Writers' Guild Awards 2008 – call for nominations

It is now time to send in your nominations for the Writers' Guild Awards 2008. All members of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain are entitled to nominate in all categories - so don't miss this opportunity to put forward those plays, programmes, productions, prose and game scripts that have really grabbed you over the past year.

The award categories are as follows:

• Best Short-form Drama (TV)*
• Best Soap (TV)**
• Best Drama Series (TV)
• Best Comedy / Light Entertainment Series (TV)
• Best Screenplay (Feature Film)
• Best Radio Play
• Best Play (Theatre)
• Best Play for Children and Young People (Theatre)
• Best Videogame Script
• Outstanding Contribution to Children's Writing
  

* Short-form drama is defined as being broadcast in a maximum of three parts.

** Soaps are defined as high volume long-running TV drama series with more than one new episode broadcast per week.

Please note: for the purpose of clarification as regards the television categories, Best Short-form Drama and Best Drama Series may include adaptations.

There will also be a Best Book Award, for which submissions will be sought from publishers. For more information about this award and how it’s run, see below.

Please note: all awards will be given to the writer(s), not the production as a whole, so please make your nominations based on the quality of the writing not the standard of production.
Eligibility

Nominated writer(s) must be British or work in Britain. Eligible programmes / plays / games etc. must have been first released, published, performed or broadcast during the period 1 June 2007 - 31 May 2008 inclusive.

If you have any questions about this, please contact the Guild office.

If you would like to nominate in any or all of the above categories, please email erik@writersguild.org.uk and quote your Guild membership number. Please make it clear which writers you are nominating in which categories.

Nominations may also be submitted via post to the Guild office. Please address nominations to 'Writers' Guild Award nominations', Writers' Guild of Great Britain, 15-17 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JN

The deadline for nominations is Monday 14thJuly 2008 and the shortlist will be announced on Friday 19th September 2008.

The shortlists and winners in each category will be chosen by the relevant Guild Craft Committee or an appropriate jury appointed by the Guild's Executive Council.

There will also be a Lifetime Achievement Award which will be awarded to a Guild member by the Executive Council.

BBC Trust approves increase in network TV production in the nations

From the BBC Trust:

The BBC Trust has approved plans that should lead to a significant combined increase in network television production across the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Trust agreed that in future the BBC should adopt more challenging targets for measuring and meeting its targets for network production in the nations by using Ofcom's definition instead of the existing BBC one.

Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story

I missed Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story (written by Amanda Coe and starring Julie Walters) last night but in The Guardian, Nancy Banks Smith sings the drama's praises and reflects on a bygone era.

It opened with Mrs Whitehouse cycling to church past picture-postcard cottages and whitewashed picket fences (oblivious to the occasional wife with a black eye). The background music was a jaunty version of "Ma's out, Pa's out. Let's talk rude. Pee, po, belly, bum, drawers." We might have had better luck with that one in the Eurovision Song Contest. She was 50 and looked as if she should be advertising Fairy soap, but she would soon meet the tsunami of the 60s head on.

Hugh Carleton Greene was a journalist who had reported the German invasion of Poland to the sleeping Poles and had seen all he ever intended to see of censorship. He was director general of the BBC throughout the 60s, arching over the decade like a great greenhouse. Under his beneficent protection, fresh talent flowered extravagantly: Till Death, Z Cars, the Wednesday Play and That Was the Week, which was modelled at his suggestion on pre-Nazi cabarets. They stopped the world. On certain nights the nation swarmed home like bees to the hive and, next day on the bus, buzzed of nothing else. I felt then, and have not felt since, that television really mattered.

Web companies target copyright

In The Register, Andrew Orlowski looks at why the failure of the much-hyped web 2.0 to make money means that companies are trying to roll-back copyright protection.

As it happens, I'm in favour of copyright reform too - but it's predicated on gathering more money for creators, not propping up serial business failures .... So the next time you hear the ritualistic whining about the trouble copyright holders cause plucky internet startups, remember who really needs who.

