BBC Writers Feed

Blue Lights Series 2

2024-04-12T09:22:12+00:00

We spoke to writers Bronágh Taggart and Noel McCann about their experience in the writers' room and writing their own episodes of the new series of the Belfast-set police drama, Blue Lights.

Watch Blue Lights on BBC iPlayer and BBC One from Monday 15th April

Watch the trailer for Blue Lights Series 2 - A year after the events of series one, Grace, Annie, and Tommy face a whole new set of challenges, as rival gangs fight for control in Belfast.

Can you outline your writing career to date?

Bronágh: I started out as an actor and still am an actor, that was my gateway into writing. I moved from Belfast to London for acting and then when I was over there, I decided to enter the BAFTA Rocliffe writing competition and ended up getting selected for that. When you’re selected you get to do a performance piece and industry people come along. Luckily BBC Northern Ireland were over for it, and they were putting together a team for a new show called 6 Degrees. That led to me going onto the writing team. It started from there really. After that I wrote on lots of CBBC and other children's dramas before I made the leap into more grown-up drama. The two areas work exactly the same, it’s just for a different audience. That experience gave me so much, I got to write so many scripts. I think that’s the only way to really polish your skills – by writing as much as possible.

Noel: My journey into writing is a bit random in that my previous career was as a police officer. I’ve always loved storytelling, but I was just writing for myself, almost as self-care, it was cathartic. I never imagined that anyone else would ever read it. Then it came to the stage that I had a finished script and I wondered if it was any good. The only person who I knew in the industry was Declan Lawn (one of the creators of Blue Lights). He agreed to read the script and reacted to it really positively. That gave me the confidence to take it out, so I contacted Northern Ireland Screen who gave me the name of local producers. I contacted Element Pictures who agreed to read it and took it into development and then out to broadcasters. It was literally the first thing that I’d ever written, which was just crazy! From that I ended up getting an agent. The script was taken to the BBC and Tommy Bulfin (who was commissioner there at the time) said “we love this, but we’ve committed to a cop show in Northern Ireland already” which turned out to be Blue Lights! That’s something which happens a lot – there will be something else similar on the development slate. I was disappointed at the time but now I’m pleased that’s the way it worked out.

Stevie Neil (MARTIN McCANN), Grace Ellis (SIÂN BROOKE), Annie Conlon (KATHERINE DEVLIN), Tommy Foster (NATHAN BRANIFF) in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television/Todd Antony Photographer: Todd Antony)

Have you been involved with any of the writer development groups or opportunities offered by BBC Writers?

Bronágh: I’ve done development residentials in the past when you were known as BBC Writersroom. I remember one of them was when I was writing for a teenage audience. I’d just had a baby and remember it was bliss because I actually got some sleep! It was great just to be mingling with other writers and it did lead onto some work.

Noel: I was on the BBC Writers Pilot scheme. It was genuinely brilliant, the best scheme that I’ve done. I got teamed up with a mentor called Emma Frost, this legendary showrunner who also has a foothold in America. It was meant to be a professional mentor scheme but she’s just my mate now. We’re chatting all the time and the advice that she’s given me is unbelievable. She’s put me forward for jobs which have come off. The actual group of writers who were involved in Pilot and being part of that peer group was also great. It’s just lovely being in a group chat and being able to run things past each other. I’m not from the industry, outside of work I’m not involved with people from the industry, so forming that friendship group and being able to ask questions is just so helpful.

Annie Conlon (KATHERINE DEVLIN) and Shane Bradley (FRANK BLAKE) in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

How did you become involved with Blue Lights?

Bronágh: I was already working with the production company, Two Cities, when the first series was happening. Stephen Wright, the joint CEO there, gave me my first writing job on 6 Degrees. I was very pregnant when the first series came around and couldn’t also swing getting into the writers’ room, but they said “if it comes back we’ll give you a shout”. I met Dec (Declan Lawn) and he read a spec’ script of mine. Then I was asked into the writers’ room for series 2 with the showrunners Dec, Adam (Patterson) and Noel.

Noel: For me, because Dec had read my police script and I had that USP of having actually done the job, I was brought on board when series 1 was commissioned. I was involved in creating most of the characters and using my experience in shaping the storylines.

Grace Ellis (SIÂN BROOKE) and Stevie Neil (MARTIN McCANN) in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

Why do you think the show has resonated with so many people?

Bronágh: I think it’s because it very, very cleanly explained aspects of Northern Ireland that people could never get their heads around. I lived in London for 10 years and people were always asking me to explain Northern Ireland, explain Belfast, to explain certain political aspects. People are fascinated by it and there’s only so much you can try and explain when you’re working in a coffee shop to your co-workers who are from Madrid or the north in England. Blue Lights came out and I think people just went "Oh I understand it more now – the layout of the city, the different communities, the trust issues, the differences in the police service". That’s a really hard thing to achieve.

Noel: Blue Lights was character-driven from the start. I remember from day one of the writers’ room that was the plan. On the surface it’s about the police but really, you’re getting to know the characters because they’re thrown into these incredible situations. How they deal with those situations tells you so much about who they are. I think through the fact it’s a police drama you get to know them very quickly and their personality traits – you really get behind them.

For me the best thing about Blue Lights is that it’s unashamedly localised. I think people buy into that. My favourite TV shows are ones that are totally of the place and don’t apologise for it in any way, shape, or form.

Tommy Foster (NATHAN BRANIFF), Annie Conlon (KATHERINE DEVLIN) in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

How does the writers’ room process work?

Bronágh: Dec and Adam come in with a very clear view of what the overall arc is going to be – the crime story which is always the driving force. That’s not to say that it doesn’t morph and change as time goes on. Within that overall arc we’re free to feed in in terms of guest stories that will come in and out and we do a lot of talking, breaking down our main family of characters and what we’re going to do with them.

Sandra Cliff (ANDI OSHO) in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

At the end of the writers’ room process what do you leave with?

Bronágh: A document, photographs of scribbles on whiteboards, sheets going down the walls! Sarah our script editor writes everything up at the end of every day and streamlines it for us. As you can imagine, we’ll be on one episode and then the conversation jumps down the line to another. Sarah has the job of trying to put it all into order so that when we’re reading it over afterwards it’s more organised. I still don’t know how she does that! You leave with a sense of what each episode is – I know this because we walked out with a sense of episodes 1, 2 ,4, 5 and 6 but not so much episode 3 – and I was like ‘great that’s my episode!’ but that was just because we hadn’t cracked it yet in the room, but we cracked it later.

Blue Lights Series 2 - Behind the scenes (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

How does it work writing your own episode within the series?

Bronágh: You have an idea of the overall arc of the series, something will stand out with every episode, so you know what that episode is. Your A storyline – in terms of what incident your characters are called out to on the streets in that episode (for example) is still up for grabs and you get to bring that to the table and decide what you would like to do with the main characters within your episode – while keeping an eye on how it falls in the whole thing. That bit is really satisfying.

Noel: We knew from the beginning that Adam and Dec would write the beginning and end of the series, so we knew that episodes 3 and 4 were up for grabs. There’s a big storyline for which the crescendo happens in episode 4. That storyline was inspired by my real-life experience, so I agreed with Bronágh that I’d take episode 4. But before this point all four of us together with the producers had come up with the entire series and knew pretty much what was going to fall into each episode. Once the writers’ room stage is finished it’s about Bronágh and me going off and writing our outlines of what our individual episode are going to look like. Then after that we’ll all work on it together, agreeing and moving stuff around. The script editors are also involved at this stage. Once we get the sign off then it’s off to write the full script.

Annie Conlon (KATHERINE DEVLIN) Behind-The-Scenes in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

What are you most proud of about your episode?

Noel: For series 2 I campaigned to have a character who is a cop who’s a bit of a rascal and we’ve got him in a new character called Shane (Frank Blake). I’m proud that in the first draft of my episode, how I’d written him resulted in him being re-written in earlier episodes to get him to that point. Without giving any spoilers there’s a scene that I refer to as the Harry Potter scene – that’s where Shane comes to the fore – that’s what I’m most proud of.

Bronágh: In my episode I got to pitch a big emotional storyline. Everybody calls it the ‘tearjerker’. I got to write for Stevie (Martin McCann), who I just love as a character, and I got to delve deeper with him and into his past – through the job and his relationship with Grace (Sian Brooke). I think it takes things in a slightly different direction.

Lee Thompson (SEAMUS O’HARA) in Blue Lights Series 2 (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

Why do you think people should watch Blue Lights?

Bronágh: I think it does that thing where it swings a lens onto another area of Belfast – which is such a complicated city. The show is doing this amazing thing of taking an aspect of the city and trying to interrogate it a bit. As Adam and Dec interrogate it the audience get to learn about the inner workings of this place. It can still baffle you – as it still baffles a lot of us who live here, but I think they’re just going deeper and deeper and through this world of policing you get to see so many other walks of life in Northern Ireland. Adam and Dec are journalists, and they know how to do this stuff. It feels great to be in the hands of people who are really good at that.

Blue Lights Series 2 - Behind the Scenes (Credit: BBC/Two Cities Television Photographer: Christopher Barr)

What’s the best piece of career advice that you’ve been given about writing?

Noel: I did a writing course with Philip Shelley and he gave out his top ten tips. Number one was ‘Don’t be an a***hole’ – and I’ve never had any other piece of advice which has surpassed that! Because it’s all about relationships. If people enjoy working with you they are going to come back to work with you again.

Bronágh: For me the best piece was from Sarah Stack. She said, ‘Just get it done’. I’d written a first draft and brought it to her with all the typical insecure writer caveats of ‘it’s really rubbish, it’s really bad, I could do another draft etc etc’ and she just took it from me and said, ‘You got it done. That’s the difference between people who want to write and people who write. We can’t collaborate with anyone unless you have something. We can talk all day about ideas (and a lot of the job is doing just that), but at the end of the day we’re going to need a script.’

As soon as you have a script you’ve something to work from, something to polish and to improve. Just get it done!

Watch Blue Lights Series 2 on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Monday 15th April

Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award - Winner Announced

2022-07-22T11:10:36+00:00

We are delighted to announce Aislinn Clarke as the winner of the Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award.

Aislinn’s idea was selected from an extremely competitive shortlist of four writers who each received a paid treatment commission to develop an original series idea with Mammoth Screen. Aislinn will now be given a paid commission to develop her treatment idea into a pilot script.

The scheme was run by Mammoth Screen in partnership with BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Commissioning to search for the most exciting writers with a strong connection to Northern Ireland to develop bold, original drama and comedy-drama television series for BBC network broadcast.

Mammoth Screen commented :

“We hoped when we launched this Award with BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Commissioning that we would find some really great writing talent, and we couldn’t be more impressed by the incredible talent of everyone who applied. Our four shortlisted writers all brought an original voice and very different perspectives on contemporary Northern Ireland. We faced a very difficult choice in selecting only one to take to script. Aislinn’s pitch won us over with its strong vision and compelling set up, and its dissection of the sunshine and shade of small town Northern Ireland. We are delighted to be working with Aislinn and can’t wait to get started.”

BBC Writersroom commented:

“The Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award has undoubtedly highlighted the brilliant range of both writing talent and stories that speak to the variety and diversity of life in Northern Ireland today. We are delighted to congratulate Aislinn on her success and can’t wait to see how her idea develops.”

Aislinn Clarke said:

“Having long been a fan of Mammoth’s exciting takes on classic Agatha Christie stories I’m delighted to be writing a Mammoth mystery of my own, set right here in Northern Ireland.”

