Television, film and radio

Adaptations from books

Kate Sinclair describes how books are selected and adapted for other media.

Although every writer wants to create their own work and find their own voice, adaptation is a good way both to generate income and to learn about the disciplines of different media.

Writers may be approached to adapt their own work from one medium to another during their career. For example, John Mortimer originally wrote A Voyage Round My Father for the radio and later adapted it for stage, film and finally, for television. There are also opportunities for both writers and directors to adapt someone else’s work from one performance medium to another or from a novel to any of the above.

Every year classic novels are made into adaptations for all media and it is a growing trend. These may be for the theatre, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime based on Mark Haddon’s award-winning book adapted by Simon Stephens, or for radio such as Life and Fate, Vasily Grossman’s novel adapted by Mike Walker and Jonathan Myerson (the Classic Serial, Radio 4) or Dracula based on Bram Stoker’s novel adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. Television has offered dramatisations like Wolf Hall, based on a book by Hilary Mantel and adapted superbly by Peter Straughan (BBC) or Susanna Clarke’s wonderful novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell adapted very faithfully by Peter Harness also for the BBC. In feature film there have been recent screenplays based on Michel Faber’s Under the Skin, adapted by Jonathan Glazer and Walter Campbell, The Wolf of Wall Street, adapted by Terence Winter based on a non-fiction book by Jordan Belfort and directed by Martin Scorsese, and the award-winning Argo adapted by Chris Terrio, based on a book by Tony Mendez. Although these are usually costly to produce, involving large casts and – particularly in the visual media – the considerable expense of recreating the period in which they were written, they command loyal audiences and seem to be in steady demand. These classic projects also generate significant income both from DVD/video sales and from sales to overseas companies and networks. Some adapters are as well known as writers who concentrate on their own work. For example, Andrew Davies has become almost a household name for his television dramatisations of Middlemarch, Bleak House and, more recently, War and Peace, Northanger Abbey and Little Dorrit.

Producers in radio, television and film are also in regular contact with publishers and literary agents to keep abreast of contemporary novels that may work well in another format. I work as an executive producer finding books, both fiction and non-fiction, for screenwriters, directors or producers for feature films. Television producers and film companies are sent books with potential by the publicity departments of publishing houses and writers may also make direct approaches to producers and commissioners with material they feel they can successfully transcribe for that particular medium. There is clearly a market for adaptations of all types. For example, I found Slumdog Millionaire for Film4 on reading 50 pages of an unpublished book, Q&A by Vikas Swarup, and also Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday as an unpublished manuscript. Both books were brilliantly adapted by Simon Beaufoy. The added stimulus for the adapter is, as well as having a ready-made story, exploring technically how another writer writes – their use of language, how they structure a narrative, their characterisation–is the opportunity to learn from the skill and subtlety of great writers and the challenge of finding ways to transport a story from one form to another, with a multitude of creative possibilities to explore.

What to adapt, and why?

Just because a narrative works in one format doesn’t guarantee that it will in another. Form and story are often inextricably bound together. Something works as a radio play precisely because it appeals to a listening audience and is able to exploit the possibilities of sound. A novel may be very literary and concentrate on a character’s inner thoughts, and not on external action. While this may be fine for reading quietly alone, it could leave a theatre, television or film audience bored and longing for something to happen.

That said, the key ingredient is story and there are some stories which seem to work in almost any media and which have almost become universal (though different treatments bring out different aspects of the original). For example, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw was written as a novella. It subsequently became a much-performed opera, with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper and music by Benjamin Britten; an acclaimed film, retitled The Innocents with the screenplay by John Mortimer; and a television adaptation for ITV by Nick Dear. What makes a narrative like this transmute so successfully?

At the most basic level it must be dramatic. Radio, television and film, like the theatre, need drama to hold their audiences. Aristotle’s premise is that ‘all drama is action’, and should have protagonists whom we identify with, antagonists who oppose them, and the reversals, climaxes and resolutions which typify a dramatic structure. This is not necessarily the case for a novel; it is easy to be seduced by a tale that has personal resonance or beautiful language and forget the basic template which has, after all, worked for thousands of years. It may seem obvious, but reminding yourself of this when considering the suitability of any material for adaptation could spare you a rejection or a great deal of later reworking.

Knowing the media

The other important consideration is a detailed knowledge of the final medium. The adapter needs to understand why that particular story is specifically suited to it. Ideally they will have experience of writing for that form, as well as an awareness of the current market for the project. It is vital to know precisely what is currently being produced and by whom. Staff and policies change very quickly, so the more up-to-date your research is, the better your chance of creating a successful adaptation and being able to get it accepted.

If you are adapting for the theatre, how often do you go and when was the last time you saw a production that wasn’t originally written for the stage? As well as observing how successful it was, both artistically and in box office terms, would you know whether that company or theatre regularly programmes adaptations, and if so, what sort? Do they, like Shared Experience, have a reputation primarily for classics, or do they, like the National Theatre, produce versions of contemporary novels? Are you sufficiently aware of the tastes of the current artistic director and the identity of the theatre to know whether to send your project to the West Yorkshire Playhouse or the Arcola Theatre? This is not necessarily just a question of scale or level, but more a reflection of contemporary trends and the specific policy of each of these venues. Whilst the overall remit of a theatre or company may remain the same – if they are funded to produce only new plays, it is unlikely that this will alter – individual personnel and fashions will change and it is important to keep in touch.

Television and radio

The same holds true for all other media and, if anything, is even more important in radio and television. All of the broadcast media are now subject to the rigorous demands of ratings, which in turn make for extremely precise scheduling. Channels have strong identities, and conversations with producers and commissioners will inevitably involve a discussion of which slot a project is suited to and what has recently been shown or broadcast. Up-to-the-minute knowledge of the work being produced by a company or broadcaster is therefore essential, and regularly following that work and being able to talk about it, even more so. For example, BBC Radio 3’s The Wire is specifically for new work by contemporary writers and therefore isn’t suitable for a classic adaptation of a novel. Radio 4 produces the Classic Serial on Sunday afternoons and Women’s Hour has a regular serialisation slot that can be contemporary or classic and is often an adapted novel. Biographies, autobiographies and non-fiction works are also frequently abridged and read on Radio 4 at 9.45am on weekdays. For a detailed knowledge of this output there can be no substitute for studying the Radio Times, seeing what is programmed, and listening to what gets produced in which slots. Being able to envisage the eventual destination for a chosen adaptation helps you to choose the right project and place it successfully.

In television this process of research is more complex. As well as strong competition between the BBC and the larger independent broadcasters (ITV, Channel 4, Sky, etc) to secure an audience, there is also considerable rivalry between the hundreds of independent production companies to receive commissions. The ratings war means that scheduling is paramount and big dramatic adaptations are often programmed at exactly the same time by the BBC and ITV. Familiarity with the output of each channel is crucial when suggesting projects for adaptation. Again, watching dramatisations and noting what format they are in, who is producing them, and when they are being broadcast, is all part of the job.

It is helpful to know that, as a general rule, both adaptations and writing commissioned directly for television tend to be divided into several basic categories (not including soaps). Single dramas are usually high-profile though few and far between, event pieces broadcast at prime times such as Bank Holidays and are usually 90 minutes long. Series consist of a number of weekly parts shown over several weeks (3, 4, 6 and 8 are all common), each part lasting 30–60 minutes. Finally, there are two-part dramas – serials – or high-profile pieces which take place on consecutive nights, sometimes five in a row, with each part between one and two hours long. The percentage of adaptations will generally be lower than newly commissioned drama, although this is entirely dependent upon the type of slot and the broadcaster. For example, the BBC has considerably more per hour for drama than Channel 4 has, and produces many more dramatisations of classic novels, particularly recently. Likewise, ITV has currently been producing more contemporary drama in terms of adaptations with an emphasis on crime. Its period serials such as Downton Abbey or Mr Selfridge have most recently been original drama rather than being book based. Channel 4, when it commissions adaptations, tends to focus on cutting-edge contemporary novels, such as Any Human Heart by William Boyd. And there are of course always exceptions to all these trends, which is why it is necessary to be an aware and regular viewer.

