Man’ written by Peter Mattessi; picking up the award for Best Children’s TV Episode was Tim Bain for Counterfeit Cat: Room of Panic. Babak Anvari was awarded Best First Screenplay for 'Under the Shadow', whilst Marek Larwood received Best Online Comedy award for 'Showreel for One Word or Less Parts'.

During the ceremony comedian Paul Merton and WGGB Chair Gail Renard paid tribute to Steptoe and Son scriptwriter Alan Simpson and novelist Rosemary Anne Sisson, plus other WGGB members who passed away in the last year.

Host Vicki Pepperdine said of the event; "As a previous Writers’ Guild Award winner I know how much it means to receive one. The knowledge that your peers have considered your work to be the very best in its class is a great accolade, which writers working in any of the broad range of media recognised by the Guild, would be proud to receive. It has been a great privilege to be invited to host the Writers’ Guild Awards ceremony this year, when once again we honour some truly inspirational writing talent.”

WGGB President Olivia Hetreed said; “The range and quality of talent represented this year has been awe-inspiring and our winners are outstanding in their fields. With the always-inventive and challenging playwright Caryl Churchill taking our highest award it's especially good to see there are plenty of Top Girls writing today (9 female winners over 15 awards). We are hugely grateful to our sponsors, ALCS, the BBC, ITV, Silver Reel, Lionsgate, Company Pictures and Nick Hern Books for helping us to foster the best of British writing, as they all do in their everyday work.”

Other award presenters included Daisy Goodwin, April De Angelis, Helen Lederer, Mata Haggis, Howard Read, Charlie Hardwick, Tony Grisoni, Lisa Evans, Natalie Cutler, Jack Docherty, Brenda Gilhooly and Stefan Booth.

The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is the lead sponsor of the 2018 Writers’ Guild Awards. Other sponsors are BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide, ITV, Company Pictures, Nick Hern Books, Silver Reel and Lionsgate.

A full list of winners is shown below.

CATEGORY AND PRESENTER

WINNERS

Outstanding Contribution to Writing
Presenter: Lucy Kirkwood
Won by Caryl Churchill

Best Radio Drama
Presenter: Nicholas McInerney
The Things We Never Said by Ming Ho

Best Radio Comedy
Presenter: Helen Lederer
Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy ‘A Day In October’ by Sarah Kendall

Best Online Comedy
Presenter: Jack Docherty
Showreel for One Word or Less Parts by Marek Larwood

Best Long Running TV Series
Presenter: Natalie Cutler
Holby City, Series 19, Episode 2 ‘Rocket Man’ by Peter Mattessi

Best Writing in a Video Game
Presenter: Mata Haggis
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice by Tameem Antoniades and Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe

Best Children’s TV Episode
Presenter: Howard Read
Counterfeit Cat: Room of Panic by Tim Bain

Best Long Form TV Drama
Presenter: Stefan Booth
Taboo by Chips Hardy, Steven Knight, Ben Hervey, Emily Ballou

Best First Novel
Presenter: Daisy Goodwin
The Bureau of Second Chances by Sheena Kalayil

Best First Screenplay
Presenter: Tony Grisoni
Under the Shadow by Babak Anvari

Best Play for Young Audiences
Presenter: Lisa Evans
How to Be a Kid by Sarah McDonald-Hughes

Best Play
Presenter: April De Angelis
The Children by Lucy Kirkwood

Best Screenplay
Presenter: Robert Harling
Miss Sloane by Jonathan Perera

Best TV Situation Comedy
Presenter: Brenda Gilhooly
Inside No. 9 ‘The Bill’ by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton

Best Short Form TV Drama
Presenter: Charlie Hardwick
The Witness for the Prosecution by Sarah Phelps

The runners-up are given in the shortlists below.

The Writers’ Guild Awards 2018 were sponsored by The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) as lead sponsor. Other sponsors were?BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide, ITV, Company Pictures, Nick Hern Books, Silver Reel and Lionsgate. The Writers’ Guild Awards, which launched in 1961, give professional writers from across Great Britain the opportunity to honour their peers, and celebrate the importance of writing to the creative industries, both nationally and abroad. They also recognise the importance of the Guild’s work in preserving freedom of speech. The 2018 Awards eligibility criteria was work broadcast, performed or released between 1 September 2016 and 29 September 2017. Full info about the awards, including a short history plus full archive of previous winners, can be found at: http://writersguild.org.uk/category/awards/

SHORTLISTS

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has announced the shortlist for its annual awards, to be presented on Monday 15 January 2018 at the Royal College of Physicians in central London.