Richard Crane on The Quiz

On the Guild website, Richard Crane writes about his new play, The Quiz, and his inspiration, Dostoyevsky.

The pure light that glowed for the writing of The Quiz was a naked flame. It was the first play I’d written for 13 years and I felt any moment the flame might fizzle out and I’d left in utter dark darkness. But it was also a signal that I wanted to write the most singular, simple and concentrated of shows. And also the cheapest.

David Bradley in The Quiz by Richard Crane

Kureishi attacks writing courses

From Charlotte Higgins in The Guardian:

The celebrated novelist, screenwriter and playwright Hanif Kureishi has launched a withering attack on university creative writing courses, calling them "the new mental hospitals".

Kureishi, himself a research associate on the creative writing course at Kingston University in London said, "One of the things you notice is that when you switch on the television and a student has gone mad with a machine gun on a campus in America, it's always a writing student.

"The writing courses, particularly when they have the word 'creative' in them, are the new mental hospitals. But the people are very nice."

This was at the Hay Festival. Sounds like a fun session.

The author also said that when he goes to his desk each morning to commence writing, he thinks to himself: "Why am I doing this? Shall I commit suicide."

Lowell Peterson is new WGAE Exec Director

The Writers Guild Of America East has announced that Lowell Peterson has replaced Mona Mangan as Executive Director.

Lowell comes to us from the firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, where he has been a partner since 1995, specializing in all aspects of labor law practice. He has extensive union experience, including work with the AFL-CIO, UAW, Communications Workers of America, NABET, and Laborers, among others. Representing laid off workers in the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies, he won tens of millions of dollars in severance pay, and in many other cases he has defended unions from attacks on organizing and other activities and successfully litigated against employers for evading contract obligations.

Lowell succeeds Mona Mangan, who has retired after many years with the Guild. The officers and council are very excited about his arrival. He's a strong union man with a keen interest in and commitment to our membership as well as a vision and mandate to help our union grow in new directions, building on our successful strike and the solidarity it helped us achieve.

Comedy College winners announced

The BBC have announced the winning writers for their Comedy College development programme. Micheál Jacob explains all on the Writersroom blog.

I suppose the most frequently asked questions are - why them, what makes them special, and what was the process.

To deal with process first, the assessment worked as an inverse pyramid, starting off with two of us, extending to a further two, and culminating in a panel of six people - including me - voting for the writers they felt impressed most. The writers with most votes were interviewed by me, Kate Rowland from the writersroom, and senior colleagues from the comedy department. Of the chosen six, I had previously met only one in a writing context.

As to the why them question, the answer is quite hard to put into words. Walter Pater, the 19th century aesthete, wrote that all art aspires to the condition of music. For me, good writing sings, and what was common to the all the work of the final six was the fact that they sang, not just to me but to people with quite diverse comedy tastes and backgrounds. Some were Martha Wainwright, some were Mahler, but they were all funny, accessible and felt like only those writers could have written them.

Michael Frayn interview

In The Times, Benedict Nightingale talks to Michael Frayn about his new play, Afterlife, that opens at the National Theatre next month.

The subject this time is Max Reinhardt, the pioneering theatre producer who also renovated the Baroque palace in Salzberg where movers and shakers now meet to debate world affairs and, bizarrely, much of The Sound of Music was shot. Afterlife itself doesn't open until June 10, but Frayn has just published his intro to the play in a collection of theatre essays called Stage Directions; and there he cites descriptions galore of Reinhardt. He was convivial, withdrawn, bountiful, hypersensitive, courageous, fearful, quarrelsome, kindly, indecisive, bold, the Jew who refused Hitler's offer of rebirth as an Aryan - and, as all this and more, a worthy Frayn protagonist.

Writing for romance

On the Guild website, Naomi MacDonald reports on the Writers' Guild and DACS getting together for an evening of romance. T

here was a real mixture of work showcased: hilarious, racy, honest, reflective, serious and touching - and obviously, romantic - in equal measure. There were songs, monologues, a script plus a very brave and hilarious account of Lauren Kemp's attempts to persuade one of her ex-boyfriends' new girlfriends to read her piece at the event. There were a lot of laughs and some really tender moments.