Successful collaborations

Film

Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson, screenplay Aaron Sorkin)

Under The Skin (Michel Faber, Jonathan Glazer and Walter Campbell)

The Imitation Game (Andrew Hodges, screenplay Graham Moore)

The Wolf on Wall Street (Jordan Belfort, screenplay Terence Winter)

Lincoln (Doris Kearns Goodwin, screenplay Tony Kushner)

Argo (Tony Mendez, screenplay Chris Terrio)

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Paul Torday, screenplay Simon Beaufoy)

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, screenplay Moira Buffini)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (John Le Carré, adaptation Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan)

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Deborah Moggach, screenplay Ol Parker)

The Social Network (Ben Mezrich, screenplay Aaron Sorkin)

127 Hours (Aron Ralston, screenplay Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy)

Up in the Air (Walter Kim, screenplay Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)

Slumdog Millionaire (Vikas Swarup, screenplay Simon Beaufoy)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Jean-Dominique Bauby, screenplay Ronald Harwood)

The Motorcycle Diaries (Ché Guevara, screenplay José Rivera)

Enduring Love (Ian McEwan, screenplay Joe Penhall)

Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh, screenplay John Hodge)

Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien, screenplay Fran Walsh)

The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton, screenplay Terence Davies)

Persuasion (Jane Austen, screenplay Nick Dear)

Television

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke, adaptation Peter Harness)

Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel, adaptation Peter Straughan)

Death Comes to Pemberley (P.D. James, adaptation Juliette Towhidi)

The Girl (Donald Spoto, adaptation Gwyneth Hughes)

Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, adaptation Sarah Phelps)

Any Human Heart (William Boyd, adaptation William Boyd)

Lark Rise to Candleford (Flora Thompson, adaptation Bill Gallagher)

Middlemarch (George Eliot, adaptation Andrew Davies)

The Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy, adaptation Stephen Mallatratt)

Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh, adaptation John Mortimer)

Longitude (Dava Sobel, adaptation Charles Sturridge)

Theatre

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon, adaptation Simon Stephens)

War Horse (Michael Morpurgo, adaptation Nick Stafford)

Coram Boy (Jamila Gavin, adaptation Helen Edmundson)

Nana (Emile Zola, adaptation Pam Gems)

The Magic Toyshop (Angela Carter, adaptation Bryony Lavery)

Radio

Dracula (Bram Stoker, adaptation Rebecca Lenkiewicz)

Life and Fate (Vasily Grossman, adaptation Mike Walker and Jonathan Myerson) The Worst Journey in the World (Apsley Cherry-Garrard, adaptation by Stef Penny) The Old Curiosity Shop (Charles Dickens, adaptation Mike Walker)

If you want to adapt for film, the nature of what will work and when seems to be more open-ended, though it is of course important to go regularly to the cinema and know what has been produced recently. This may be to do with the nature of distribution – the fact that most films are on in a number of cinemas for several weeks – and the time it takes to make a film – often years between the initial idea and eventual screening. However, you still need to keep up to date with who is producing what and when. It is worth noting, though, that there is a very strong relationship between books and film, and that around 50% of all Oscar-winning films are based on books.

The rights

Once you have selected your material and medium, it is vital to establish who has the rights to the original and whether these are available for negotiation. Sometimes this involves a bit of detective work. If the writer is dead, it is necessary to find out whether there is an estate and if the work is still subject to copyright. Copyright law is extremely complex and varies around the world so it is essential to seek expert advice concerning the current rules for any potential project, depending on the country of origin (see here). It is usually possible to begin the search for the copyright holder and source of rights from the imprint page of the novel, play, film script, etc. If this information is not given, try the publisher, the Society of Authors (see here) or (ALCS, here).

In the case of a living writer, you will need to establish who their literary agent is – if they have one – and contact them to see if adaptation is possible and how much it will cost. The scale of costs will depend upon the medium. Rights for a stage adaptation are often separate from film or television options. If a book or play has already been optioned, this means that it is probably not available for a period of at least 12–18 months. Should the purchaser of the option choose not to renew, or fail to produce the adaptation within the required timescale, rights may become available again. Many agreements include an extension clause for a further fixed time period, however, and this is particularly common in film as the end-product is rarely produced within 18 months.

Large film companies, particularly in Hollywood, will often buy the rights to a book or script outright, sometimes for a substantial sum. The proposed version may never get made but legally the original will not be available for adaptation by anyone else. If the writer or material is famous enough, or if they have a good agent, a time limit will be part of the original agreement. Complete buy-outs are less common in the UK.

The cost of acquiring rights varies significantly with the scale of the project, the profile of the writer and the intended medium. Usually an initial payment will be needed to secure the rights for a fixed period, followed by the same amount again, should an extension be necessary. In addition, there is nearly always some form of royalty for the original writer or estate in the form of a percentage of the overall profits of the final production, film, or broadcast. This will normally have a ‘floor’ (minimum amount or reserve) which must be paid whether or not the final work is financially successful and a ‘ceiling’ (purchase price). There may also be additional clauses for consultancy. With television, film or radio, there may be a further payment for repeat formats, and in the theatre the rate may well alter if the production transfers. Sometimes, with a low-budget production such as a fringe show or short film, a writer or estate will waive any initial rights fee and only expect a royalty. Whether you use a ‘deal memo’ to formalise your agreement or a more comprehensive ‘long-form agreement’, it is always worth seeking expert help to make sure you have covered everything you need to. Legalities aside, time spent forming a relationship with the writer of the original, or whoever manages their estate, has another much more important creative function, that of getting closer to the source material.

How to adapt

I don’t believe it is possible to lay down a set of rules for adapting, any more than one could invent a meaningful template for creative writing. The only observation I can offer, therefore, is personal and a reflection of my own taste. When I recommend or commission an adaptation, either for film, television or in the theatre, my first requirement is that something in the original story has hooked me and I want to see the original given another life and another audience. I have to be able to imagine that it has the potential to work dramatically in a different format and can often already see or hear fragments of it.

At this stage I ask myself a lot of questions about the material. How strong is the story and how engaging are the characters? Why should it be done in another medium? How is it possible to achieve the narrative, the characters, the tone, the sequences of action, in a way that is different but still truthful, a sort of creative equivalent, like a metaphor? For me, it is all about thinking laterally and being enthused about the new possibilities another form will generate from the original, or vice versa.

This process generally leads me back to the source, be it book, film or play, in order to dig over everything about it and its writer. As well as looking at other adaptations to see what parts of the original have been enhanced or cut, I like to meet and talk to the writer. If they are no longer alive I try to find out about them from books and/or people who knew them. I want to know what interested them; what were they thinking when they were writing; even what they looked at every day. If possible, I like to go and visit the places they have written about or the place in which they wrote. This process of total immersion helps me to get under the skin of the original.

While this is entirely personal, it raises an interesting question which I believe any adapter needs to answer for themselves. How closely do you wish to be faithful to the original material and how much do you intend to depart from it? Choosing not to stick closely to the source may be the most creative decision you make but you must understand why you are doing it and what the effect will be. After all, two different trains of thought, styles and imaginations need to be fused together for this transformation to be complete and it is important that the balance between them works. I once spoke to a writer who was commissioned to adapt a well-known myth for Hollywood. Several drafts later, when he had been asked to alter all the key elements of the story to the point where it was unrecognisable, he decided to quit. It was the right decision and the film was a flop.

While respect for the writer and the source material is fundamental, there are of course lots of examples where enormous lateral and creative changes have been made to make a story work to optimum effect in its new medium. What matters ultimately is the integrity of the final product. At its best, it is like a marriage of two minds, celebrating the talents of both writer and adapter in an equally creative partnership.