Aislinn Clarke

Aislinn Clarke is a Northern Irish writer/director. Her debut feature film, THE DEVIL’S DOORWAY, was released internationally by IFC in cinemas and streaming following a series of nominations and awards at major genre festivals (Sitges, Frightfest, etc) in 2018. In 2019 Aislinn was awarded the Academy of Motion Pictures Gold Fellowship for Women. She is currently show-running 6-part original domestic thriller series BLACK NORTH for ZDF (Germany) with Kindle (UK) Rocliffe (UK) and Underground Films (Ireland). Aislinn is in development with original TV series HYSTERIA headed by producers of THE TERROR. She is also currently writing feature films for Disney (US), Rumble (US), and Protagonist Pictures (UK), and Blinder Films (Ireland), Aislinn is represented as a writer and director by CAA in the US and Dench Arnold in the UK.

View the Shortlist for the Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award

Element Pictures NI Writers Award - Winner Announced

2022-06-30T08:55:27+00:00

We are delighted to announce Matthew McDevitt as the winner of the Element Pictures NI Writers Award. Matthew will now be given a paid commission to develop his treatment idea into a pilot script.

Matthew’s idea was selected from an extremely competitive shortlist of four writers/writing partnerships who received a paid treatment commission to develop an original series idea with Element Pictures.

The Award was run by Element Pictures (Normal People, Conversations with Friends, The Favourite) in partnership with BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Commissioning to uncover stories that haven’t yet been told about Northern Ireland: the emotionally powerful, thought-provoking, inspiring, celebratory, relevant or surprising narratives that reflect the variety and diversity of life in Northern Ireland today – and can also speak to a global audience.

Element Pictures commented:

"Element Pictures were thrilled to partner with BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Commissioning for this exciting initiative. The standard of work was extremely high and proved what we always knew- that Northern Ireland is brimming with distinctive and exciting writing talent. This made the decision almost impossible, but Matt’s final pitch felt fresh and colourful, and his characters leapt off the page from the outset. We can’t wait to get started."

BBC Writersroom said:

“It’s been incredibly exciting to see such a brilliant range of inspiring ideas and stories reflecting and commenting on life in contemporary Northern Ireland. The BBC Writersroom team have been fortunate to work with Matthew McDevitt across both our Belfast Voices and Drama Room programmes and are delighted to see his success in what was an extremely competitive process.”

Matthew McDevitt said:

"It's an absolute privilege to get to work on a project with Element, who've made some of my favourite Films and Television of recent years. I can't wait to get started."

Matthew McDevitt

Matthew McDevitt is a Derry based native who participated in the BBC Writersroom’s 2020 Drama Room scheme. His first BBC commission was a radio comedy-drama, Lock In, starring Conleth Hill, which was broadcast on Radio Ulster and Radio Scotland in 2018. Matthew has also contributed material to all three seasons of Soft Border Patrol, on BBC NI.

Matthew was previously selected for the Belfast Voices writer development scheme.

His other works include, The Greasy Apple, a music mockumentary for Resonance FM; the script for the 3D Installation Talking Heads - as part of his hometown's acclaimed Halloween Festival; and the satirical game-show, Let's Get Quizzical which featured in Bob Slayer's, 'Heroes of the Fringe' and Belfast Comedy Festival 2016 and 2017.

His short story Handy Number (listen on BBC Sounds) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021 and performed by Tara Lynne O’Neill. Matthew has recently been commissioned for a half hour comedy pilot entitled Softboiled.

Matthew is represented by Stevie Grace Jackson at Independent Talent.

Read Matthew McDevitt's recent guest blog post for BBC Writersroom, WRITING TODAY - Space to Write

View the Shortlist for the Element Pictures NI Writers Award

View the Longlist for the Element Pictures NI Writers Award

If you would like further information about any of the writers, please feel free to contact writersroom@bbc.co.uk or their agent.

Element Pictures NI Writers Award - Shortlist Announced

2022-03-16T10:45:27+00:00

We are delighted to announce the 4 writers/writing partnerships shortlisted for the Element Pictures NI Writers Award.

Selected from an extremely competitive field, each writer/writing partnership will now receive a paid treatment commission to develop an original series idea with Element Pictures, and one treatment will subsequently be selected to be developed to a full pilot script.

This scheme is run by Element Pictures (Normal People, The Favourite) in partnership with BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Commissioning to uncover stories that haven’t yet been told about Northern Ireland: the emotionally powerful, thought-provoking, inspiring, celebratory, relevant or surprising narratives that reflect the variety and diversity of life there today – and can also speak to a global audience.

If you would like further information about any of the writers, please feel free to contact writersroom@bbc.co.uk or their agent.

The four selected writers/writing partnerships are:

Nicola Cassidy
Paul Skillen and Aaron Gray
Matthew McDevitt
Michael John O'Neill

Find out more about each of them below.

Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen

Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen

Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen have co-written a number of award winning short films. 'THE WAY BACK' (2015) and 'ECHOES' (2018) successfully played international festivals, winning awards, and were subsequently broadcast in the UK and USA. Their longer form work includes 'DINOSAURS' (2016), a pre-apocalyptic television pilot broadcast in Ireland, and eco-horror 'BELOW' which is in development with a major UK production company. An audio series based on BELOW is due for release early 2022. GRAVEYARD SHIFT, their project that has been selected for the Element Pictures NI Writers Award, is a noir thriller set in the world of social media content moderators.

The writers also have a number of feature films projects are various stages of development. Their folk horror 'MAIDENSANDS', has been optioned by an American production company and they are exploring opportunities for their sci-fi feature 'THE SILENCE'.

Paul and Aaron also develop their own projects. Paul has written for BBC Radio, BBC Bitesize and his short film THE MUSIC TEACHER is currently in preproduction. Aaron has a wealth of experience in developing television factual content and also has writing credits on BBC Radio. They are both represented by Sayle Screen. https://saylescreen.com/

Michael O'Neill

Michael O’Neill

Michael John O’Neill is a Northern Irish playwright, dramaturg and theatre producer based in Scotland. In 2019 Michael became the inaugural recipient of the Bruntwood Prize’s Original New Voice Award for his play AKEDAH. In 2020 his short monologue SORE AFRAID was produced as a digital project by the National Theatre of Scotland, the Citizens Theatre, and BBC Scotland. In 2021 his play THIS IS PARADISE had a short run at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won the Popcorn Writing Award. He is developing new plays with the National Theatre of Scotland (as Writer on Attachment), Hampstead Theatre (as Writer on Attachment) and Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland (as winner of their New Playwrights’ Award). Michael is currently under commission with the Almeida Theatre as one of the six ‘Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays’ writers for 2021/22. His work as a theatre producer includes as Artistic Producer of the Tron Theatre (2014-2020), where he commissioned and produced such work as Isobel McArthur’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE* (*SORT OF) which, after its life at the Tron, went on to have a large-scale UK tour 2019-2020 and transferred to the West End in Autumn 2021.

Nicola Cassidy

Nicola Cassidy

Nicola Cassidy is a screenwriter and author from Co. Louth, Ireland.

In 2021 her crime drama pitch was selected from over 500 entries as a winner of the Stellify Media / Sony Pictures All Ireland Screenwriting Prize and was optioned for television.

Her short film ‘Chop’ was named a finalist in the Austin Comedy Film Festival 2021 and she was a finalist in the Dublin International Screenwriting Festival pitching to producers competition.

She was named Meath writer-in-residence in 2020 and was a finalist in the Wexford Literary Festival in 2017, with her play produced for stage.

She has published three historical fiction novels, the latest of which tells the forgotten story of Fred Astaire’s sister, Adele. She has recently completed her fourth novel, based on the true story of a young Jewish refugee’s journey to Ireland in 1939.

She holds a BA in Journalism and previously worked as a political press officer and marketing professional in engineering, hospitality and legal services.

Nicola Cassidy is represented by WME for screen projects.

Matthew McDevitt

Matthew McDevitt

Matthew McDevitt is a Derry based native who participated in the BBC Writersroom’s 2020 Drama Room scheme. His first BBC commission was a radio comedy-drama, Lock In, starring Conleth Hill, which was broadcast on Radio Ulster and Radio Scotland in 2018. Matthew has also contributed material to all three seasons of Soft Border Patrol, on BBC NI.

Matthew was previously selected for the Belfast Voices writer development scheme.

His short story Handy Number was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021 and performed by Tara Lynne O’Neill. Matthew has recently been commissioned for a half hour comedy pilot entitled Softboiled.

See the Longlist for the Element Pictures NI Writers Award

Matthew McDevitt recently wrote a guest blog post for BBC Writersroom: WRITING TODAY - Space to Write

Michael John O'Neill won the Popcorn Writing Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2021 - Entries for 2022 (in partnership with BBC Writersroom) are open until 24th June

Element Pictures NI Writers Award 2021 - Longlist Announced

2021-12-01T10:00:00+00:00

Element Pictures (Normal People, The Favourite) and BBC Writersroom Northern Ireland joined forces over Summer 2021 to find the next generation of television writers with bold and original stories to tell.

We were looking for stories that haven’t yet been told about Northern Ireland: the emotionally powerful, thought-provoking, inspiring, celebratory, relevant or surprising narratives that reflect the variety and diversity of life in Northern Ireland today – and also speak to a global audience.

Due to the number and impressive quality of scripts received, it proved a challenge to narrow down the entries from such a competitive field.

Nine writers or writing partnerships have now been longlisted to attend a one-day workshop on 20th December 2021. They will meet with the Element and BBC Writersroom NI teams, and will be given individual feedback in order to develop their original pitch ideas.

Four ideas will then be commissioned to treatment by Element Pictures, and from these a pilot script will be commissioned from one writer or writing partnership.

The longlisted writers are:

Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen

Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen

The writers also have a number of feature films projects in various stages of development. Their folk horror 'MAIDENSANDS', has been optioned by an American production company and they are exploring opportunities for their sci-fi feature 'THE SILENCE'.

Jon Smith

Jon Smith

Over the past decade Jon Smith has developed a wide-ranging slate of features, shorts and TV series, from thrillers to comedies, in places as local as Port Rush and Liverpool, and as far flung as Vietnam, Ghana, Kenya and Tunisia. This reflects his international lived experiences and desire to collaborate with other writers and tell fresh stories from around the world. His short film Beyond The Bridge premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival in 2016.

His work has regularly placed in top script competitions, including Nicholls, Rocliffe, C21, Screencraft and PAGE (Bronze winner, historical, for YEAR ZERO, a two-hander thriller set during the Khmer Rouge evacuation of Phnom Penh in 1975.)

Jon has lived, worked and written in South Korea, USA, Egypt and, most recently, Spain and currently lives near Liverpool. Published internationally by McGraw-Hill and Hay House, he is the best-selling author of 14 books and the writer of four musicals which have been performed at the Belfast Waterfront, Birmingham Hippodrome and London’s Waterloo East, Courtyard and Park Theatres.

Michael O'Neill

Michael John O’Neill

Laura Canavan-Hayes

Laura Canavan-Hayes

Laura left her first career in finance to pursue her love of writing and performing. After graduating from the Gaiety in 2011, she co-wrote and co-produced a stage play ‘The End of the Line’, which toured Ireland and the Edinburgh fringe.