Just to add an extra element of fun (and risk!) to the evening, all attendees were given a badge with the name of a famous 'arty' person, or character from literature, and instructed to match up with their 'other half'. The Princess and The Pea found each other, as did Pat and Frank Butcher, Gilbert and George, Francis Bacon and John Edwards.

The sexism of Rowling-bashing

In The Guardian, Bidisha says that the latest round of attacks on J.K. Rowling are motivated by an unwillingness to accept that women can write serious "speculative fiction".

Readers who rave about the scope of Lord of the Rings, in which a club of white men flee (a) a big burning vagina and (b) some black guys in hoods, are simply unaware of the awesome complexity of Katharine Kerr's Deverry sequence of Celtic fantasy novels. They hail William Gibson's prescience, oblivious to Marge Piercy's prophetic sci-fi masterpieces Body of Glass and Woman on the Edge of Time and Liz Williams's intelligent, knotty novels like Darkland.

Speculative fiction - whether that is historical epic, space psychodrama or telepathic warrior quest - has always been about infinite possibilities. Why is it so hard to imagine a world which acknowledges the importance, multitude and sheer brilliance of its women writers?

Neil LaBute interview

In The Independent, Rhoda Koenig talks to Neil LaBute about his play, Fat Pig, which has just opened in London.

LaBute, 46, seems comfortable in his skin. He has the fluent speech, affable manner, and underlying firmness of someone good at his former occupation, teaching. The geniality cracks only when I say later, that it will be hard for me to ask my next question without being insulting. "Then don't," he says. It's a command, not a suggestion. I ask it anyway.

In the preface to Fat Pig, LaBute writes that he once lost 60 pounds, only to turn into a "preening fool" who spent his time exercising rather than writing. The anxiety that motivated his overeating – as well as his writing – had disappeared. "I'm not saying creativity is entirely linked to personal unhappiness, but..." LaBute waves away the idea that he has to be unhappy or angry to write. "I live peacefully and manufacture the anger."

BBC apology for defamatory Waking The Dead

From Tara Conlan for Media Guardian:

The BBC has apologised on air and agreed to pay legal costs over an allegedly defamatory episode of BBC1 forensic drama Waking the Dead.

A recent storyline in the hit show featured a villain who had a similar name and background to a former Guards officer, now security boss, Jonathan Garratt.

The episode of Waking the Dead, Duty and Honour, broadcast three weeks ago on BBC1, revolved around a corrupt former Guards officer called John Garret who helped set up security firm Apx Solutions – a company which specialised in working in Iraq.

As well as the Waking the Dead character having a similar sounding name and background to him, Garratt's firm Erinys is one of a just a few British security companies working out in Iraq.

Rupert Graves as the fictional John Garret in Waking The Dead (photo: BBC)

Moffat to take over from Davies at Doctor Who

Russell T. Davies, the man who reinvented Saturday night TV as lead writer on Doctor Who, is stepping down from the role, says the BBC. He will be replaced by Steven Moffat who, as well as creating comedy series Coupling and writing the screenplay for the upcoming Tintin film, has also written several award-winning episodes of Doctor Who.

Davies will work on four more Doctor Who specials to be broadcast next year, before Moffat takes over for the next series in 2010.

Steven Moffat says: "My entire career has been a Secret Plan to get this job. I applied before but I got knocked back 'cos the BBC wanted someone else. Also I was seven.

"Anyway, I'm glad the BBC has finally seen the light, and it's a huge honour to be following Russell into the best - and the toughest - job in television. I say toughest 'cos Russell's at my window right now, pointing and laughing."

Lead Writer and Executive Producer Russell T Davies says: "It's been a delight and an honour working with Steven, and I can't wait to see where his extraordinary imagination takes the Doctor. Best of all, I get to be a viewer again, watching on a Saturday night!"

Jane Tranter, Controller, BBC Fiction, says: "Scripts and writers are at the heart of what BBC Drama is all about, and especially at the heart of Doctor Who. The past four series have been brilliantly helmed by the spectacularly talented Russell T Davies.