Kate Sinclair is an Executive Producer for The Forge, finding and developing projects from books for television adaptation. Previously she worked for Film4, where she found in manuscript Slumdog Millionaire and Brick Lane for them. She was also Executive Producer for Company Pictures and the Literary Consultant for the UK Film Council, a consultant for Aardman Animations, Free Range and See Saw Films and a Development Producer for Kudos Films, for whom she found Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. She has also worked as a theatre director and is currently producing, writing and directing her own feature film projects with Feet Films Ltd.

 

The calling card script for screen, radio and stage

Breaking in to the competitive world of scriptwriting can be achieved by having an impressive calling card script. Paul Ashton explains what to take into account so that your script is as good as it possibly can be before you send it off to be read.

Many, perhaps most, contemporary professional scriptwriters turn chameleon at some point in their career to work across different mediums, formats and genres – not just to survive, but to thrive. As time marches on, the possibilities open up and some of the seemingly traditional boundaries between different kinds of scriptwriting break down. It has never been more pertinent for scriptwriters to be flexible, and stay flexible. The ever-intensifying competition from other aspiring scriptwriters also means it is equally important to be armed with a great calling card script that speaks your voice.

Where did I go wrong?

The ‘how to’ of writing scripts will always divide opinion, but the reasons why so many scripts and writers fall short in the eyes of the industry seem to soldier on perennially. From my experience as an industry ‘gatekeeper’ who has ultimately said ‘no’ to many thousands of scripts and writers, the recurring problems with the majority include all the usual fundamental mistakes, inconsistencies, lack of care or plain old cliché surrounding:

• Medium and form (what is it?)

• Genre and tone (what kind of story is it?)

• Idea and premise (what is it trying to explore and express?)

• Story (what is engaging the reader’s attention from the start right through to the finish?)

• Structure (where is it going and does it get there in surprising ways?)

• Characters (are they distinct? do we connect with them emotionally?)

• Scenes (do they come to dramatic life in the moment?)

• Dialogue (are the characters voiced convincingly, authentically and with individuality?)

• Ending (is the conclusion coherent and satisfying?)

The honest truth is that these are the difficulties faced every day, by every story and every writer. Never send out a script until you have gone back, looked again, rewritten, and given yourself the space to get as many of these things as right as you can. It is certainly possible to over-develop a script by forever tinkering and rewriting all the personality out of it. Your script doesn’t need to be perfect or utterly slick. But most scripts from aspiring writers do feel under-developed. And your script does need to be ‘ready to be read’, because once it has been rejected by someone they will not want to see it again, no matter how much more you develop it. Every script only really has one shot with any given commissioner, producer, director, development executive or literary manager.

Two things (or rather one, stated in two different ways) that you should always remember:

• Writing anything really well is always really difficult.

• There are no simple short cuts to writing well – it is always really difficult.

Who am I writing for?

Awareness of market and audience is another perennial problem with aspiring writers. Often the writer isn’t thinking enough about who might produce their work and who the audience might be. (Or at the other end of the spectrum, they are worrying far too hard about getting a commission and trying/failing desperately to second guess what producers want.) Then there are those who write to satisfy their own creative urge, who write only for themselves. Drama and comedy are audience-driven forms; without an audience, your work means nothing. But there is some hope for the egotist – because one thing you really must never forget is your own voice, your unique, original perspective on the world of your story. This is the thing the gatekeepers are really looking for possibly more than anything else.

So to answer the question: you must always be writing for an audience, but you should always be writing to express yourself.

What is a calling card script?

Written well, it is a script that simply speaks your voice. It is interesting, engaging, intriguing, and in some way unusual. It shows what you can do. It is an opportunity to be truly original. It shows the choices you make when you are not writing to a strict brief or commission. It demonstrates your skill and hints at your potential. It opens doors and starts a dialogue. It is the start of a writer’s journey, not the final goal or end point of it. It is a means to any number of ends – yet must not feel like it’s been written solely to be expedient, solely to impress, solely to second-guess.

A calling card script is not necessarily the first script you write. You must apply the same rigour to every script until you complete one that you feel speaks your voice. And if you really want to write professionally, then the calling card must not be the only script you ever write. You must always be writing anew – again, and again, and again. No matter how successful you ultimately might be, each new original script you write is a kind of calling card of who you are as a writer at any given point in your career. A statement of your intent. An expression of your voice.

What should my script look like?

Film

• Make it no less than 80 and no more than 100 pages long.

• It should be original and a complete, single, self-contained story.

• Think about genre; think about the big screen.

Television

• The 60-page pilot episode is ideal – whether for a returning series or a finite serial.

• Do not create your own soap opera and never send out a spec episode of an existing programme to the UK industry.

• Think about where in the small screen schedule it might sit.

Radio

• Aim for the 45-minute single drama.

• The Radio 4 Afternoon Drama is the main window of opportunity, for which you can write all kinds of stories.

• Think about sound and acoustic setting; don’t overwrite the dialogue.

Theatre

• You can write with fewer formal restrictions for theatre.

• Make it no less than one hour, or much more than two, in length.

• Think hard about the kind of space/place where you imagine it being staged.

What are you looking for at the moment?

This is the single most repeated question from aspiring (and/or desperate) writers. And it is impossible to answer simply. Commissioners, producers, development executives and literary managers across the new writing industries all like to be surprised. They like to be seen to take risks. They like to be responsible for breaking new talent as well as getting the very best out of established talent. They like being able to identify a new idea as worthy of a commission, development and production investment. They like stamping their personality over their ‘slate’. They are looking not only for ideas they have never seen before, but also ideas with which as large an audience as possible can fall in love. This is not crude populism or ‘commercialism’, by the way. It is the meaning of storytelling: to reach, touch, move, entertain, enthuse, inspire, anger, haunt and surprise as many people as possible. From tiny studio theatre through to prime-time television and movie blockbusters – everyone should want their particular house to be a full house.

Audiences are more discerning, intelligent, hungry, critical, demanding and knowing than you suspect they are, or than we ever give them credit for. You need to know what has and hasn’t worked for audiences – and why – in order to know what has already been done and shouldn’t be done again in quite the same way. Don’t just repeat. Learn from what you see and hear. Dissect it. Analyse it. Criticise it. Digest it. Accept it. Even if you don’t like it. And move on to what’s distinct about your idea. If you want to write a Radio 4 Afternoon Drama, you need to know what that slot in the schedule is and does. It’s always best if you already love a slot/form. It’s good if you can learn to love the potential in it. But if you feel nothing for it whatsoever then you are simply being strategic, and this will be seen for what it is very quickly. Write something you care about. Write about what matters to you.

Further information for writers and film-makers

SUPPORT IN THE UK FILM INDUSTRY

British Film Institute

website www.bfi.org.uk

The lead organisation for film in the UK, investing National Lottery funds in British film-making activity. The BFI Film Fund coordinates the NET.WORK, which is comprised of the organisations below offering UK-wide support:

BFI NET.WORK

website http://network.bfi.org.uk

Creative England

website www.creativeengland.co.uk

Northern Ireland Screen

website www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk

Ffilm Cymru Wales

website www.ffilmcymruwales.com/index.php/en

Scottish Film Talent Network

website www.scottishfilmtalent.com

Film London

website http://filmlondon.org.uk

BRITISH ORGANISATIONS SUPPORTING FILM

BAFTA

website http://guru.bafta.org

BBC Films

website www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms

BFI Film Academy

website http://www.bfi.org.uk/education-research/5-19-film-education-scheme-2013-2017/bfi-filmacademy-scheme

British Council

website http://film.britishcouncil.org

Creative Skillset

website http://creativeskillset.org/creative_industries/film

Film4

website www.film4.com/film4-productions

4talent

website www.4talent.channel4.com

Hiive

website https://app.hiive.co.uk

Lighthouse

website http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/guiding-lights

Shooting People

website https://shootingpeople.org

It is important not to write simply for the sake of expediency – because you think it’s the kind of thing you ought to write, or everyone else seems to be writing, or, worst of all, because you reckon it will be ‘easier’. These scripts are spotted a mile off, and weeded out quickly. What producers are really looking for is a writer with a distinct voice who can deliver an original story that an audience will love. Your calling card script will probably never be made – but if it’s good, then it will get you noticed. And that notice is the thing that will get you closer to becoming a real scriptwriter.

