Celebrating the best original script, the 2026 Tinniswood Award was awarded to the late Oliver Emanuel, for his “deeply poetic .. extraordinary, generous gift of a play” One Hundred and Fifty Days. The work is a meditation on life and love and was edited and abridged by Oliver’s collaborator and producer, Kirsty Williams, and his life partner, Victoria Beesley, following his untimely death from cancer.

James Fritz was awarded a ‘highly commended’ for his ‘searingly insightful’ play Life and Times: Fourteen Years. The other shortlisted plays for the Tinniswood Award were Mrs Bibi by Waleed Akhtar and Star by Sarah Wooley.

The £3,000 prize was awarded by judges Nell Leyshon, Linda Marshall-Griffiths and Christopher William-Hill.

The 2026 Imison Award, for best original script by a writer new to audio, was won by Sylvia-Anne Parker for A Tale of Two Trumpets — a music-fuelled drama set in the court of Henry VIII and playfully inspired by the life of Black Tudor and royal trumpeter, John Blanke.

The other shortlisted scripts for the Imison Award were Do Not Disturb: ‘Good Sex in Progress’ by Sherise Blackman and When Maggie Met Larry by Tim Walker.

The award was judged by members of the Society of Authors’ Scriptwriters Group: Connor Allen, Imogen Church, James Clarke, Juliet Gilkers-Romero, Sean Grundy, Robin Mukherjee and Rhiannon Tise.

We would like to thank all producers, writers and agents who have entered the awards, and the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society, the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Hawthornden Foundation for supporting.

The Imison and Tinniswood Awards are presented each year as part of the BBC Audio Drama Awards and are administered by the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. The 2026 awards are for a drama broadcast or made available online in the UK between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2026. See the full list of BBC Audio Drama Awards finalists here.

The 2026 Tinniswood Award winner

One Hundred and Fifty Days by Oliver Emanuel |  Listen
Directed by Kirsty Williams| BBC Audio Scotland, BBC Radio 4

Oliver Emanuel was part way through writing an audio drama when he found he could no longer read. He had brain cancer.  

He paused writing his play about a man and a woman caught in a rip tide, imagining the life they might have had together, and began a creative response to his illness. He wanted it broadcast. He also wanted his unfinished play broadcast. 

In order to fulfil his wishes, Kirsty Williams (his collaborator and producer) and Victoria Beesley (his life partner) abridged his writing on brain cancer and wove it through the unfinished play. The two pieces started to talk to one another as if Oliver’s characters were sitting in his imagination – at times supporting him, sometimes distracting him.

The result is a unique view into the experience of cancer and of the slow disintegration of language that brain cancer can have. A meditation on life and love. 

The judges said: ‘This incredible play is a masterclass in writing sound. It’s radiophonic, evolving, and illuminates an absolute understanding of the form.

‘It is deeply poetic, at one moment devastating and two seconds later comic. The transformative power of a radio play demonstrated in the writing is profound. Even in the breakage of language itself, the play becomes an articulation of the journey. The play falls continuously through two worlds – one sparse and imagined, one brutal, real and full of the joy of kids. The undertow is ever apparent, but still words surprise and land in the mind and stab the heart.

‘This is a love story between a man and a woman. A love-letter to his wife, his children, to life itself and an extraordinary and generous gift of a play to us by one of the greatest ever audio writers.’

Oliver Emanuel was a playwright for radio and stage based in Scotland. He wrote over 25 dramas for radio, winning a host of prestigious awards, including a Tinniswood for When the Pips Stop. He died in December 2023.

ABOUT THE TINNISWOOD AWARD

The Tinniswood Award was established by the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain to perpetuate the memory of Peter Tinniswood as well as to celebrate and encourage high standards in radio drama. Previous winners include Edson Burton, Shôn Dale-Jones, Anita Sullivan, Sonya Hale, Christopher Douglas, Ian Martin, Sarah Woods, Oliver Emanuel, Morwenna Banks, Mike Bartlett, and Colin Teevan. Find out more. We are very grateful to the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society for its generous sponsorship, including the £3,000 prize. The 2026 award is for a drama broadcast or made available online in the UK between 1 October 2024 and 31 October 2025.

The 2026 Imison Award winner

A Tale of Two Trumpets by Sylvia-Anne Parker | Listen
Producer Kirsty Williams | BBC Audio Scotland, BBC Radio 4

A music-fuelled drama set in the court of Henry VIII and playfully inspired by the life of Black Tudor and royal trumpeter, John Blanke. When Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII lose a child, the King prepares a celebration of the baby prince’s life and calls in the trailblazing trumpeter John Blanke to help him… And when John sees an opportunity to also help Henry VIII’s private passions, little does he know that his timely intervention will change the course of history in more ways than one… 

The judges said: ‘This is a bold and engaging piece that brings a moment in history to life in a fresh and compelling way. It’s packed with strong characters and carries a clear, confident story from start to finish.  It highlights social issues that were present then and still resonate today.

‘The use of language and sound paints vivid images throughout, making it an enjoyable and memorable experience that stays with you long after it ends. It is fun, accessible, lively, with a great use of music bringing the fascinating, historical story of John Blanke to light in a hugely enjoyable way, particularly with its juxtaposition of Tudor and modern vibes. It was enjoyable, uplifting, inspiring and informative and well-suited to the medium of radio.’

Sylvia-Anne Parker is a London-born writer for film and TV. She has films in development with Zubick Films and Starchild Pictures/BFI. A Fellow of the Sundance Episodic Lab with her TV pilot Blackbirds, she enjoys creating stories featuring ordinary people, placed in extraordinary circumstances, who manage to overcome adversity. 

ABOUT THE IMISON AWARD

The Imison Award is administered by the Society of Authors and was founded in memory of BBC script editor and producer Richard Imison. Previous winners include Isley Lynn, Andrew McCaldon, Connor Allen, Faebian Averies, Fraser Ayres, Vicky Foster, Lulu Raczka, Adam Usden, Mike Bartlett, Gabriel Gbadamosi, and Nell Leyshon.