Short films and an online comedy sketch series followed. In 2016, she was chosen for the inaugural long form TV drama writing programme 'Big Stories on the small screen' (www.bigstories.ie), a 3-month mentorship programme and intensive writers' room with David Isaacs (Cheers, Frasier, Mad Men).

The resulting pilot 'Trade-off', based on her experiences as a banker, was optioned by Grand Pictures, with Lisa Mulcahy attached to direct. She was signed by Independent Talent in December 2016.

Since then, Laura has cut her teeth in the world of soap, storylining 16 episodes of 'Fair City' (RTÉ 2018-2019) and on a Screen Ireland funded feature film re-write commission with Michael Zam (FEUD).

Currently, she is adapting 'Mamie Cadden: Backstreet Abortionist' by Ray Kavanagh into a biopic feature, and is also a consultant producer on a stunning American short ‘For Paloma’.

Laura is delighted to be a finalist for this incredible award.

Des Kennedy

Des Kennedy

Des Kennedy has a background in theatre directing. He is the director of the hit stage musical Good Vibrations (adapted from the film of the same name) which premiered at the Lyric Theatre Belfast and will transfer to New York next year. He is also the International Associate Director on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End, Broadway, Melbourne, San Francisco, Hamburg, Toronto, Tokyo).

Last year he directed his first short film The Girl at the Window by Lisa McGee as part of BBCNI and Lyric Theatre Belfast’s Splendid Isolation project.

In January this year he wrote his first TV pilot during lockdown. He now has an an original series in development with Playground Entertainment, he is a finalist for the Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award, and he is working as a story consultant on a new drama by Lisa McGee and Tobias Beer for Kudos.

Oonagh Kearney

Oonagh Kearney

Oonagh Kearney is an IFTA-nominated, award-winning filmmaker with a passion for telling wild, authentic stories, encompassing the unknown and extraordinary, and often led by female characters at emotional and ethical crossroads. Oonagh's latest short film FIVE LETTERS TO THE STRANGER WHO WILL DISSECT MY BRAIN won Best Irish Director at the 2018 Cork Int’l Film Festival, Best Irish Short and Discovery Award at the 2019 Dublin Int’l Film Festival and the 2019 Zebbie Award for Best Short Screenplay.

Oonagh has feature scripts in development with Screen Ireland and The Arts Council, and a TV series in early development with RTE. As a director, Oonagh recently worked as second unit director to Dearbhla Walsh on an Apple TV Series and is attached to an Irish language feature film and TV series set in the West of Ireland.

For further information www.tyrellapictures.com or contact Jasmine Daines Pilgrem at Lisa Richards Creatives.

PJ Hart

PJ Hart

PJ Hart is a writer, producer and father of two from North Belfast. Whether it’s comedy, science fiction or thriller, PJ’s writing celebrates the unique culture and humour of Belfast, without shying away from the many issues its people have and continue to face. Having worked his way up from props trainee to producer in Belfast’s busy production sector, his lifelong ambition is to bring local, homegrown stories to the world stage.

As a writer, he received production funding from NI Screen for his short film Kill Me Now, which was broadcast on RTE in 2015, and development funding for his feature script Sirius, which was performed as a rehearsed reading hosted by the BFI.

His recent writing work includes Soft Border Patrol for BBCNI, the upcoming Mimi’s World for Channel 5 Milkshake! and The Boundary, an original one hour radio drama for Louth Meath FM. His TV drama pilot Eat The Rich also played in competition at Seriesfest 2020 and was featured in the Best of Seriesfest series broadcast globally on ShortsTV.

Nicola Cassidy

Nicola Cassidy

Nicola Cassidy is a screenwriter and author from Co. Louth, Ireland.

In 2021 her crime drama pitch was selected from over 500 entries as a winner of the Stellify Media / Sony Pictures All Ireland Screenwriting Prize and was optioned for television.

Her short film ‘Chop’ was named a finalist in the Austin Comedy Film Festival 2021 and she was a finalist in the Dublin International Screenwriting Festival pitching to producers competition.

She was named Meath writer-in-residence in 2020 and was a finalist in the Wexford Literary Festival in 2017, with her play produced for stage.

She holds a BA in Journalism and previously worked as a political press officer and marketing professional in engineering, hospitality and legal services.

Matthew McDevitt

Matthew Mc Devitt

Matthew Mc Devitt is a Derry based native, recently selected for the BBC’s 2020 Drama Room scheme. His first BBC commission was a radio comedy-drama, Lock In, starring Conleth Hill, which was broadcast on Radio Ulster and Radio Scotland in 2018. Matthew has also contributed material to all three seasons of Soft Border Patrol, on BBC NI.

Matthew was previously selected for the Belfast Voices writer development scheme.

His short story Handy Number was broadcast on Radio 4 in February 2021 and performed by Tara Lynne O’Neill. Matthew has recently been commissioned for a half hour comedy pilot entitled Softboiled.

Zodiak Kids Writers' Award - The Inside Scoop

2021-09-02T13:00:00+00:00

A group of strangers trying to develop two original children’s TV show ideas from scratch over WhatsApp and Zoom because they’re not allowed to leave the house. On the surface, it sounds like some kind of bizarre social experiment that would fail to get ethical approval. And yet, this has been the reality that has faced my fellow writers and I participating on the Zodiak Kids Writers' Award Scheme this past 8-9 months.

However, to give you the full flavour of what we’ve been getting up to, I’ll need to go right back to September 2019…
That was when I submitted my application to the competition, a joint-project between Zodiak Kids and BBC Writersroom NI. The brief was to write a script for a live-action, contemporary children’s comedy set in Northern Ireland, that had the potential to be developed into a series for CBBC.

As a newcomer to comedy writing – I had only ever written one script prior to this, a sitcom pilot that was swiftly rejected from the BBC Writersroom's Comedy Script window a few months earlier – I’ll be the first to admit that the idea of writing for children’s television was one that had never crossed my mind.

Nonetheless, an opportunity is an opportunity, so I quickly threw together a script about an underdog schoolgirl rugby team, submitted it, then sat back awaiting my rejection email. Two months later the email arrived, but curiously, it was congratulating me on making the shortlist and inviting me to a two-day workshop in January.

In the interim, I was also invited to participate in a workshop with Zodiak Kids to help brainstorm ideas for a children’s drama series that would be set in an integrated school in Northern Ireland – my first ever paid work as a writer, go me! And if ever I needed an introduction to the tight deadlines writers can sometimes face, this was the perfect example.

Following our brainstorming session on the Tuesday, I flew out to Vilnius for a Christmas getaway on Wednesday. I then spent the first two days of my trip sightseeing during the day and working on a two-page pitch in the evenings, that I then submitted on Thursday night to meet the Friday deadline we’d been set – incidentally, the worst cover version of Craig David’s 7 Days you’ll ever read.

Roll on the workshop in January, and the imposter syndrome set in almost immediately. Admittedly, it didn’t help that when we went round the table introducing ourselves everyone was talking about the various television and theatre projects they’d worked on previously and the best I could offer was “I work full-time as a statistician for the government”.

Thankfully though, things picked up from there and after an intense couple of days learning about writing for children’s TV, listening to some of Zodiak’s current writers talking about their experiences and getting to have some invaluable one-to-one conversations with the Zodiak producers about our show ideas, we were sent away to work on our final submissions (a 10-page sample and 2-page pitch).

Skip forward to June and, much to my surprise, I found out that I had been accepted onto the scheme alongside three brilliantly talented and hilarious writers in Andrew Parkhill (Soft Border Patrol), Eoin Cleland (Ups and Downs) and Louise Nesbitt (The Break) – cue the imposter syndrome again! However, in a Covid-induced change to plans, we would no longer be working individually on our previously pitched ideas, but we would instead be teaming up to work together on two projects.

The first of these projects would be to further develop the school-based series that had been worked on in the aforementioned brainstorming workshop. Or at least, that’s what we thought coming into our first Zoom call with Zodiak Kids Producer Raymond Lau (The Lodge, Millie Inbetween, Flatmates). Such is the fast paced, ever changing nature of children’s television, we were quickly told this idea was being scrapped and we would instead be coming up with our own show from scratch.

Nonetheless, all of us had come into this first meeting armed with a handful of characters to pitch for the school show and because Zodiak encouraged us to use a character-first approach throughout the scheme, this put us in a really strong starting position. Indeed, many of the characters that ended up in our final pitch were first introduced during this meeting.

When coming up with our new show idea, the key thing was that it had to be rooted in Northern Ireland, with characters and stories that are very much about here, but that would have universal appeal. Apart from that we were pretty much given free rein to brainstorm ideas. Let the fun begin!

After a week or two of brainstorming ideas, a large majority of which were along the lines of “it’s Babysitter’s Club, but instead of babysitting they pet-sit/do chores/create pension plans for mid-sized businesses”, we finally settled on doing a fish out of water story about a group of city kids forced to spend their weekends on a farm.

This would allow us to pitch a show to CBBC that kids in rural areas could identify with and would also provide the distinctly Northern Irish setting and tone that we wanted for our show. Specifically, we decided to set our show on a social farm, a farm that uses traditional farming as a form of physical and psychological therapy for the people in society who need it most. We thought that this would be the perfect setting to bring together the diverse group of characters we wanted in our show to give an accurate representation of modern-day Northern Ireland.

With our setting picked and our character development well underway, we would spend the next month or so developing our characters further and deciding what stories we wanted to tell. We combined it all into a pitch document that was sent back and forth with producer Ray, with his feedback acting almost as a crash-course in developing the perfect pitch.
When we were all satisfied with our pitch, Ray presented it to Zodiak’s Creative Director Steven Andrew, and that’s when things got a bit weird for a couple of weeks…

Although he liked our pitch, Steven requested that we experiment with how the show might look if it was a teen-drama instead. So, over the next couple of weeks, our sweet, innocent kids went through puberty at an alarming rate, becoming a bunch of sexually active, drug-addled smugglers living on the Irish border. Kids really do grow up too fast these days!

As fun and interesting as working on this different approach was, it would only prove to be a brief detour. After a few weeks, we decided unanimously that we all felt stronger about our original concept and so we got into our time machine, went back to the days when our characters were still kids and started trying to come up with a pilot script for this version.

It was at this point we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Louise, who left the scheme due to other commitments. As if to play into the stereotype that everyone in Northern Ireland knows each other, Louise would be replaced on the scheme by my former schoolmate, the wonderfully funny and talented Sarah Gordon (Splendid Isolation).

With us back up to our full complement we ploughed on with outlines, scene by scenes and (eventually) the pilot script itself, getting a re-education in some writing basics like A, B & C plots along the way. At first glance, four writers working on a single script probably seems like a case of “too many cooks”, however it worked surprisingly well and there was no arguing that the resulting pilot script benefited from using this approach.

And just when we were satisfied with our pilot script, the fast paced, ever changing nature of children’s television would come back to bite us again. We got word, via a virtual commissioning briefing our producer Ray had attended, that CBBC had outlined the key things they wanted included in any future live-action comedy/drama pitches. The big thing that stood out for our farm show, was that they want more adventure elements in their future shows.

So, after another few weeks of rewrites, and the addition of a B-plot where the kids find a mysterious cave on the farm, we finally got our final pilot script and pitch document completed and these were submitted formally by Zodiak to the CBBC commissioning team.

With our first project finally completed several months later than scheduled and with Sarah now having to leave the scheme early too, it was decided that we wouldn’t go into as much depth in terms of our second project. Nonetheless, we still managed to create a very solid pitch document, and each come up with a handful of hilarious action-packed sample scenes for a live-action adventure comedy series based on Irish mythology. This project remains in development, with Zodiak also intending to start pitching it around in the near future.