So you think your script is ready to be noticed?

If you do think your script is indeed ready to be read, then here’s a checklist of key things to do first – and then do next:

• Don’t send it straight out. Put it in a drawer for a couple of weeks. Give yourself one last chance to spot any problems/errors.

• Do your research. Know your market, know your audience. Put in the legwork on where to send it, what opportunities exist, who is and is not accepting scripts, whose taste you might chime with. (If you have a commercially minded romantic comedy, then is the producer of edgy low-budget social realist films really the best place to send your film script?)

• Follow their guidelines. Read what they say carefully. If you directly ignore or contradict their guidelines then don’t be surprised if and when they reject your script, unread. You may not like their requirements and remits if they don’t suit what you want, but they are always there for a reason so ignore them at your peril.

• Write a simple cover letter/email. Don’t synopsise your script or go into laborious detail. If your writing is strong, then let your script do the talking; if the writing isn’t strong enough, then no amount of prefacing or explaining will change that. Long missives immediately put people off reading and enjoying a script.

• Don’t make irrelevant claims, outrageous promises or damaging admissions. The person reading doesn’t need to know if you think it happens to be better than so-and-so’s other produced script was (and if you’re unlucky they may have been involved with said script, and then you’ve made an irredeemable faux pas). Nor does it really matter if it got a distinction on your MA. Or the script reading service you used told you it ought to get made. Or that your friends loved it. Or that ‘it’s never been done before’ (unless you’ve seen everything ever made – which nobody has – then this is an impossible assertion). Never tell them it’s ‘meant to be ambiguous’ or ‘it gets better later on’ or that you ‘know there are areas you could improve it’ when what you are really admitting is that you don’t know the ending, it isn’t very good at the beginning, and it isn’t ready to be read. Never claim ‘it’s the best script you will read all year’ as you have no idea what else they will read that year (nor which high-profile award-winning writer they happen to be working with right now).

• Don’t lie about your experience or be economical with the truth. Really, don’t. The creative industries are ultimately quite small, a lot of people know one another, and truth gets out pretty easily and quickly. Whatever experience you do have, you should talk it up; but you should never make it up. Be honest.

• Be confident in what you think you’ve achieved. But don’t be arrogant – and do prepare for the worst. For the people looking at your script, it will be just one amongst hundreds or even thousands that year, and you always face stiff competition from other writers.

• Start your next script. Don’t sit waiting anxiously for a response. Real writers write, all the time, obsessively. Keep writing. And try new things. Never written a radio play? Try it. Want to master final draft screenplay format? Try it.

• Show initiative. Don’t sit around waiting for floods of interest and commissions to jam up your letterbox/inbox. Find out what useful industry events and networking opportunities of any kind exist within reachable distance to you, and go to them, meet people, network. Use whatever contacts you might have, however tenuous they might seem.

• Be resilient. Don’t be offended by silence; the sheer volume of spec emails has made life harder for most in the industry. And everyone is rejected at some point. Everyone. Learn to deal with rejection, roll with the punches, don’t simmer with resentment, argue with someone’s decision, or lash out in rejected anger. If someone simply doesn’t connect with your work then no amount of telling them that they should will change that. Move on and try to find the person that DOES connect with it. Learn to bounce back better, stronger – happier.

Coda

Embrace the necessary difficulty of writing well. Invest in your own voice. Never be satisfied. Be honest. Be prepared. Be realistic. Be idealistic. Be brave. Be obsessive. Stay sane. And be lucky.

Paul Ashton is Senior Film Executive at Creative England, where he leads the Sheffield talent team as part of the BFI NET.WORK support for new and emerging film-makers towards getting their first feature films made. Paul was previously Development Producer at BBC writersroom (www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom), and before that freelanced across film, television, radio and theatre. He has been involved in finding, developing and producing Academy- and BAFTA-nominated films, and BAFTA, RTS, Sony and Prix Italia award-winning drama and comedy for television and radio. Paul is the author of The Calling Card Script: A Writer’s Toolbox for Stage, Screen and Radio (Methuen Drama 2011).

See also…

• Adaptations from books, here

• Notes from a successful soap scriptwriter, here

• Stories on radio, here

• Writing for the theatre, here

• Bringing new life to classic plays, here

 

Notes from a successful soap scriptwriter

As the longest serving member of The Archers’ scriptwriting team, Mary Cutler shares her thoughts about writing for soaps.

A few years ago I was introduced by a friend to someone struggling to establish herself as a playwright. ‘I so envy you,’ she said, ‘writing for The Archers. I love soaps.’ ‘If you love soaps, maybe you should be writing them,’ I suggested. I met her again some time later and she said, ‘I want to thank you: I took your advice. I gave it a try, and now I’m writing for Emmerdale.’ So there you are, dear readers. Ten magic words from me might transform your life. I will try to explore why you might love writing for soaps, or equally helpfully, I hope, why you might not.

I have been writing for The Archers for 38 years (the programme was first broadcast on Radio 4 in 1951) and such a long career is by no means unique in soaps. During these years I have had a guaranteed audience for my work, and what’s more, an affectionate and engaged audience. I’ve worked collaboratively with some extremely talented people, while retaining control of my own words. I have had the opportunity to cover almost every dramatic situation – tragic, comic, social, political – I could ever have wanted to, in every possible dramatic form. Yes, you may ask – though I hope not as the question fills me with fury – but what about your own work? This is my own work. Who else wrote all those scripts?

The production process

The process of getting a script ready to be recorded starts with the five- weekly Tuesday script conference. This is attended by all the writers (there are 11 of us in the team at the moment) and the production team. We each have in front of us the large script pack which would have been emailed to us on the previous Thursday. We meet to decide on the storyline for the next writing period, for which five of the writers present will each be writing a week’s worth of episodes. Those five writers then pitch their week based on the ideas in the pack. But we all work on the storyline together – the writers, whether writing or not – and all the production team, at all levels. That is one of the things I like most. I have never felt plotting was a particular strength of mine, but if someone will give me a starting line I can run from it. The delight of a good script conference is when we start with a strong idea which everyone expands and improves on until it’s a thing of beauty, and no one can remember whose idea it was first, and it doesn’t matter.

To be part of this engrossing process you have to speak. Most soaps have a script conference element where you will be expected to voice, and if necessary, defend your ideas. That doesn’t mean you have to shout, or talk all the time – indeed, these would be positive disadvantages. But you need to stand your ground, especially about what a character might or might not do, and also be ready to yield gracefully if you lose the argument. One of our characters was once torn between two lovers, and the team were, too. On the day of the final decision there was a bad hold-up on the motorway, and three writers rooting for one lover didn’t arrive until midday, by which time the other had carried the day. Those writers each had to find their own way to make that decision work for them when they wrote their scripts.

After the script conference, the storyline is emailed two days later to all the writers and members of the production team to arrive on Friday evening. The writers for that writing period have three days to each write their synopsis, which is a scene-by-scene break down of what they intend to write in their six episodes. If it is a well-structured and imaginative synopsis, all that now needs to be written is the dialogue. A script editor speaks with each of the writers for that month the next day, and they then have 12 days to write six scripts – an hour and a quarter of radio. Not everyone can work that fast. One of the best weeks of The Archers I ever heard was also that writer’s last: he said he could never do it again in the time. It’s not a case of locking yourself in your garret and seeing where the muse takes you. The storyline must be covered: while the writer for one week is working on their scripts, the writer for the following week’s episodes is writing theirs starting from the point where the storyline is left on the previous week. As all the scripts are written simultaneously each writer needs to let the others know what they’re doing. How each writer chooses to dramatise the story is entirely up to them, so there’s a lot of scope for individual creative work. There are constraints on the structure of the programme, such as the financial restriction on the number of actors that can be used. Writers may need to tell a story without a character being present because the actor is working elsewhere. Alternatively a writer may swap episodes within their week, or with other writers, to get the actors they need, though we try not to do that.