"As Lead Writer and Executive Producer, he has overseen the creative direction and detail of the 21st century relaunch of Doctor Who and we are delighted to have his continued presence on the specials over the next 18 months."

Book launch 2.0

A YouTube video that's actually funny... (Thanks to Brantley via PersonaNonData)

Faintheart at Edinburgh

It's been announced that Faintheart, written by Guild member David Lemon, will premiere on the closing night of the Edinburgh Film Festival on 28 June.

As David says on his blog, it's great news - although a shame that the idea that the film was essentially written by MySpace users seems to be taking hold.

The truth, as David explained in an article for the Guild, is slightly different. The film was written and well developed before it won the £1 million MySpace competition.

I must admit that when we won I became worried that the interactive element would mean people I never met being allowed to change the story out of recognition. I felt that with all the extra producers now on board, I’d have more than enough script notes to be dealing with without some 16-year-old from Arkansas e-mailing me to say “U suk and so duz ur script”.

Fortunately, I was allowed to suggest the scenes which would be made open to MySpace, so the changes suggested were of the genuinely helpful dialogue polish variety rather than the sort of radical structural change that gives writers ulcers.

Harry Thompson Comedy Bursary

From the BBC Writersroom:

BBC Radio Comedy is offering a unique opportunity for talented people to train in all areas of comedy production during a one-year bursary named after (producer) Harry (Thompson).

Successful applicants will be given the opportunity to make their own programme ideas happen and work on a range of existing comedy programmes, with the potential to reach millions of listeners.

Full details are on the BBC Jobs website.

Silver Sony for Wyatt

Congratulations to Guild member Stephen Wyatt whose Radio 4 drama Memorials To The Missing won a Silver at last week's Sony Awards. The judges described it as:

"Powerful, moving, informative and uplifting were just some of the adjectives used to describe this beautifully assured production. The various strands of the drama were masterfully woven together, forming an utterly original treatment of an unjustly-neglected aspect of Remembrance Day."

Commenting on the Award, Stephen said:

"I'm pleased that the Sony Awards still find a place to celebrate the many achievements of radio drama. It's also good news for writers that the Sony UK Station of the Year was Radio 4. "

The Gold Award for drama went to Q & A written by Ayeesha Menon.

Amazon power could be good for authors

On Forbes.com, Sramana Mitra argues that Amazon's move into publishing (which has been criticised as heavy-handed) could help authors by cutting out the middlemen of agents and publishers.

Amazon is poised to revolutionize the book printing business through vertical integration. Let’s look at the numbers. Assuming that Amazon already pockets 50% of the retail price of a book, it could directly engage with authors and cut out the middlemen: the agent and the publisher. That would free up 30% to 40% of the pie, which can easily be split between Amazon and the author.

Let’s say, in the new world, Amazon becomes the retailer, marketer, publisher and agent combined and takes 65% of the revenues, offering 35% to the author--we end up with a much better, fairer world.

BBC drama debate continues

Following the post-BAFTA Awards criticism of BBC TV's drama output, producer Robert Cooper adds his voice to the debate in The Guardian.

There is much fine drama on the BBC. To make popular series and serials that are consistently enjoyed and appreciated by a big audience is a huge challenge. Such shows play an important role in the schedules of a public service broadcaster. But they should not be made at the expense of the kind of drama that only a public service broadcaster can nurture and fund - thought-provoking and challenging fiction that doesn't fit easily into a popular schedule precisely because it expresses a personal vision - drama that might not appeal to 7 million people but which is just as valuable for speaking so strongly to 1 million.

The reason for the much diminished opportunities for such authored drama results from a decision made around seven years ago. Mainstream BBC drama was failing to attract large audiences and ITV was cleaning up in the ratings war. So money that had been used to fund "difficult" dramas on BBC2 was moved across to fund popular drama on BBC1. Within its own terms, the policy was judged to be a success. BBC popular drama flourished and the main executive responsible - Jane Tranter - now enjoys a very special position.