And so, the scheme has now come to an end. I’m just glad it’s coincided nicely with the lifting of lockdown restrictions otherwise I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with all this free time I suddenly have. Overall, it was a fantastic scheme to be involved in and I’ll always be eternally grateful to Zodiak for giving me this opportunity and to my fellow writers on the scheme for being so much fun to work alongside.

If I had one piece of advice for new writers, it’s that you should apply for anything and everything, because you never know where you’ll get your first opportunity – certainly I didn’t expect mine to come writing for children’s television!

Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award 2021 - Shortlist Announced

2021-07-05T10:42:48+00:00

We are delighted to announce the four writers shortlisted for the Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award 2021. Selected from over 135 submissions, each writer will now receive a paid treatment commission to develop an original series idea with Mammoth Screen, and one writer will subsequently be selected for a pilot script commission.

This scheme is run by Mammoth Screen in partnership with BBC Writersroom and BBC Drama Commissioning to search for the most exciting writers with a strong connection to Northern Ireland to develop bold, original drama and comedy-drama television series for BBC network broadcast.

If you would like further information about any of the writers, please feel free to contact writersroom@bbc.co.uk or their agent.

The four selected writers are:

Aislinn Clarke
Des Kennedy
Bronagh Fegan
Phil Mulryne

Find out more about each of them below.

Aislinn Clarke

Aislinn Clarke is an award-winning writer and director from both sides of the Irish border. An Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Gold Fellowship winner, her debut feature was released internationally in 2018 following a run of nominations and wins at major international genre and film festivals. Aislinn currently has multiple feature film and TV projects in development with studios and independent producers in the U.K. and Los Angeles, including Disney and Hulu. She lectures at Queen's University, Belfast and lives in Whitehead, Northern Ireland.

Des Kennedy

Des Kennedy has a background in theatre directing. He is the International Associate Director on ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ (West End, Broadway, Melbourne, San Francisco and Hamburg). Other credits include directing the world premiere of Good Vibrations at the Lyric Theatre Belfast.

Last year he directed his first short film The Girl at the Window by Lisa McGee as part of BBCNI/Lyric Theatre Belfast’s Splendid Isolation programme.

He wrote his first TV pilot during lockdown in January and now has an original series in development with Playground Entertainment, and is working as a story consultant on House of Kells a new drama by Lisa McGee and Tobias Beer for Kudos Film and TV.

Bronagh Fegan

Bronagh Fegan is a short fiction writer from Warrenpoint, currently based in London. Her work has featured in collections by Bloomsbury, and in literary magazines such as BRAND, Oh Comely and La Bouche. As a frequent performer and co-host with wordPLAY London, she has been involved with a number of charity spoken word events, including Pacifica/Poetry Parnassus at the Southbank Centre as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. She has written and produced short films including Cereal (2011) and Alope (2022), and her sitcom pilot Catching Up was produced by Hat Trick Productions for Audible in 2015.

Phil Mulryne

Phil Mulryne is a writer who was born and grew up in Belfast. He first trained as an actor before moving to work within TV drama development and as a script editor.

His writing credits include Holby City (BBC One), and his spec script Switches won the BAFTA Rocliffe TV Drama competition and was a finalist in the C21 Drama Series script competition and the Final Draft Big Break screenwriting contest. He was a founder member of the acclaimed comedy theatre group The Fitzrovia Radio Hour. He has written audio dramas for Big Finish Productions including on Doctor Who and ongoing horror series The Omega Factor, for which he was shortlisted for the BBC Audio Drama Awards.

Phil’s work as a script editor includes Flesh and Blood (Silverprint/ITV), Black Earth Rising (Drama Republic/BBC/Netflix), Doctor Foster (Drama Republic/BBC) and King Charles III (Drama Republic/BBC).

Splendid Isolation: "Just the Two of Us"

2020-06-25T09:00:00+00:00

Top row l-r: Abigail McGibbon in ‘Love Lockdown’, Anthony Boyle in ‘The Girl at the Window’, David Pearse in ‘Best Wishes’. Bottom row l-r: Stella McCusker in ’A Random Act of Kindness’, Sarah Gordon & Damian McCann in ‘Just the Two of Us’, Kerri Quinn in ‘Wake Cake’ (Image Credit: BBC NI)

I’ve just completed my first BBC commission and it goes out on TV (TV!!) tonight. The only person more excited than me is my Mum, who has already alerted most of the greater Belfast area. Splendid Isolation is a brilliant opportunity created by BBC Arts and the Lyric Theatre (and hugely appreciated by an out-of-work freelancer). I’m still not a hundred percent sure they didn’t ask me by accident.

I am a Belfast-based writer and director. I got married in February. In March, we went into lockdown, so the last four months have been like a very intense “honeymoon”, with dwindling toilet paper supplies and a killer virus outside. (So romantic. Exactly how I pictured it.)

In the first week of lockdown, with the bulk of my work cancelled and at a bit of a loss, I wrote a short mockumentary about a couple – Karen and Simon – now forced to work from home together. I persuaded my husband, Damian - (reluctant but resigned) - to film it with me in our tiny house. We called it Just the Two of Us.

Karen is desperate to keep her 'team' focused and find something productive to do. Husband Simon tires quickly of the novelty of working from home and throws himself into his hobbies. In the midst of a global pandemic, their biggest challenge is spending time together.

We put the film online, shared it on social media, and got a really positive response. Then I went back to panicking about having no work and feeling guilty for not being more productive.

A month later I got a call from Jimmy Fay, Artistic Director of Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, outlining a really exciting joint project with BBC Arts and BBC Arts NI to commission 6 short films about lockdown. They had seen our ‘Karen and Simon’ film and wanted us to make another one. I was so delighted to be asked (this would be my first BBC credit) – and thrilled to be included in the intimidating company of writers like Lisa McGee and David Ireland.

Sarah Gordon & Damian McCann feature in 'Just the Two of Us' (Image Credit: BBC NI)

I’d been thinking about possible Karen and Simon storylines in the previous few weeks - I felt there was lots more in the characters. Our friends had been calling to offer their own lockdown micro-dramas as plot points, and my real-life husband, Damian and I had been racking up a few of our own. (He’s a bit of a Karen. Sadly, that makes me Simon).

So I boxed up the unfinished thousand-piece jigsaw we’d been tripping over for a month, and wrote the script for Just the Two of Us in two days.

To avoid the restrictive filming regulations it made sense to shoot it ourselves, using the same techniques we used on our last film - Damian and I passing the camera back and forth, using sneaky editing to make it seem like we had a camera crew filming with us. This way we were able to develop the script as we shot, working out better lines and smarter visuals.

Behind the scenes of 'Just the Two of Us.' Making a short film isn't easy, particularly when you have to be your own crew…

Initially reluctant about appearing on TV in his pyjamas and a handlebar moustache, Damian gradually embraced the role of Simon and offered up a million great ideas. It was a really fun, collaborative project for a cúpla newlyweds.

We received fantastic support from the Lyric and the BBC – who patiently talked us through tech specs, lent us equipment, and coached us through an online transfer.

While I had heard the same advice repeated for years – “Just make it yourself - show them what you can do” – this was the first time I’d properly put that advice into practice, and now I only wish I’d done it years ago. I feel so lucky to be part of such a fantastic programme and can’t wait to see the other films.

Sarah Gordon & Damian McCann in ‘Just the Two of Us’ (Image Credit: BBC NI)

I was especially excited to be part of this partnership between BBC and Belfast’s Lyric Theatre because I already have a connection to each.

I have been writing for theatre since 2015 and have benefitted enormously from the support and mentorship of the Lyric’s New Playwrights programme; Prime Cut Productions’ Reveal project; and Pan Pan’s International Mentorship. My work has been performed in Belfast, Dublin, and New York. Two of my plays are currently being translated to Spanish.

In 2018 I was invited to join Belfast Voices – a writers development scheme run by BBC Writersroom. This fantastic programme of mentorship and support was pivotal for me in terms of learning and developing a new skillset (screenwriting, series structure, pitching, talking to grown-ups about tv).

I got the chance to develop a script with the wonderful Vanessa Haynes, (script-editor extraordinaire) who wholeheartedly nurtured me and my story. Working with Ness was a turning point for me and my writing is so much the better for it.

I’ve been applying to everything I can over the last two years, often gearing writing projects towards the opportunities available (writer schemes, development programmes, script competitions). Mixed results. Sometimes a swift rejection (so fun), sometimes I’d be lucky enough to reach a longlist or a shortlist. Followed by a swift rejection.

Though frustrating, this was all invaluable experience, helping me to become a better writer, and making sure that when the right opportunity came along I was ready for it. The skills I developed through Belfast Voices equipped me to understand what to do and how to do it.

It’s so brilliant that BBC Arts have found a way to support artists with these sorts of commissions during lockdown, especially when work has been cancelled and a lot of freelancers have fallen through the cracks of the Government support schemes.

We had a really positive sign-off Zoom call with the producers of the project, who were so supportive and trusting the whole way through the process. I feel really encouraged and excited about the future.

Splendid Isolation is on BBC Two NI on Thursday 25th June at 10pm and BBC Four on Tuesday 30th at 10.30pm and Wednesday 1st July at 11.20pm. (Don’t worry – my Mum will text everyone reminders).

Watch ‘Just the Two of Us’ from 10pm on Thursday 25th June

Meet the Belfast Voices 2020

2020-06-18T13:00:00+00:00

We are thrilled to announce the ten writers who will be participating in the Belfast Voices 2020 programme. Over the next year, these talented up-and-coming writers will attend monthly seminars hosted by top talent from across the industry. From Radio to Childrens, TV Drama to new story forms, the programme will focus on building skills and providing an insight into all areas of the BBC’s output. Our writers join the group from all over our small but diverse nation - the North Coast to Dublin, Derry/Londonderry to Belfast - and bring a wide range of experiences to bear on their passion for screenwriting.

This is the second time that the Belfast Voices programme has been run. With the help of our Belfast Voices programme, many of our inaugural group have gained representation and had work optioned and commissioned by independent production companies, and writing duo Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney have had their acclaimed series My Left Nut produced by Rollem Productions and broadcast on BBC Three.

If you would like further information about any of the writers, please feel free to contact writersroom@bbc.co.uk or their agent.

Emmet Colton

Emmet is a graduate of the Queen's University Belfast Film Studies course and has worked on drama productions such as Game of Thrones and Line of Duty as part of the video department. He has written for BBC Radio Ulster and BBC NI's Soft Border Patrol (which he was also worked as a camera operator). In 2019 he wrote and directed comedy short Open-Mic as part of Channel 4's Random Acts series. Emmet has shot stand-up comedy, written sketches for comedians throughout Northern Ireland and has just completed a short film called Give Me A Sign about roadside Christian evangelism. He is currently employed at Triplevision Productions, working mostly within documentary film.

Lucretia Devlin

Lucretia is an award winning writer from Northern Ireland. After graduating from Queen's University with a Film Studies degree, she spent the next 10 years cutting her teeth in the film and television industry, working on projects such as Game of Thrones, The Mummy and Thor: The Dark World, for high profile writers such as David Benioff, D.B Weiss, Jane Goldman and Craig Pearce. Lucretia currently resides in Belfast and is developing a diverse slate of television drama and feature film content. A history nerd, she's passionate about telling stories based on true events and complex characters.