Until the script editor sees the writing for all five weeks, she can’t tell if stories are going too fast or too slow, have become repetitive, or picked up the wrong tone.A few days after the scripts are delivered the editors will ring about any rewrites that need to be done –typically the writer has three days for these too before the scripts are finally accepted There may well be changes to be made already, following the synopsis discussion. It is only after the synopsis is agreed that the office starts ringing the actors to see if they are still available. Some of them may not be, in which case a writer may have to rethink their beautiful structure and clever stories. But those are just normal run-of-the-mill changes. When we lost the delightful and distinguished actress who played Julia Pargeter (who died suddenly and unexpectedly after a happy day in the recording studio) the team had to deal with not only their individual sorrow and distress, but the fact that this meant rewriting and re-recording scripts that had been completed in the studio, and rewriting those that were about to be recorded, as well as rethinking those that were about to be written. I had two days to turn round my part of this massive undertaking. When the foot-and-mouth crisis hit British farming in 2001 our fictional world was being rewritten practically day by day, so a good soap scriptwriter needs to be fast and flexible. When the Princess of Wales died our redoubtable editor had one day to get something appropriate on air.

My scriptwriting break

So how did scriptwriting for soaps become the job for me? I had always wanted to write, and had been writing since I was quite small. I thought I was going to be a novelist, and wrote several highly autobiographical, very literary quasi novels while at school and university. I should have noticed that the only person prepared to pay me was the editor of Jackie magazine to whom I sold three highly autobiographical, although not quite so literary, stories. Then at university I stopped having saleable teenage fantasies, and started having unsaleable literary ones. Real life took over – I decided my ambition to be a writer was a fantasy – I would concentrate on my burgeoning career as a teacher, and stop writing.

But I found I couldn’t stop. When I realised how I think – rather than seeing images or words, I hear voices (a perpetual radio broadcast!) – I started to write radio plays. To my delight, I found that I could write dialogue till the cows came home(!) though whether it was about anything that would interest even the cows was another matter. I sent my radio plays to the BBC, and sometimes they came back with kind comments (once I was even invited to meet a producer) – and sometimes they just came back. But I persisted.

I am a lifelong fan of The Archers (I remember Grace Archer dying when I was six and I used to play Phil and his pigs with my little brothers – naturally I was Phil). When an old school friend started writing for The Archers I was fascinated to hear her first week on air: it simultaneously sounded like The Archers I had known and loved but also very like my friend – her sense of humour, her preoccupations. I idly wondered what I might find out about my own writing if I tried using these well-loved characters to express myself. So after I heard her Friday episode, I sat down to write the following Monday’s, purely as a writing exercise and just for fun, and sent it off.

Some time later I received a letter from the recently appointed editor of The Archers saying that although he wasn’t looking for new writers my script interested him. He also invited me to meet him. When I went to Pebble Mill the editor offered me a trial week, which I did in the Easter holidays. Following that, he offered me a six-month contract. So my big break was a combination of persistence (I had been sending radio plays to the BBC for at least three years, and writing stories since I could hold a pencil) and sheer luck – the new editor was looking for new writers, despite what he’d said in his letter. My script also had the necessary ingredients of craft and, dare I say it, talent. I had, without knowing it, written a script of the right length, with the right number of scenes and the right number of characters – all those years of listening had given me a subliminal feel for the form. According to the editor, my first good line was two-thirds of the way down the first page. I can still remember it: ‘She can get up a fair lick of speed when she’s pushed’. (Maybe you had to be there but I still think it has a certain ring to it!) But it was also a script I wrote for fun for a programme I loved and admired.

Mary Cutler has been a scriptwriter for The Archers since 1979. She has dramatised five of Lindsey Davis’s Falco novels for Radio 4, the last one being Poseidon’s Gold, and three dramatic series – Live Alone and Like It, Three Women and a Boat and Three Women and a Baby for Women’s Hour. She has also written for the stage and television, including some scripts for Crossroads before she was told that her particular talents did not quite fit its special demands. She’d still like to write a novel.

 

Stories on radio

Getting a story read on BBC Radio 4 is very competitive. Di Speirs outlines how work is selected.

Before they were ever written down, we told stories to each other. And there remains a natural empathy between the written tale and the spoken word. The two make perfect partners in a medium where the imagination has free rein – in other words – radio. And that partnership is particularly effective on the BBC’s speech networks, BBC Radio 4 and 4 Extra, which play host to more stories than any other UK stations. Stories, of course, can and do appear in many guises there, from original plays to dramatised adaptations, but above all they work on air as themselves, read by some of the finest actors of our day and listened to by upwards of one million listeners on most slots and now available to download afterwards for 30 days.

There are two main reading slots for books on Radio 4: the morning non-fiction reading at 9.45am, which is repeated in the late evening and has an audience of around 3.5 million weekly, and every weekday evening a Book at Bedtime episode can lull you towards (although hopefully not to) sleep, just after The World Tonight at 10.45pm. There are also two slots a week, on Friday at 3.30pm and at 7.45pm on a Sunday where both commissioned and extant short stories are broadcast, and on Radio 4 Extra you can find occasional outings in the Short Story Zone for pieces from short story collections.

A number of different producers, both in-house and independent, produce readings for these slots – finding the books and stories, getting them commissioned by Radio 4 and then producing the final programmes. The process of successfully translating the written work to the airwaves is as intimate as that of any editor within a publishing house. There is nothing like structuring the abridgement of a novel or a short story – which reduces an author’s meticulously crafted work down to 2,000 words an episode – to focus the mind on the essential threads and hidden subtleties of a work, be it originally 3,500 perfectly chosen words or an intricately plotted 300-page novel. The author Derek Longman once described the abridging of his Diana’s Story (one of the most popular readings ever on Woman’s Hour) as akin to the book ‘having gone on a diet’. You aim to retain the essence, but in a trimmer, slimmer version.

Once cut to the bone, finding the right voice to convey and enhance the story is crucial, as performance, in part, compensates for what has been lost. Casting is vital; so is direction in the studio where different stories demand very different approaches: listen to the output and you’ll hear everything from a highly characterised monologue to a narrator-driven piece which demands that the actor also creates a cast of dozens of distinct voices. From the cues that introduce a story, to the music that sets the right mood, a producer works to move a story from the author’s original vision into a different but sympathetic medium. As authors mourn what is discarded, it is important to remember what is added by good quality production and top class performance. And of course to remember how effective readings are at taking a book to a whole new audience.

So how do you get your story on air and to all those eager listeners? What is Radio 4 looking for and what works best?

It would be disingenuous to say that it is any easier to get your work read on radio than to get it published. In truth, given the finite number of slots and the volume of submissions it’s a tough call. But here are a few hints and guidelines that may help.

Book of the Week

The Book of the Week slot is the one that reflects current publishing more than any other. With 52 books a year broadcast on or very close to their original publication date, in five 13-minute episodes, the non-fiction remit is broad and the slot covers everything from biography to humour, politics to travel. Memoir is always an important part of the mix, but so too are good, accessible science books with a narrative thread that can engage the listener, and few subjects are out of bounds if the prose lifts off the page and can catch the attention of what is, by necessity, a largely active and busy audience at that time in the morning.

Submissions come through publishers and agents and in reality are always of published material. (The only exceptions are the occasional fast turnaround commissioned ‘letters’ in response to events.) The books need to sustain their story over five episodes but also to work as individual episodes, for this is an audience that won’t necessarily hear all of the book (though the BBC’s ‘Listen Again’ facility on iPlayer is increasingly changing this pattern). Overly academic prose doesn’t work, nor do too many names and facts. The key is a story and, as discussed below, a voice.