WGGB President Olivia Hetreed said: "I am enormously pleased and proud of the Writers' Guild Award shortlists announced today. They represent the best of British writing by the best writers across the full range of dramatic and comic writing. And they are all selected by working writers in their own field. It is that judgement by your peers that makes these Awards unique and uniquely special to the winners."

The shortlist in 14 categories is shown below. In addition, a special award for outstanding contribution to writing is presented at the ceremony each year.

Best Radio Drama
Romance Is Dead (Ben Lewis),
The Things We Never Said (Ming Ho),
Blood, Sex and Money by Emile Zola, Season 3, Money "Reap" (Lavinia Murray)

Best Radio Comedy
Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy "A Day In October" (Sarah Kendall),
John Finnemore's Double Acts, Series 2, Episode 4 "Penguin Diplomacy" (John Finnemore),
Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Series 3, Episode 1 "Tarquin and the Tiny Studio" (Kevin Eldon, Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris)

Best Long Form TV Drama
Bang, Episode 1 (Roger Williams),
Line of Duty, Series 4 (Jed Mercurio),
Taboo (Chips Hardy, Steven Knight, Ben Hervey and Emily Ballou)

Best Short Form TV Drama
Three Girls (Nicole Taylor),
Waiting for Andre (Neil Forsyth),
The Witness for the Prosecution (Sarah Phelps)

Best Long Running TV Series
Coronation Street, Episode 9251 (Damon Alexis-Rochefort),
Emmerdale, Episode 7699 "Inside the Mind of Dementia" (Maxine Alderton),
Holby City, Series 19, Episode 2 "Rocket Man" (Peter Mattessi)

Best TV Situation Comedy
This Country (Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper),
Back (Simon Blackwell),
Inside No. 9 "The Bill" (Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith)

Best Children's TV Episode
Counterfeit Cat "Room of Panic" (Tim Bain),
Counterfeit Cat "Sardonians of the Galaxy" (Ciaran Murtagh and Andrew Jones),
The Worst Witch "The Mists of Time" (Nick Leather)

Best Writing in a Video Game
Battlefield 1 (Steven Hall, Zachary Betka, Mark Bristol, Matt Gibbs, Justin Villiers, Andrew Robertshaw and Steven Bigras),
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Tameem Antoniades),
Subsurface Circular (Mike Bithell)

Best Screenplay
Miss Sloane (Jonathan Perera),
Their Finest (Gaby Chiappe),
The Olive Tree (Paul Laverty)

Best First Screenplay
God's Own Country (Francis Lee),
Jawbone (Johnny Harris),
Under the Shadow (Babak Anvari)

Best Play
Barber Shop Chronicles (Inua Ellams),
The Children (Lucy Kirkwood),
The Ferryman (Jez Butterworth)

Best Play for Young Audiences
How To Be A Kid (Sarah McDonald-Hughes),
The Host (Nessah Muthy),
The Messenger (Mike Kenny)

Best First Novel
Towards Mellbreak (Marie Elsa-Bragg),
Montpelier Parade (Karl Geary),
The Bureau of Second Chances (Sheena Kalayil)

Best Online Comedy
Showreel for One Word or Less Parts (Marek Larwood),
Meet the city boys secretly voting for Corbyn! (Gabriel Bisset-Smith),
A Hard Brexit (Barney Fishwick and Will Hislop)

Sponsors: The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is the lead sponsor of the Writers' Guild Awards this year. Our other sponsors are the BBC, ITV, Company Pictures, and Nick Hern Books. Many thanks to all of them.

information supplied by Sarah Woodley, Writers' Guild - many thanks.

ND

PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE RADIO DRAMA/COMEDY AWARDS:

BEST RADIO DRAMA
2016 Fat Little Thing by Lucy Gannon
2015 Quill by Tony Jones
2014 A Night Visitor, by Stephanie Jacob
2013 Tennyson and Edison, by David Pownall
2012 Pandemic, by John Dryden (Indie, Goldhawk)
2011 Troll, by Ed Harris

BEST RADIO COMEDY
2016 Double Acts – Series 1, Episode 5, “English for Pony Lovers” by John Finnemore
2015 White Rolls The Dice, by Deborah Frances.
2014 The Brig Society, by Marcus Brigstocke
2013 Susan Calman Is Convicted, by Susan Calman
2012 I, Regress, by Matt Berry
2011 Cabin Pressure, by John Finnemore

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