Noel McCann

Noel is a screenwriter from North Antrim who has been writing for four years. He reached the interview stage for Script Room Drama 2019 and his drama Sleeping With My Shoes On was optioned by Element pictures. More recently, Element have commissioned a treatment for his Basque political thriller Hendaye. He has just finished writing his first feature Discoface, which is set in the Glens of Antrim.

Repped by: Jessica Cooper, Curtis Brown

Leo McGann

Leo is a playwright and screenwriter from Belfast. He began writing with Tinderbox Theatre Company as part of their Fireworks programme and was part of the Royal Court’s Young Writers and Studio groups in London. He graduated from Boston University with an MFA in Playwriting and his play The Honey Trap was produced at Boston Playwrights Theatre in 2017. He was awarded the National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Award in 2016 and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2018. He was a nominee for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and received a 2017-2018 BAFTA Los Angeles Scholarship. While in LA he worked in feature film development for the Kennedy/Marshall Company in Santa Monica. His plays have been performed in Belfast, Boston, Atlanta, Georgia, Omaha, Nebraska, and Washington DC. He has taught creative writing at Boston University.

Catherine McGrotty

Currently employed as a Children’s Librarian in Derry, Catherine has always been passionate about creating stories for children and young people. In 2014 she was trainee script editor on Puffin Rock series two. During 2020, she was selected by CBBC and Illuminated films as one of ten emerging writers, given the opportunity to write for Rocket Robbins – a new CBBC animation for children. Since joining the Belfast Voices group she has also written for ‘Quick Comedy’ a new sketch show due for broadcast on Radio Ulster this summer.

Mark McNally

Mark is a screenwriter based in Belfast, who graduated from Queen’s University with a Degree First in Film Studies. His feature screenplay In the Land of Saints and Sinners secured him a spot on N.I Screen’s New Writer Focus 2016/17 programme. It’s currently in-active development at Prodigal Films, with writer/director Terry Loane & actor/producer Geraldine Hughes. In 2020, he was a recipient of the Puttnam Scholarship by Future Screens NI. He co-wrote the dialogue for Merge Games’ Buildings Have Feelings Too, a video game released in April 2021. He has also written biographical literature, TV and film treatments for various production companies, including Fired Up Films and StarMan Productions. Last year he collaborated with both Creative Ireland & Flocking Arts, introducing young people to the world of writing and filmmaking. Additionally, Mark has practical, on-set experience, having worked as trainee Grip on BBC’s Doing Money, Derry Girls season two and the music video Being Honest for Post Party.

John Mulkeen

John is a writer and actor from Derry. He studied English Literature as a mature student at Ulster University and graduated in 2018. His short script Dopey was developed with BBC Writersroom and he is currently a part of the BBC Belfast Voices group 2020. His short story Oh Bend Your Backs! placed 2nd in the 2020 Fish Publishing short story competition and can be found in the Fish Anthology 2020. His work has been highly commended in the An Post Short Story award 2020 and longlisted for the 2020 Commonwealth Prize.

Neil Sharpson

Neil studied in University College Dublin where he was a member of UCD Dramsoc and honed his skills as a writer, winning the Dramsoc Award for Best Original Script and the Dramsoc Award for Outstanding Contribution to Original Writing. He is a graduate of the Abbey Theatre’s New Playwright’s Programme and has been commissioned by the Abbey twice. He was also shortlisted for the Maguire International Playwrighting Award in 2009. He writes for the Irish superhero comic, League of Volunteers and is the founder of the comedy review blog, Unshaved Mouse. His first novel, When the Sparrow Falls will be published by Tor/Macmillan in June 2021, with his second novel following in Summer 2022.

Repped by: Geoff Morley, United Talent Agency

Tara West

Tara West won an RTÉ Storyland commission for her short drama The Good Christian Women’s Writing Group, for which she was nominated for the Edinburgh TV Festival’s Debut Writer Award. She was a finalist in the LA-based TV writing competition Scriptapalooza for her spec script for US series Supernatural. Most recently, Tara worked on NI Screen-funded development for Belfast-based production companies Poli Productions and Afro-Mic, and received a short story commission from BBC Radio 4. She is the author of novels Fodder and Poets Are Eaten as a Delicacy in Japan, has short stories published in The Glass Shore and Female Lines, and her memoir of depression and recovery The Upside of Down was published in 2020. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Queen’s University Belfast and in a previous life, she was an award-winning advertising copywriter. Her hobbies include staring out the window and eating crisps.

Kat Woods

Kat Woods is a writer and director from Co. Fermanagh. Published with Samuel French. Kat is an Associate Artist at The Pleasance Theatre and Omnibus Theatre London. She is a Royal Court/Kudos TV Writers Group alumnus. Her work has been performed across the UK, Ireland, Finland and the USA. Awards include Peggy Ramsey Award, the Royal Literary Fund, The Stage Award for Excellence and The Fringe Review Award for Outstanding Theatre. Kat is currently under commission with the MAC, Tinderbox Theatre, Abbey Theatre and in development with Out of Orbit productions with her first TV series.

My Left Nut

2020-02-27T11:18:00+00:00

Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney are the writers of BBC Three's My Left Nut, their first project for the BBC, which was adapted from their award-winning stage play about friendship, family, grief and ... testicles. They were also part of our Belfast Voices writer development group. Michael and Oisín spoke to us to explain how My Left Nut was brought to the screen through an opportunity with Kay Mellor's Rollem Productions. BBC Three’s My Left Nut is available on BBC iPlayer from Sunday 1 March at 6am.

Conor (LEVI O'SULLIVAN), Tommy (OLIVER ANTHONY), Mick (NATHAN QUINN-O'RAWE), Patricia (SINEAD KEENAN) (Image Credit: BBC/Rollem Productions, Photographer: Christopher Barr)

You’re a writing partnership - have you always written together, how did that come about?

We originally met at university. Being Irish lads in an English University, you kind of gravitate towards each other. We actually ran the University Ireland Society together, which was great fun. We made some student theatre together - Michael acting and Oisín directing. Then when we graduated, we formed Pan Narrans Theatre back in Belfast and Oisín directed Mick in a number of plays. We didn’t start writing together until we wrote the initial stage play for My Left Nut, and we’ve continued writing ever since.

And how did you decide to write the My Left Nut stage play?

It came about through a programme called Show in a Bag, run by The Irish Theatre Institute, The Dublin Fringe Festival and Fishamble: The New Play Company. The idea is to take actors who have never written anything before through the process of writing their own one-person show. The deadline for applying was coming up and we met up in a pub to talk about ideas. Michael had a big list - alien abductions, the cultural history of the sandwich - but Oisín told him they were all terrible. Michael then began to reminisce about the time he had a giant testicle, and Oisín turned to him and said “write that play”. Michael had always wanted to write something about his father’s death as well - so combining the two seemed like a good way of exploring masculinity. We were accepted onto the programme and wrote the play together, Michael acting and Oisín directing.

How did you find that process? Writing that together?

It worked well! It wasn’t without its difficulties, but it felt like a nice extension of our previous working relationship. As we knew Michael would be performing it and Oisín directing, Michael would get up and perform and try things out as we were writing the script, while Oisín would make suggestions as we went along. It was all quite organic.

Conor (LEVI O'SULLIVAN), Tommy (OLIVER ANTHONY), Mick (NATHAN QUINN-O'RAWE) (Image Credit: BBC/Rollem Productions, Photographer: Steffan Hill)

So the play toured Ireland and went to Edinburgh - how did you come to develop it for television?

As part of the BBC Writersroom Belfast Voices development group, we were invited to attend workshops and found out about a number of opportunities, including an initiative with Rollem Productions, run by Kay Mellor OBE (Band of Gold, Playing the Field, Fat Friends, The Syndicate, In the Club). Following the success of Overshadowed by Eva O’Connor and Hildegard Ryan, they were looking for stories that would really resonate with young people. At this stage we had already premiered My Left Nut at the Dublin Fringe and begun our Irish tour, so we applied to the programme with an idea of adapting the play. We got through the first round, and Michael actually ended up doing a skype interview from the dressing room of the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire an hour before he had to go onstage and perform the play! The interview seemed to go well, but I remember Rollem asked for more examples of our writing… and I don’t think we really had anything other than My Left Nut. So we cobbled together a few various bits and pieces - scenes from half-written plays and short films - and thankfully Rollem still trusted us, or trusted the story, and agreed to work with us. This meant a 6 month development programme working under the mentorship of Kay Mellor as we developed our scripts and put together pitch documents.

And how did you find that?

It was a bit of an eye opener! We didn’t even own any paid-for script writing software at the time. A lot of our first drafts barely had any stage directions in them at all - so there were a lot of practical things like that which we learnt. The biggest learning curve was the episodic nature of the whole thing. With a stage play you have a fully captive audience - they can’t leave half way through (well… they can, but you’d like to hope they won’t). The biggest thing we struggled with was structuring it in such a way that people would finish one episode and immediately want to watch the next one. So we did have to rework the story a bit to get in those ‘hooks’ and ‘cliffhangers’.

How about dealing with script notes?

Script notes are part of the writing process. You have to remember that producers and commissioners will have a different perspective and are seeking content that is representative, and that they want to put their own stamp on. Taking notes is difficult, but we viewed it as someone experienced having a question or a concern. We would leave it 24 hours before tackling them, and tried to find a solution to any concerns. We received reams of notes and completed countless drafts, sometimes coming back to things we had in our very first draft. It was about trial and error, to create the right tone and style for BBC Three.

Are there many other differences from the play?

We’ve updated it to bring it into the modern day - the play is set when Mick was a teenager (early 2000s). The only thing we’ve really lost are some silly jokes about Bebo and MSN messenger - but we gain a lot more and it certainly feels more relevant. The big thing we added was an extra storyline of Mick’s girlfriend, Rachael. This was in an early draft of the play, but had to be cut for time reasons - so it was really nice to be able to thread that back in, when we had the ability to extend and develop the story. It’s also different in that the play is Michael performing his own story - so it’s very personal. Now that we had a young actor playing Mick, and other actors being cast as his family and friends, we had to step back from the real life story and understand that the TV show was different - it was ‘based on a true story’. It’s not quite as true to life as the play was, as we had to think about what was best for the story in TV format. But the heart and the message of the story is still absolutely true - which is what was important.

Rachael (JESSICA REYNOLDS), Mick (NATHAN QUINN-O'RAWE) (Image Credit: BBC/Rollem Productions, Photographer: Steffan Hill)

And what is the heart of the story?

It’s about negotiating life years after the death of a parent. It’s not about the immediate grief on their death, but what happens years later. The main relationship is a mother and son trying to deal with the difficulties of a young man growing up without a father to help. It also looks at male teenage friendships and how, under all the bravado, there can be a real tenderness and care. It’s also about balls.

And then it was commissioned - how was that process?

Exhilarating. Lots of meetings and possibilities and conversations - which was all great - but you’re always still thinking “this is probably not going to happen”. Then, suddenly, it does happen and everything moves so quickly. We still can’t believe it’s happening, and probably won’t really feel like it’s happened until we can actually see it on BBC iPlayer.

Were you involved in casting at all?

We weren’t, no. It was cast predominantly by Carla Stronge who is just amazing, and we knew she’d find brilliant people. What was lovely is that Michael got the chance to meet with Nathan Quinn O’Rawe (who plays him) and Sinead Keenan (playing his mother) to talk them through what actually happened in real life - but also telling them to bring their own spin to it. It’s not a documentary at the end of the day. Sinead also met with Michael’s mother and they had a good long chat about everything.