Book at Bedtime

Book at Bedtime is a mix of classic and new fiction. The slot is mostly serialised fiction although occasional harder hitting short story collections – for instance by writers like Julie Orringer and Anne Enright – do find their way in, as do the odd weeks of poetry (Paradise Lost and The Prelude have been read in the past). The novels divide into, roughly, a quarter classic fiction, a quarter more recent popular fiction, a quarter established names on publication (e.g. new novels, usually transmitted on publication by popular writers, from Donna Tartt to John le Carré, Deborah Levy to Jessie Burton); and a quarter newer voices, including a high proportion of debut novels (Ross Raisin’s Waterline, Kyung-sook Shin’s Please Look After My Mother, Paula Hawkins’ Girl on a Train, Kate Tempest’s The Bricks that Built the Houses) and some short stories. Increasingly there are works in translation reflecting Radio 4’s broader returning series Reading Europe and novels that tie in with seasons around authors, e.g. The Third Man for the Greene season.What they all share is a quality of writing that works when you pare it to the core. Abridging a work will show up its literary qualities and its flaws – and there is nowhere to hide. Listen to the slot and you will be aware of both the variety (from classics to crime, domestic dramas to lyrical translations) and the quality of the writing.

There are few other hard-and-fast rules – a linear plot, with sub-plots that can be reduced or lost, is preferable – The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell was a demanding listen in terms of jumps in time and place but the characters were so vivid and the story so powerful it worked; myriad characters are best avoided, but are manageable with a classic (where familiarity helps). Length is also an important issue. The usual run for a book is ten episodes over two weeks; for almost any novel over 350 pages this becomes a cut too far. Exceptions can be made but they are exceptions; Atonement by Ian McEwan, IanMcEwan, Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld all ran at 15 episodes, but for new work this is rare. There is an appetite for short novels that can run over five episodes.

New book submissions

New novels are found almost entirely through submissions from agents and publishers to individual producers – the best ones both understand Radio 4 and know the predilections of the main players and play to their tastes. It is extremely rare that an author submits directly; even rarer for them to be successful in what is the most competitive readings slot of all. However, the passion of an individual agent or editor can make a real difference in getting a book read by the producer, which is the first step in the process. Bear in mind that in my office alone we receive upwards of 50 manuscripts and proof sets a week – a lot of work for a team of four producers. Having a reputable champion who can expand on why your novel really is potentially right for the slot is a genuine plus in getting to the top of the scripts pile.

We usually see work at the manuscript or proof stage; this is increasingly submitted online though this is not essential, or even always desirable, as many producers still prefer to read from paper. New titles are ideally broadcast at or near to the hardback publication date, and so producers need to see them in time to get them commissioned and made – ideally six to nine months in advance. And however passionate a producer is about an individual title, the choice is finally in the hands of the commissioning team at Radio 4 who know what else lies in the complex schedule across the network, and must always weigh individual merits against the broader picture.

What makes a good book to read on Radio 4?

Radio 4 is looking for the quality of the writing, coherence of plot (bear in mind though that complex sub-plots can sometimes be stripped out by skilful abridgers), a comprehensible, identifiable and preferably fairly small cast and perhaps above all, a sense of engagement with the listener. Although crime is always popular, broadcasting copious amounts of blood and gore at bedtime is unlikely to endear the BBC to the public. Psychological work – like Engleby by Sebastian Faulks – works better. Think too, when descriptions are cut, do the clues in the plot stand out like a sore thumb? Consider whether the subject matter is likely to fit with the Radio 4 audience – who are almost certainly much broader-minded and certainly more eclectic than you might imagine – and also highly literate. There is a very real desire to reflect as wide a range of fiction as possible – from a bestseller by Jessie Burton to a Bangladeshi debut from Tahmima Anan, from a suddenly discovered classic from Irene Nemirovsky to the cutting edge of David Mitchell. It’s a broad spectrum but there are of course some issues surrounding language, violence and sexual content; these can be surmountable in many cases – judicious pauses are effective and radio is, after all, a medium that allows the imagination to fill in the blanks as far as you may want to. However, there is no point in submitting a novel filled with expletives or subject matter that will simply shock for the sake of it.

Think too about the voice of a novel – this applies, as much does here, to the short story too. It’s an aural medium. Does your book have a ‘voice’ – can you hear it leaping off the page? Would you want to hear it read to you? And will that be easy to do? There are problems with any story or novel that veers from the third to the first person continually. It can be done – Anna Funder’s All That I Am was a gift for three narrators, but remember that although every year Radio 4 runs several novels with multiple narrators, they are more expensive to produce and as budgets get ever leaner, slots are even more limited. Be realistic. The competition for this slot is the fiercest of all – and with approximately 26 titles a year, a good number of which are from the ever-popular classic canon, there are really only around a dozen opportunities for the year’s new titles.

Short Readings

Fifty-two weeks of the year, twice a week, Radio 4 broadcasts a short story or occasionally short non-fiction. The BBC is arguably the largest single commissioner of short stories in the UK, possibly even the world. It is hugely committed to the short story, that most difficult and often underrated of literary forms, and does provide an unparalleled opportunity for writers who want to explore the genre. However, as with Book at Bedtime, the competition here is severe.

The vast majority of short stories heard on Radio 4 will be commissioned, though occasional stories, like David Constantine’s Another Country, are also heard. Producers in a small number of teams will approach writers after agreeing them with the commissioning editor to write individual 2,000-word pieces for Friday afternoons in a slot which is titled ‘Short Story of the Week’. Most of these are available for download. From 2017 Sunday evenings will have a mixture of individual and connected stories broadcast in longer runs.In 2017 all the short stories across Radio 4 have been brought under the umbrella of Short Works and, in another development designed to raise the profile of short fiction, a further three writers including Jon McGregor and Lynne Truss have written connected series that will run over 10 to 15 weeks on a Sunday night – each story interconnected but standalone

A small group of suppliers, in-house and independent, approach writers whose work they know, often with considerable experience in this genre, to write original material for Radio 4. Publishing a collection, or appearing in many of the excellent literary magazines, winning one of the many short story awards or finding a voice through live literary events, will often bring you to the attention of producers, who also approach novelists and non-fiction writers from time to time. The story slots are as competitive as any others and again a champion in the form of an agent, a magazine editor or a publisher can help.

The short story is a demanding form, and skill and practice are perhaps more vital here than anywhere else. Producers have a certain but sadly limited amount of time to work with an author in an editorial capacity and very little time to read unsolicited material. There is a strong commitment to working with writers and creating original work, and producers are very keen to work with emerging talent that they have identified. Each year a number of slots focus on newer talent, linked for example to the BBC NSSA offer a chance to hear the best new writers at work.

With only 2,000 words there’s no room for waste and yet you must, as Alice Munro (the Canadian doyenne of the short story) says, ‘create a world in a glance’. The subjects may be wide but the bar is high – the best writers in the country and beyond are writing for this slot and you have to match that standard. You may have a better chance of being considered by aiming your story locally (some local BBC radio stations run short fiction from time to time). Be aware of which independent and regional teams work in your geographic area, as the Radio 4 slots reflect the regions and nations of the UK.

For the past 12 years the BBC has been a partner with BookTrust, in the BBC National Short Story Award (see here), which was established to celebrate and foster the art of the short story. With an award of £15,000 to the winner, it is one of the largest in the world for a single story. We have received over 9,000 entries from published writers either from, or resident in, the UK since the award began. It is certainly clear that the short story is alive and well across the UK and choosing the winners has been a tremendously hard task each time. If you are a published writer, do consider entering next time around 2018 will see great developments in the BBC National Short Story Award as it enters a new and exciting phase, including significant focus on the newer award, launched in 2015: the Young Writers’ Award for authors aged between 14 and 18.

In all the readings slots, Radio 4 is looking for terrific writing, a good story and an ear-catching ‘voice’. Despite the fierce competition, producers love to ‘discover’ new writers for the network and every year sees new talent getting their work on air. Keep listening, get to know the slots, and if you have a story – long or short – that demands to be read aloud, try to find a champion for it. Good luck.

