Sean Grundy, Joseph O’Connor and Julian Simpson have been shortlisted for the Tinniswood Award for the best original audio drama script – the UK’s premier prize for audio drama writing.
New talent is also celebrated in the Imison Award. Debut audio drama writers Eoin O’Connor, Iain A J Ross and Emma Spurgin Hussey are shortlisted.
These shortlists came out of two very strong longlists and the judges were delighted with the range of theme and content and immensely impressed with the quality on display.
The winners of both awards, who will each receive £1,500, will be announced on 31 January 2016 at the BBC Audio Drama Awards.
Tinniswood Award Shortlist
The Tinniswood Award is presented annually to the best original audio drama script. The judges this year are Mike Bartlett, Rachel Joyce and Nell Leyshon.
This is a hugely entertaining, subtle, and superbly written script that goes beyond the usual parameters of biographical drama to speak not just about an extraordinary character but about a period of time at the BBC and in the whole country. The dialogue, characterisations and narrative choices are masterful. A true classic of radio drama.
Deft, inventive, consummately elegant, dark and light, here is a play that is both gripping and thought-provoking. With a cast of multi-layered characters, it asks questions about time, art and the bond of friendship. It will stay with us for a long time.
An original and gripping thriller which brilliantly explores both the powerful effect of sound on the listener, and how radio drama creates worlds of sound.
Imison Award Shortlist
The Imison Award honours the best original script by a writer new to audio drama. The judges for the 2016 award are Ruth Brandon, Christopher William Hill, Marcy Kahan, Annette Kobak, Michelle Lipton, John Taylor, Jane Thynne, Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Stephen Wyatt and Mike Walker.
From left: Eoin O'Connor (Photo credit: Lea Valentina), Iain A J Ross, Emma Spurgin Hussey (Photo credit: Oak Farm Studios).
30 EGGS by Eoin O’Connor
A joyful, funny, picaresque story of an African journey and a wonderful depiction of friendship which gave us a different insight into Rwanda and exploited the possibilities of radio to the full.
Confident storytelling, economic writing and a strong soundscape. This dystopic sci-fi drama makes great use of the medium and offers the listener an engaging futurescape, vibrant characters, intriguing adventure, and a good sprinkling of existential and ethical debate – in the classic tradition of the genre.
Inventive juxtapositions of Italians and Scots, land and sea, fighters and non-fighters, different kinds of blindness make this a strong, moving and witty drama, beautifully crafted for radio.