Patricia (SINEAD KEENAN), Mick (NATHAN QUINN-O'RAWE) (Image Credit: BBC/Rollem Productions, Photographer: Steffan Hill)

How was it writing about your friend’s experience, Oisín?

It was daunting. I understood that the basis of My Left Nut is some very personal and sad things that happened to Michael’s family - the passing of his father and his mother’s husband, and then the strain of dealing with a medical issue. I was humbled that Michael trusted me to co-write the play. I tried my best to be respectful of the subject matter, but also to bring some distance to the writing process - something I had done frequently in working as a documentary director. When it came to the TV series, we both understood we were creating something new, based on real experience but to be developed to create more drama. We knew we would be working with a bigger team, and would thus have less control, so we endeavoured to create the tightest scripts we could. We were delighted when we heard that Paul Gay (Vera, Skins, Desperate Romantics) would be directing.

And how does your mother feel about it all, Michael?

It took her a while to come round to it all. When I first read her the play she didn’t speak to me for a week. Mainly because the play had the stage direction “Mick masturbates” and she was absolutely mortified. But she eventually came round when she read it again a few times. In a way the piece is a thank you to her for always being there for me. But she’s very pleased with it all now, and how the play was received, and she absolutely loves Sinead - which is great.

Patricia (SINEAD KEENAN), Finn (ODHRAN CARLIN), Mick (NATHAN QUINN-O'RAWE) (Image Credit: BBC/Rollem Productions, Photographer: Steffan Hill)

What do you hope people take away from the piece?

If there’s any young lads watching - check your balls! Don’t be afraid to talk about it to friends or family. It might seem embarrassing, but it takes strength to talk about your issues. We hope people have a good laugh at it and find the drama compelling. We shot it all in Belfast with a local crew which was great for us as well. We hope people enjoy seeing Belfast on screen in a unique way.

BBC Three’s My Left Nut is available on BBC iPlayer from Sunday 1 March at 6am

Meet the Cast and Characters

The Break 4 on BBC Three - Meet the Writers

2019-09-09T09:00:00+00:00

The 4th Series of The Break, our returning strand of exciting contemporary drama shorts by writers new to broadcast, launches today on BBC Three. For this 4th series all the writers are from Northern Ireland.

Watch all five now on BBC iPlayer and find out more below, including meeting the writers and hearing from the Executive Producers about why it is so important to tell fresh stories and showcase the wealth of talent from Northern Ireland.

These five contemporary films about life in Northern Ireland gave our brilliant and dedicated emerging writers (Jan Carson, Karis Halsall, Louise Nesbitt, Seamus Collins and Emily DeDakis) the chance to tell stories and tackle vital real life issues affecting young people here and beyond.

Developing these heartfelt, universal tales that could only come from here was a treat, and helping our writers to paint their picture of a contemporary and relevant Northern Ireland was a welcome and refreshing change. We are among the best storytellers in the world and we have more than one story to tell, hopefully these ambitious, arresting and unique pieces can break through and show that to as wide an audience as possible.

Thanks so much for the writers and their dedication and invention, to BBC Studios and Artis Pictures for putting so much into making them, to NI Screen for their constant support and to BBC3 and Drama Commissioning for the opportunity.

Keith Martin – Producer, BBC Writersroom/ Executive Producer, The BREAK

This year's projects shone out with their empowering and unexpected points of view on provocative or sensitive subjects. As a modern showcase for Northern Irish talent and fresh Northern Irish stories, these films introduce audiences to unforgettable characters and contemporary stories, with universal themes. We strove hard to subvert and inspire and dare to dare. All the teams rose to the many challenges of making such ambitious stories on a low budget and the economies and focus to tell what was most vital in just six minutes. We all learned a huge amount along the way, on screen and off. The result we hope will be wonderfully unexpected to audiences, films that are revelatory in content and character. We congratulate all the teams for all their hard work and talents, which we had the privilege to support.

Kate Croft - Executive Producer, Artis Pictures

Karis Halsall - Writer: Clean

The subject matter in CLEAN is currently a very divisive topic in Northern Ireland. It’s also something I have direct personal experience of, so working on it brought both private and public challenges. That said, my first take away from this would be - write the thing that scares you. It can be incredibly cathartic and rewarding.

Right from the offset I knew I didn’t want another maudlin, stereotypical depiction of a ‘victim'. It was really important therefore that I showcased my central character Kerry’s humour, despite what’s happened to her. Being a ‘victim’ doesn’t define her. Her character does. Kerry to me personifies the whip-smart wit, warm nature, wicked humour and resilience that define the people of Northern Ireland.

Coming from a theatre background, writing a five minute piece for TV was a steep learning curve. Thanks to Keith and my brilliant script editor Hamish, I quickly learnt that less is definitely more. TV holds your audience in a confined, intimate, close up space. You don’t need to use lyrical writing that’ll impact people sat at the back of the Gods. It was a hard lesson in brevity!

The team at BBC Writersroom were so incredibly supportive throughout. I always felt safe, heard and championed, which was vital when making work about something so personal. They were always fighting for me and my story and I am so proud of what we created together. So often in the media, survivors are presented as nameless victims. It’s easy to dismiss a nameless victim and I’ve been surprised by the flippancy with how people have spoken about the issue. I hope in some small way, Kerry might make people re-evaluate their behaviour.

Watch CLEAN on BBC iPlayer

Louise Nesbitt - Writer: Hot Mess

HOT MESS is a comedy about dating while mentally ill. After reading that about how almost half of all young people in NI have experienced mental health issues it felt important to tell a story that wasn’t about being cured but about finding joy in living. I wanted to show a character with mental illness who was funny and likeable and loved, the antithesis of what we normally see on screen.

For me the script development was the most important part of the process. Finding out how much better the development can make a script has changed the way I write. I’ve found that now I’m considering so many more factors from the very first draft and asking myself essential questions about every aspect of a script. Overall it’s made my writing much more robust and reasoned allowing me to assess what’s really important about a story.

From being on set surrounded by people with copies of the script that I had written to seeing my work on screen, the scale of it was completely surreal.

I am so grateful for the support of the BBC Writersroom in trusting me to say something that I felt was necessary while also letting me really go all in with my Legally Blonde jokes.

Watch HOT MESS on BBC iPlayer

Emily DeDakis - Writer: Last Night in Belfast

You rarely think about how it began once you’ve seen how it ends.

This tiny love story set in my neighbourhood, North Belfast, started as pure homesickness for 24-hour diners in Washington, D.C. Then realising that the only all-night places in Belfast are staffed by one person behind bullet-proof glass. The oddity of someone else shopping for you in the middle of the night. Questions about desire — wanting what’s on the other side of the window. What happens when you have no control over whether you go or stay? Early in the drafts, I described it to one of the producers as ‘a cross between St Elmo’s Fire and a deportation letter my friend got from the Home Office’. Unrequited love can be for a place too.

This is my first go at TV, and I learned tonnes. I had amazing support from Hamish, Keith & Anna at BBC Writersroom and PJ, Kate & Steven the producers, not to mention the folks at the all-night petrol station next to my flat. Storytelling in this new-to-me way meant switching out all of my usual writing muscles (I’m mostly a prose person). Pitches and treatments became beat sheets and eventually scripts. Multiple drafts of all of the above. So many iterations of even something so small. Part of what I now love about writing TV are the many versions of this that exist for me as the writer: I remember the rejected titles, the things that were of course impossible to pull off in the shoot (songs, police vans, dogs, a sweeping shot of the Crumlin Road courthouse as Vivi sprints by), and what was added with Aidan’s and the whole creative team’s minds in the mix: the vintage sneakers, the headphones, the graffiti, and new emotional depth. I can enjoy how Vivi’s written lines lived and changed shape in Ana’s amazing voice. (It was her first time working in English. Total hero.) What I first imagined as kinda silly and cinematic became more polished, sweeter and darker — and yet also exactly what it started as, a tiny love story set in my adopted neighbourhood.

I’m really fortunate to be part of the BBC Writersroom development group in NI, Belfast Voices, which is where I heard about this opportunity. There are so many deserving voices here; please listen to these here in The Break series, and seek out more. If you’re a NI writer, start something, get it out there and stick with it. Through all the many drafts.

Watch LAST NIGHT IN BELFAST on BBC iPlayer

Jan Carson - Writer: Wings

The Break was my first experience of writing for television. I’ve written a number of pieces for BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3 and love radio so much I’d never really considered screen writing as an option.

I’ve always heard that writing for television is incredibly competitive and difficult to break into and so I’m incredibly grateful to the team behind The Break for giving me a really fantastic -and I think- authentic experience of what it’s like to work with producers, directors, actors and all the various creatives who worked together to bring my script to life.

I gained an incredible amount of insight into the world of screen writing through The Break. It was practical and hands on and there was always a team of more-experienced writers on hand to support me throughout the process. I learnt how to write more concisely, how to bring immediacy into my writing, how to take critique and direction, and above all, how to create within a team. I’m primarily a novelist and normally work by myself or with a single editor.

The opportunity to work alongside a large production team was a really invaluable creative experience for me and definitely something which I’d like to repeat in the future.

Watch WINGS on BBC iPlayer

Seamus Collins - Writer: Bin Bagged

I have always said* that my three favourite types of people are underdogs (like Frodo Baggins), people who aren’t afraid to stand up to authority (like Muhammad Ali) and people who swear a lot (like Gordon Ramsey.) Therefore, it’s unsurprising that my first idea for The Break series 4 was about a tiny, hairy-footed boxer/political activist who travelled around Middle Earth improving restaurants (while swearing a lot.)

Thankfully, my next idea was better. Chloe – a young girl in foster care who makes a huge mistake at school and desperately tries to get away with it (while swearing a lot.)

I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to work with and learn from the many wonderful script editors, producers and directors involved in this project. They all gave me such great advice and help (while swearing a lot.) As Chloe became more and more developed, I realised that I have a fourth favourite kind of person – people who are lost and in need of help.

This is what I wanted to capture with Bin Bagged. I hope I have done that (while swearing a lot.)

*I have literally never said this.

Watch BIN BAGGED on BBC iPlayer

WATCH ALL 5 EPISODES ON BBC IPLAYER

Find out more about Series 1, Series 2 & Series 3 of The Break

The Edinburgh Fringe - My Experience

2019-08-16T16:34:06+00:00

In the second of our series of blog posts from writers and performers at this year's Edinburgh Fringe we spoke to comedian (and member of our Belfast Voices development group) Mary Flanigan about why she is back for her third year and how to make the most of the experience.

Mary Flanigan

How many times have you taken part in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe? When were you first involved and why did you decide to do it?

This year was my third performing stand-up at the Fringe, this year for two weeks. Like a lot of stand-ups, I was drawn to the Fringe because performers I admired had done it, because performers I wanted to see were there, and because I wanted to talk about comedy until 5am in damp Edinburgh smoking areas.

What are the positives and negatives?

The things that drew me to the Fringe originally are still my favourite things about it – the community, the atmosphere, the bizarre acts you might never see at normal gigs but who are out there and who will make you radically rethink comedy. The negatives are the flipside – to be at the Fringe is to be constantly convinced all of your friends are having a better time at a cooler show without you, that you are always about to miss something that will somehow be The Thing To See. And of course, you have the running calculator in your head of how much every fun chaotic second is costing you.