Di Speirs worked in theatre and for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation before joining the BBC as a producer for Woman’s Hour. She edited the Woman’s Hour serial for three years and produced the first ever Book of the Week. She is now Editor, Books for BBC Radio – responsible for the output of the BBC London Readings Unit (about a third of Book of the Week, a quarter of Book at Bedtime, short stories on Radio 4, Radio 3 essays and occasional adaptations), as well as Radio 4’s Book Club and Open Book, and World Book Club and works closely with the BBC Arts Online team producing BBC Books. She has been instrumental in the BBC National Short Story Award since its inception in 2005 and is a regular judge on the panel. She judged the 2008 Asham Award, chaired the Orange Award for New Writers in 2010 and was a nominator for Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative 2012 and a judge of the Wellcome Prize in 2017.

See also…

• Writing short stories, here

• Adaptations from books, here

• The calling card script for screen, radio and stage, here

 

Television and radio

The information in this section has been compiled as a general guide for writers, artists, agents and publishers to the major companies and key contacts within the broadcasting industry. As personnel, corporate structures and commissioning guidelines can change frequently, readers are encouraged to check the websites of companies for the most up-to-date situation.

REGULATION

Ofcom

Riverside House, 2A Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA

tel 020-7981 3000, 0300 123 3000

website www.ofcom.org.uk

Chief Executive Sharon White

Ofcom is accountable to parliament and exists to further the interests of consumers by balancing choice and competition with the duty to encourage plurality, protect viewers and listeners, promote diversity in the media and ensure full and fair competition between communications providers.

Advertising Standards Authority

Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn, London

WC1V 6QT

tel 020-7492 2222

website www.asa.org.uk

Chief Executive Guy Parker

The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. Its work includes acting on complaints and taking action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.

TELEVISION

There are five major TV broadcasters operating in the UK: the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 (S4/C in Wales), Channel 5 and Sky. In Ireland, RTÉ is the country’s public service broadcaster.

The BBC

website www.bbc.co.uk

The BBC is the world’s largest broadcasting organisation, with a remit to provide programmes that inform, educate and entertain. Established by a Royal Charter, the BBC is a public service broadcaster funded by a licence fee. Income from the licence fee is used to provide services including:

• nine national TV channels plus regional programming (BBC3 included)

• 10 national radio stations

• 40 local radio stations

• BBC Online Services

• BBC World Service

Anyone in the UK who watches or records TV programmes (whether via TV, online, mobile phone, games console, digital box, etc) or watches or downloads any BBC programmes from BBC iPlayer needs a TV licence. The Government sets the level of the licence fee; it was announced in 2016 that the licence would rise in line with inflation for five years from 1 April 2017. The annual cost is £147. For full details of which services require a TV licence, visit: www.gov.uk/tv-licence.

In addition, the BBC operates separate commercial ventures whose profits help to fund public services.

Governance

BBC Board

Since 3 April 2017, the BBC has been governed by the newly created unitary board, chaired by Sir David Clementi. Tony Hall, Director-General, will sit on the board alongside three other BBC executive members. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will appoint four non-executive members to represent each of the nations, and the BBC has appointed five non-executive members. More information is available at:www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/board-appointments.

Ofcom

Following the closure of the BBC Trust, external regulation of the BBC will be carried out by Ofcom.

What does the BBC do?

It is not possible to list here information about all BBC activities, functions and personnel. The following provides a selective overview of the BBC’s main services and key contact information we consider most relevant to our readership.

Television

The BBC operates nine regional national TV channels, providing entertainment, news, current affairs and arts programming for the whole of the UK: BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC Alba.

BBC Three has ceased operations as a linear TV channel but remains in operation as an online service.

Director, BBC Content Charlotte Moore

Service controllers

Editor, BBC Two Patrick Holland

Digital Controller, BBC Three Damian Kavanagh

Editor, BBC Four Cassian Harrison

Director, Children’s Alice Webb

Director of Sport Barbara Slater

BBC Strategy & Digital

BBC Online’s services include news, sport, weather, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC iPlayer. BBC Online sites are developed to provide audiences with access to content on a variety of devices including tablets, smartphones, computers and internet-connected TVs. BBC Online also provides access to the BBC’s radio and TV programme archives, through BBC iPlayer.

BBC Chief Technology and Product Officer Matthew Postgate

News Group

This is the largest of the BBC’s departments in terms of staff, with over 8,000 employed around the UK and throughout the rest of the world. BBC News incorporates network news (the newsroom, news programmes such as Newsnight, political programmes such as Daily Politics, and the weather team), English Regions and Global News. Director, News & Current Affairs James Harding

BBC North

BBC North covers Sport, Children’s, 5 Live, and parts of Learning and Future Media.

Director, BBC Children’s and BBC North Alice Webb

Finance & Business

This operational area manages all aspects of the BBC’s Finance and Business division, comprising four areas: finance; operations; commercial development; and legal & business assurance. Deputy Director-General Anne Bulford

BBC Worldwide

BBC Worldwide is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC and sells BBC and other British programming for broadcast abroad, supplementing the BBC’s licence fee income. BBC Worldwide helps to keep the licence fee as low as possible. Geographic markets are grouped into three regions: North America; UK, Australia and New Zealand; and Global Markets. The three global business areas are content, brands and digital.

Ceo BBC Worldwide and Director of Global Tim Davie

BBC Studios & Post Production

A wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC, BBC Studios & Post Production works with media companies to create and manage content across all genres for a diverse range of broadcasters and platforms, including ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, as well as the BBC.

Managing Director David Conway

BBC World Service Group

This division incorporates BBC World Service and BBC Global News. This includes the BBC World Service, BBC World News Television Channel, the BBC’s international facing online news services in English, BBC Monitoring Service, BBC World Service Group and BBC Media Action (the BBC’s international development charity). Director, BBC World Service Group Fran Unsworth

BBC Studios

BBC Studios is a new production division that separates TV production from TV commissioning. Director, BBC Studios Mark Linsey

Commissioning

For full details of editorial guidelines, commissioning, production and delivery guidelines, and how to submit a proposal, see www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning.

Developing and producing programmes is complex and requires substantial knowledge of production and broadcasting. BBC Pitch is the BBC’s commissioning tool designed for UK-based production companies and BBC in-house production teams to submit content proposals for BBC Network Television. See www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/pitch. Individuals and members of the public cannot use BBC Pitch. If you are a member of the public with an idea, see www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/ideas-from-the-public.

Who’s who in commissioning?

Television (genre commissioning)

CBBC Controller Cheryl Taylor

CBeebies Controller Kay Benbow

Comedy Controller Shane Allen, Commissioning

Editors Gregor Sharp, Alex Moody

Daytime & Early Peak Controller Dan McGolpin, Commissioning Editors Jo Street, Gerard Melling, Lindsay Bradbury Alex McLeod, Carla-Maria Lawson, Assistant Controller Adrian Padmore

Drama Controller Piers Wenger, Commissioning Editors Lucy Richer, Elizabeth Kilgarriff, Christopher Aird, Gaynor Holmes

Entertainment Controller Kate Phillips, Commissioning Editors Jo Wallace, Rachel Ashdown, Ruby Kuraishe, Pinki Chambers, Sarah Clay, Alan Tyler

Factual (covers arts, current affairs, documentaries, features & formats, history, business, learning, music, religion & ethics, science, natural history, Open University, acquisitions and BBC iPlayer): Controller Alison Kirkham,

BBC Nations and Regions Director Ken Macquarrie, Director Northern Ireland Peter Johnston, Director BBC Scotland Donalda MacKinnon, Director Cymru Wales Rhodri Talfan Davies, Director BBC Midlands and BBC Academy Joe Godwin, Director South West Pat Connor

BBC writersroom

website www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

BBC writersroom is the first port of call at the BBC for unsolicited scripts and new writers. It champions writing talent across a range of genres and is always on the lookout for writers of any age and experience who can show real potential for the BBC. The BBC writersroom blog provides a wealth of behind-the-scenes commentary from writers and producers who have worked on BBC TV and radio programmes: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom.