What considerations do you have to make before taking it on?

The main consideration everyone makes is how much the Fringe costs (brochure registration, accommodation, print, transport) but I would recommend first-timers to also take time to unwind, decompress. Try not to be aware of whether other people are making money and focus on whether your show is the best it can be.

Do you make any money from it or is it more about profile?

For me the Fringe has been less a money-making enterprise and more a comedy training ground. If you push yourself, you can gig more than 10 times a day and each gig makes you better (yes, even the awful, waste of time gigs you do to one unsmiling bartender).

What has your experience been like this year?

I used to be so focused on getting to the Fringe I forgot to actually enjoy it while I was there. But this year I took time to watch more comedy and had an incredibly enriching time intellectually (while having an incredibly enpoor-ing time in all other respects). If you’re still at the Fringe, stop and smell the roses – the damp, smoky, really expensive roses.

Follow Mary on Twitter @ourladyofflan

Follow Mary on Instagram @mazflaz

Find out more about our Belfast Voices groups

BBC Writersroom NI - March 2019 Update

2019-03-22T17:00:00+00:00

The last six months have been a busy time in the BBC Writersroom Belfast office. Not only have we launched an opportunity for BBC Three, we have helped secure writers' commissions on a television series, a Radio Ulster sketch show, recommended writers to agents and producers, developed writers spec' scripts in Belfast Voices and appeared at several local festivals. Find out more about what has been happening in Belfast since our last blog post below.

The Break launched in Belfast

In early October, we were thrilled to announce the launch of The Break Series 4 in Northern Ireland. The submission window was opened at a special event in Belfast hosted by Tommy Bulfin (Commissioning Editor for Drama) and Anne Edyvean (Head of BBC Writersroom). The writers in attendance were given an insight into the scheme, how the series has evolved and the ambitions for Series 4. The lively discussion also included tips on what the reader will be looking for in your submission, what makes this part of the world special and what resonates with a BBC Three audience.

Interest in the scheme was incredibly high, with a significant increase in the number of submissions from Series 3. A workshop was held for twenty-one selected writers on 10th December when the writers learnt more about the series and how best to write short form for an online platform. From the pitches developed in the workshop, nine writers were selected to have their monologue scripts developed.

Early next month we will announce the five writers chosen to have their episodes filmed and broadcast on BBC Three later in the year.

Soft Border Patrol Series 2 Returned Featuring Top NI Comedy Talent

The Comedy Unit’s mockumentary series Soft Border Patrol was commissioned for a second series, and the BBC Writersroom was once again asked to assist with getting some of the best local comedy writing talent on board. So, in mid-summer, we invited a group of the writers to join us in a semi-darkened room for a top-secret workshop.

Hosted by Rab Christie (Executive Producer), Marie McDonald (Producer), Marc McElroy (Story Producer) and BBC Writersroom’s Keith Martin, the workshop took the writers through how the show was written. The writers learnt the type of stories that the show wanted, what worked best in Series 1 (and what didn’t) and explored each character on the show. During the session, writers were given an opportunity to speak one-on-one with one of the team to get feedback on some of their initial ideas.

A total of 18 writers were commissioned to provide material for Series 2. Five episodes were broadcast from mid-February on BBC One NI.

Find out more about Soft Border Patrol and watch on BBC iPlayer

Read Rab Christie's blog post about Soft Border Patrol Series 1

A Perforated Ulster

Returning for an eighth series, Tim McGarry, writer, comedian and member of The Hole in the Wall Gang offered an opportunity for emerging comedy writers to submit material for Radio Ulster’s A Perforated Ulster.

Tim presented a writers' workshop about writing topical sketch comedy for the radio and specifically for A Perforated Ulster. The writers were led through the development and production process for the show. Using examples from previous series, the writers learnt what length of sketch and subject matter works best on the show. Tim even shared some insider information on the regular characters.

The writers were given an opportunity to submit sketches and one-liners for each episode of the latest series. We are pleased to announce that five writers had material commissioned, with some gaining their first radio credit.

We would like to extend our thanks to The Hole in the Wall Gang and especially to Tim McGarry for the opportunity to be a part of the show.

Belfast Media Festival

BBC Writersroom presented two sessions at the Belfast Media Festival in November. Our first session ‘Writing that Sitcom’ was hosted by James Cary and aimed at giving new and emerging comedy writers the confidence to write their first sitcom. Using his experience on shows like My Family, My Hero, Citizen Khan, and Bluestone 42 (which he also created), James provided insight into how to create funny, unique characters and how to make them drive the comedic heart of the story, as well as the challenge of writing the pilot episode.

The second session on how to ‘Get your script submission-ready’ was hosted by BBC Writersroom’s Simon Nelson. Simon presented a practical and thought-provoking session to help writers get their scripts ready to submit to Drama Script Room. The pair covered the purpose of Script Room (our open submission script window) and what we are really looking for when reading your script, as well as the top tips on how to address problems in your story. The session wrapped up with a Q&A.

Foyle Film Festival

For the first time, BBC Writersroom was part of the Foyle Film Festival and presented a talk at the Shorts to Features conference day. Writer Stuart Drennan and Producer Christopher Myers spoke about the challenges of making the move from writing short films to features. Their talk was a practical guide for newer writers, covering the development process, getting notes and working with a producer.

Stuart’s debut feature The Dig was the winner of the Best Irish Feature at Galway Film Fleadh 2018 and a Discovery Award nominee for the British Independent Film Awards 2018.

Find out more about BBC Writersroom Northern Ireland

Our next open submission window (Script Room) will be open from 1st - 29th April 2019 for Comedy scripts.

Belfast Voices 2018/19

2018-08-28T23:00:00+00:00

We are pleased to announce the writers selected for the inaugural Belfast Voices development groups for Comedy and Drama. Sixteen writers were selected from the best emerging talent in Northern Ireland, with the majority of writers coming from a theatre background.

As part of our overall strategy to help nurture local talent, this programme will help some of our most innovative and exciting voices from theatre bridge the gap to writing for television and radio.

Over the next six months these writers will participate in workshops and training on writing for digital, radio and TV, as well as receive support with writing their first television spec script from Keith Martin and Vanessa Haynes.

Vanessa has working in script development for some of the most influential production companies in the UK including Kudos Film and TV, Baby Cow Productions, CPL (formerly Celador) and Talkback Thames. She has developed, produced and edited projects for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Comedy Central, BBC NI, TG4 and CBBC.

Comedy Group:

Seamus Collins
Seamus' play Away with the Fairies was staged as part of the Lyric Theatre's New Playwrights Programme in October 2017 and then in New York at the 1st Irish Festival in January 2018. He is currently attached to The Lyric as part of Fishamble's 'A Play for Ireland' scheme. At the end of May 2018, his bilingual play Monsieur Somebody was performed in Paris by Theatraverse. It also travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. He previously worked with the BBC on the Writersroom 10 scheme.

Patrick Dunlea
Patrick has contributed to BBC online comedy and had work performed at the Belfast Media Festival, Brian Friel Theatre (Belfast), Soho Theatre (London), Lost Theatre (London) and Brixton Market (London). His play The Dinner Party was selected to represent Northern Ireland at the 2018 View From Here Festival at Theatre 503 London. He is a graduate of writing programmes at Queen’s University Belfast and Goldsmiths College London.

Mary Flanigan
Mary Flanigan is a stand-up comedian and writer. Her comedy short Worst Halloween Ever was part of the Writersroom’s Fright Shorts series which was released on BBC iPlayer. Her work also featured in the Digital Cities Comedy Showcase at the Belfast Media Festival 2017.
Mary has performed across the UK and Ireland, including supporting Colin Murphy on tour and appearances in the Belfast Comedy Festival, the Vodafone Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe with her show Mary Flanigan is a Pisces, Obviously.
Mary was a semi-finalist in the Funny Women 2016 competition. She has performed and written for BBC Radio Ulster and is also a regular contributor to BBC NI Digital Tight Shorts.

Oisin Kearney
Oisín's background is in the study of Politics, and in directing documentaries and plays. Oisín adapted Willy Russell's Educating Rita for the Lyric stage in Belfast, and worked as writer on a community outreach project with Prime Cut Producitons. He co-wrote My Left Nut which has just completed its Irish tour and was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018. Oisín has begun his second play with writing partner Michael Patrick, as part of the 'A Play For Ireland' programme run by Fishamble: The New Play Company.

Dave Kinghan
Dave Kinghan has written for screen and stage. His work includes Costume Drama, one of six Fright Shorts that were available on BBC iPlayer in 2017; Gordon Osràm’s Funeral, an immersive theatre piece performed in Belfast and Dublin in 2016; DEATH (on a shoestring), a musical comedy performed at the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in 2012; and episodes of Joe & Jack, an animated series for pre-schoolers which was broadcast in Ireland, the UK and internationally.

Matthew McDevitt
Matthew Mc Devitt is the creator of Let's Get Quizzical, a comedy gameshow which performed at the 2016 Edinburgh "Heroes of the Fringe" Festival and Belfast Comedy Festival 2016 and 2017. He has contributed to the hit Northern Irish comedy Soft Border Patrol and his radio comedy Lock In, starring Conleth Hill, pilots this August on Radio Ulster.

Susannah McKenna
After graduating from Queen’s University Belfast with an MA in Creative Writing, Susannah wrote her first play The Wanderer From Drumagurn as part of Tinderbox Theatre Company’s Fireworks Young Writer’s Programme, as well as writing several Outreach projects. She won a commission from Aisling Ghéar Theatre Company for one woman play Alice Milligan – A Girl of Genius which toured New York as part of CualaNYC (NYC’s Irish Cultural Festival) before touring Ireland. Her two person sketch show That’s You Now If You Wanna Take Your Wee Card Out was first performed at the Belfast Comedy Festival 2016 and then a full run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017. Sketches from the show were also commissioned for BBC NI’s Late Licence series 2 by Moondog Productions. Susannah wrote the character of Penny for BBC NI’s Soft Border Patrol, who appeared in every episode of series 1.

Andrew Parkhill
Andrew has written for Soft Border Patrol, Future News and The Ten Commandments on BBCNI, and wrote and directed the short films Friggers and the award-winning I'll Be Here All Night. His sitcom scripts West Haven and Chieftains were finalists in the Laughing Stock and Craic Off competitions, and his feature script Choirmaster was a finalist in the 2017 PAGE Awards. He works as a subtitler in Belfast.

Michael Patrick
Michael is a writer and actor from Belfast. My Left Nut, a play he co-wrote with Oisín Kearney was nominated for the best show under one hour at the Dublin Fringe 2017, toured to sellout audiences throughout Ireland and was presented at The Edinburgh Fringe 2018. Michael is currently writing his next play with Oisín through Fishamble's ‘A Play for Ireland’ scheme, in conjunction with the Lyric Theatre Belfast.
Acting credits include theatre work with The Abbey Theatre, The Lyric Theatre, Tinderbox, Bruiser, radio work with The BBC and Roundhouse Radio, and film/tv with HBO, BBC, RTÉ, and Zephyr Films.

Drama Group:

Jonathan Bailie
Jonathan is a playwright and screenwriter. In 2014 he was invited to attend the Stewart Parker Trust residential for emerging playwrights at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. His plays include All There Is (most recently performed at the MNIN Theatre in Athens, Greece), Butterflies, The Electrical Storm, Whitewash, and Cunning Folk. He was also one of the writers involved in What We’re Made Of, produced by Tinderbox Theatre Company.
His short film work includes Quiet (due for release later this year, and supported by Northern Ireland Screen), and Grey Skies, produced by The Playhouse as an educational tool to warn young people about the impact of crime. He also wrote the concept and script for the music video The Few And Far Between by upcoming band PORTS.

Emily DeDakis
Originally from the Southeast United States, Emily is now a Belfast-based writer and dramaturg. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Syndey’s 2SER, printed in Dead Housekeeping, The Vacuum, The Yellow Nib, and Ulster Tatler, and nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize.
In 2012, she collaborated with drummer David Lyttle & pianist Conor Scullion on an improvised musical reading called Voicetown. In 2016, she wrote and performed musical essay F R E A K Floods with harpist Úna Monaghan.
Her current projects include 47¢ (a collection of flash fiction forthcoming from Whittrick Press), stage play Shipwrecks & Lighthouses, and Piñatas (a PechaKucha), as well as Stowaway City, a soundwalk, as part of the MAC’s Hatch programme.

Ewen Glass
Ewen is a screenwriter from Ballymoney. He has worked as a storyliner on Hollyoaks and written A Sign of Things for RTE Storyland, for which he was nominated for debut writer at Edinburgh TV Festival’s Debbie Awards. Living with the Dempseys, a drama pilot he co-created and co-wrote, which is in development with BBC NI.

Sarah Gordon
Sarah is an artist and writer from Belfast. Her first play A Sinkhole in Guatemala, premiered at Dublin Fringe 2016 (nominated Best Performer, shortlisted for the Stewart Parker Award). She graduated from Dublin’s NCAD in 2011 and has been working in Lighting for Film and Theatre since 2013. She is a REVEAL artist with theatre company Prime Cut Productions (2016-18). She overthinks text messages and panics about emails after she has sent them. She is also currently co-writing and directing, Billy, a new play premiering at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival.

Fionnuala Kennedy
Fionnuala is a writer and theatre-maker from Belfast. Her first play Hostel, toured for six years and is based on Fionnuala’s own experiences, examining sensitive issues around homelessness and human rights. Entitled, which Fionnuala both wrote and directed for Macha Productions, looked at the impact and inequality of welfare cuts. While Hatchet explored racism and homophobia in Belfast, told by a black Belfast teenager. Her credits also include Closer, a multi-sensory show for young PMLD audiences, Hatch which was part of Accidental Theatre’s ‘Fast & Loose’ Programme, The Glass Bell as part of the Pic N Mix Festival in Belfast.
Fionnuala is currently under commission with Prime Cut Productions creating a play about young people in the care system in Northern Ireland.

Alice Malseed
Alice Malseed is a writer, theatre maker and boxer from Belfast. Alice studied at Goldsmiths, graduating with a BA Hons in Drama and Theatre Arts and then returning to study MA Applied Theatre, completing this in 2011.
Her first play, Jellyfish premiered at Tiger Dublin Fringe 2015 and toured to UK including sell out audiences at High Tide Festival. It made it to the final 20 out of over 900 in Verity Bargate Award 2015 and allowed her to win the Fringe Wild Card Award in Dublin. Her second work it's getting harder and harder for me premiered at Dublin Fringe 2017 in Smock Alley Theatre, playing to sell out audiences and receiving great critical acclaim.
Alice is currently on the New Playwrights Programme at Lyric Theatre, Belfast.

Dominic Montague
Dominic is a playwright and theatre-maker working across both stage and site-specific theatre. His recent theatre writing credits include Deporting Patrick (Kabosh, 2016), Catching Up (Accidental Theatre, 2016), If Walls Could Speak (Kabosh 2016) and Quartered: Belfast, A Love Story (Kabosh and Outburst Queer Arts Festival, 2017). Most recently his comedy monologue Ghosted was filmed and produced by the BBC Writersroom and The Biggest Weekend, and featured as part of the The Biggest Weekend’s Fringe programme 2018.

BBC Writersroom NI Summer 2018 Update

2018-08-15T15:11:28+00:00

COMEDY SCRIPT ROOM LAUNCH IN BELFAST

Shortly before Easter, aspiring comedy writers gathered in Blackstaff House for the Belfast launch of the Comedy Script Room 2018. The evening was hosted by Keith Martin (Comedy Producer/Development Producer Writersroom) and Owen Bell (Comedy Producer), who gave the group some top tips on what both readers and producers look for in a comedy script, and how a producer takes a script from first contact with the writer to first day of principal photography.

We would like to wish good luck to all the writers who attended and to all those who have submitted to the Comedy Script Room.

In 2018, we had the largest number of submissions to the Comedy Script Room from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to date, with a 38% increase in the number of submissions compared to last year.

BELFAST VOICES

Our Belfast Voices development groups feature sixteen of the best emerging writers from all over the country, including theatre writers. This programme will support them as they move into writing for television, online and radio. Over six months, these writers will participate in workshops and training on writing for digital, radio and TV, win exclusive opportunities to write and pitch for BBC shows and strands and receive support with writing their first television pilot script.

Comedy group:

Seamus Collins
Patrick Dunlea
Mary Flanigan
Oisin Kearney
David Kinghan
Matthew McDevitt
Susannah McKenna
Andrew Parkhill
Michael Patrick

Drama group:

Jonathan Bailie
Emily DeDakis
Ewen Glass
Sarah Gordon
Fionnuala Kennedy
Alice Malseed
Dominic Montague

The groups will be supported by Writersroom's Keith Martin and Vanessa Haynes. Vanessa has worked in script development for some of the most influential production companies in the UK including Kudos Film and TV, Baby Cow Productions, CPL (formerly Celador) and Talkback Thames. She has developed, produced and edited projects for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Comedy Central, BBC NI, TG4 and CBBC.

BIGGEST WEEKEND MICRO FILMS

May saw the launch of an exciting opportunity for brand new comedy writers. The Writersroom joined forces with BBC Music’s The Biggest Weekend to develop and produce a 60 second comedy film for each host city of the festival (Belfast, Perth, Coventry and Swansea).

Aimed at showcasing new writing, acting and music talent, these short films will premiere on the big screen at the Biggest Weekend festival (25-28 May) and be available on BBC social media after the festival.

From an open call to all aspiring screenwriters for 60 second comedy monologues on the theme of music festivals and set at the Titanic Slipways, the BBC Writersroom in Belfast selected 15 new writers for a 1-day workshop. The writers were put through an intensive development process, lead by Keith Martin (Development Producer) along with Marc McElroy (Producer/Director, BBC Tight Shorts) and Anna Hinds (Development Coordinator), where they learnt about writing short form comedy for social media.

At the end of the workshop, the writers were asked to submit their rewritten scripts with 6 writers selected to attend a second development session, from which one writer would be selected for their first BBC commission. As part of the development session, the writers heard their scripts read by emerging comedic actors who were then auditioned for the lead role.

From the shortlist scripts:

Not Even Funny by Breman Rajkumar – being kept waiting is embarrassing especially if you are a girl dressed as Jack from Titanic and Rose has yet made an appearance.
Pole-Dork by Eddy Baker – despite his brother having gaffer-taped him to a lamp-post, a shy young man has just had the best festival of his life
Unsinkable by Patrick Scullion – believing he is more Molly Brown than Kate Winslet’s Rose, an aging queen wonders whether he belongs at a music festival.
The Biggest Weekend by Eimear Lynch – an over-eager security guard, who loves his job, is making his final preparations ahead of the festival.
A Titanic Slip Away by Carly Mills – a teenager needs to give her mother the slip to go to the festival and meet her music idol, but will Mum’s social media posts ruin her chances?

Ghosted by Dominic Montague was selected for production with Belfast-actress Julie Lamberton winning the part of Emma – a girl ready for a big weekend at the festival until she spots a guy who ghosted her and plots her revenge.

“It was such a great opportunity to work with the Writersroom, their support and advice was invaluable on the journey from creating a character through to telling their story and capturing that festival feel, all in a single minute. I’m really excited to see my work on the big screen and share it with the festival audiences in Belfast and around the UK!” - Dominic Montague.

Ghosted is scored by Derry based musician ROE (‘Wasted. Patient. Thinking.’), one of the BBC Introducing artists.

What the writers thought about the scheme:

Dominic Montague - It was such an incredible opportunity to work with the BBC Writersroom on the Biggest Weekend Monologues. I wanted to explore what would happen when that festival feeling was interrupted by running into an ex. The whole notion of ghosting is so interesting because it leaves more questions than it answers, it creates a vacuum. It was such a pleasure to explore that idea and to create a journey for the character that saw her finally get closure, or at least try to. That journey wouldn’t have been possible without help of the Writersroom team and the support of all the great writers and actors that I had the chance to meet and work with over the two development days.

Seeing the piece go from an idea on the page to a produced film was fantastic and I learned so much about the collaborative process that goes with that. Having to fit the story into a single minute of air time was a definite learning curve and the skills gained from that process will be invaluable for future work. Right through the process the Writers Room team were incredibly supportive, it was such a positive environment to work in. I recommend it to anyone, it’s a brilliant experience!

Eddy Baker - Everything was aimed at how to bring out the strengths already present in our scripts, and how to get every last drop of character and humour from what we'd written. I learnt a lot about how important it really is to get the character side of things working before you start worrying about jokes. If your audience don't have a meaningful relationship with your character, your jokes won't land half as well and you won't have that vital early spark that really sets you on the path of writing in your character's voice.

Being invited to the workshops gave me a huge amount of confidence in my writing. I now feel more comfortable writing for briefs, and I'm no longer afraid to delete or rewrite.

Eimear Lynch - For years now, I’ve only braved a toe in the water when it comes to writing. After two days in the BBC writers room I’m totally up for a skinny dip. Who’d have thought writing comedy could be so much fun? Usually I work alone at night with a drink or three. So, writing during the day, in day time clothes, in a room full of people was a touch terrifying.

I feel really lucky to have had a taster of my dream job. It did not disappoint. Now is the time to just throw myself into writing. Hold my drink, I’m going for a swim.

Carly Mills - The scheme was so interesting for looking at scripted comedy not only in social media, but in other formats- it has definitely given me the confidence to write more, and was a brilliant introduction to the basic tools for writing sketch comedy. The two days provided invaluable experience in learning that it’s OK to not get a laugh the first time, but to keep developing the joke to make it work. Keith and the Team were so supportive and encouraging of us all, and I think by the end of Day 2, our little gang of six highly over-caffeinated writers wished we were coming back the next day to do it all again.

Patrick Scullion - I’d recommend this experience to any new writer. The direction from Keith and Marc, as well as the support and co-ordination from Anna, made this Writer’s Room feel really focused and progressive, giving us useful tools for writing in the click-or-miss social media arena. Furthermore, chatting with fellow writers who are also trying to perfect the same minute of script over and over again, is a great way to bond with like-maddened individuals. I’m so glad I submitted a script to this scheme and am so excited to see the winning pieces at the Weekend.

WRITERSROOM AT THE BELFAST BOOK FESTIVAL

The Writersroom hosted ‘Screenwriting for Authors’ as part of the Belfast Book Festival 2018. Writersroom’s Keith Martin and award-winning novelist and BAFTA-nominee Glenn Patterson discussed the challenges a novelist faces when writing for the screen or radio. Glenn spoke about his own experiences of writing, as well as topics such as how to approach types of writing, choosing the best format for an idea, the key elements to consider, the art of adaptation and the practicalities and realities of being a scriptwriter.