Education and training

The BBC has adopted a recruitment system called the BBC Careers Hub. It allows candidates to apply for jobs, source interview tips, learn about the BBC’s recruitment processes and get advice about CVs, applications and assessments: www.bbc.co.uk/careers/home.

Trainee Schemes

website www.bbc.co.uk/careers/trainee-schemes

For full details of the BBC’s trainee and apprenticeship schemes, see website.

Work Experience

website www.bbc.co.uk/careers/work-experience-and-apprenticeships

For full details of the BBC’s work experience placements, see website.

BBC College of Production

website www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production

A free, online learning resource providing practical advice and information on all aspects of working in TV, radio and online.

BBC College of Technology

website www.bbc.co.uk/academy/technology

A free, online learning environment which focuses on providing resources connected with broadcast engineering, software technology and business systems.

BBC College of Journalism

website www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism

The College is responsible for the training of BBC news staff and provides in-depth information about core skills, legal and ethical matters and writing techniques. Features a wide range of hints, tips and style guides for writers.

Work in Broadcast

website www.bbc.co.uk/academy/work-in-broadcast

This site provides a wealth of information for anyone wanting to work for the BBC, whether as an employee or freelance.

Writer’s Lab

website www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writers-lab

The Writer’s Lab provides interviews, advice, toolkits, guidelines and other resources to help and support your writing.

ITV plc

The London Television Centre, Upper Ground, London SE1 9LT

tel 020-7157 3000

website www.itv.com, www.itvplc.com

The ITV network is responsible for the commissioning, scheduling and marketing of network programmes on ITV1 and its digital channel portfolio including ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CiTV. It is the UK’s largest commercial TV network. In addition to TV broadcasting services, ITV also delivers programming via a number of platforms, including ITV Player.

ITV Studios is the UK’s largest production company and produces over 3,500 hours of original content annually. ITV Studios (UK) produces programming for the ITV network’s own channels as well as other UK broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. ITV also has an international production business which produces for local broadcasters in the USA, Australia, France, Germany and Scandinavia.

Management team

Ceo Adam Crozier

Group Communications and Corporate Affairs Director Mary Fagan

Director of Television Kevin Lygo

Managing Director, Commercial Kelly Williams

Managing Director Julian Bellamy

Managing Director, Online, Pay TV, Interactive and

Technology Simon Pitts

Group Legal Director Andrew Garard

Group Finance Director Ian Griffiths

Human Resources Director David Osborn

Commissioning

ITV’s commissioning areas include entertainment and comedy, factual, daytime, drama, sport, current affairs, digital and online. Information, FAQs and guidelines for commissioning can be found at www.itv.com/commissioning.

Entertainment & Comedy

email comedy.commissioning@itv.com;

entertainment.commissioning@itv.com

Head of Comedy Peter Davey, Commissioning editors Asif Zubairy, Kate Maddigan, Amanda Stavri, Gemma John-Lewis, Saskia Schuster; Head of Entertainment Siobhan Green

Factual

email factual.commissioning@itv.com

Director of Factual Richard Klein, Controller Jo Clinton-Davis,Head of Factual Entertainment Sue Murphy, Commissioning Priya Singh, Satmohan Panesar

Daytime

email daytime.commissioning@itv.com

Director of Daytime Helen Warner, Commissioning

Clare Ely, Jane Beacon

Drama

email drama.commissioning@itv.com

Senior Drama Commissioner Victoria Fea, Commissioning Jane Hudson, Head of Drama Polly Hill

Sport

Director of Sport Niall Sloane

Current Affairs

email currentaffairs.commissioning@itv.com

Controller of Current Affairs and News Operations Tom Giles

Digital

Head of Digital Channels and Acquisitions Rosemary Newell, Controller Paul Mortimer

Recruitment, training and work experience

Information about training schemes, work experience and recruitment at ITV can be found at www.itvjobs.com, including details of ITV Insight, a volunteering scheme which enables people seeking experience in the TV industry to gain hands-on knowledge.

ITV network regions

The ITV Network is made up of the following regions:

ITV Anglia www.itv.com/news/anglia

ITV Border www.itv.com/news/border

ITV Central www.itv.com/news/central

ITV Granada www.itv.com/news/granada

ITV London www.itv.com/news/london

ITV Meridian www.itv.com/news/meridian

ITV TyneTees www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees

ITV Wales www.itv.com/news/wales

ITV West Country (East) www.itv.com/news/west

ITV West Country (West) www.itv.com/news/westcountry

STV Group www.stv.tv (Scotland)

UTV www.u.tv (Northern Ireland)

Channel TV www.itv.com (Channel Islands)

Channel 4

124 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2TX

tel 020-7396 4444

website www.channel4.com

Channel 4 is a publicly owned, commercially funded, not-for-profit public service broadcaster and has a remit to be innovative, experimental and distinctive. Its public ownership and not-for-profit status ensure all profit generated by its commercial activity is directly reinvested back into the delivery of its public service remit. As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 is also required to commission UK content from the independent production sector and currently works with over 400 creative companies across the UK every year. In addition to the main Channel 4 service, its portfolio includes: E4; More4; Film4; 4Music; 4seven; channel4.com; and brand new digital service, All 4, which presents all of C4’s on-demand content, digital innovations and live linear channel streams in one place online for the first time.

Management team

Chief Executive David Abraham

Chief Creative Officer Jay Hunt

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Dan Brooke

HR Director Stephanie Cox

Commissioning

Information about commissioning and related processes and guidelines can be found at www.channel4.com/info/commissioning.

Arts

Commissioning John Hay

Comedy

Head of Comedy Phil Clarke, Deputy Head of Comedy Nerys Evans, Commissioning Fiona McDermott, Rachel Springett

Daytime

Head of Daytime David Sayer, Commissioning Programme Coordinator, Daytime, Music and Formats Michelle Shaw, Commissioning Editor, Daytime and Features Tim Hancock

Documentaries

Head of Documentaries Nick Mirsky, Deputy Head of Factual Amy Flanagan, Commissioning David Brindley, Anna Miralis,Alisa Pomeroy, Commissioning Executive Madonna Benjamin, Executive Producer Rita Daniels

Drama

Acting Head of Drama Phil Clarke, Deputy Head of Drama Beth Willis, Head of Development MatthewWilson, Commissioning Roberto Troni, Liz Lewin, Commissioning Executives Lee Mason, Manpreet Dosanjh, Head of International Drama Simon Maxwell

Entertainment, TV Events and Sport

Head of Entertainment, TV Events and Sport Ed Harvard, Commissioning Editor, Live and TV Events Tom Beck, Commissioning Editor, Entertainment Syeda Irtizaali, Commissioning Editor, Factual Entertainment and Entertainment, Sarah Lazenby, Commissioning Executive, TV Events and Sport Antonia Howard Taylor, Commissioning Editor, Sport Stephen Lyle, Commissioning Editor, Multiplatform and Off-peak, James Rutherford

Popular Factual

Head of Popular Factual Liam Humphreys, Head of Factual Entertainmen Kelly Webb-Lamb,Commissioning Lucy Leveugle, Ian Dunkley,Lucy Leveugle, Danny Carlvaho

Features

Head of Features Gill Wilson, Commissioning Lizi Wootton, Tim Hancock, Clemency Green

Formats & Music

Head of Formats Dominic Bird, Commissioning Jilly Pearce, Simone Haywood ( Editor), Danny Carvalho, Commissioning – Music Jonny Rothery, Commissioning – Education Emily Jones

Nations and Regions

Nations and Regions Manager Ian MacKenzie, Nations and Regions Coordinator Heather McCorriston

News & Current Affairs

Head of News & Current Affairs Dorothy Byrne, Commissioning Siobhan Sinnerton, George Waldrum, Deputy Head of News and Current Affairs Daniel Pearl

All 4

Commissioning editors Joshua Buckingham, Pegah Farahmand, Thom Gulseven

Specialist Factual

Head of Specialist Factual John Hay, Commissioning Tom Porter (Science), Rob Coldstream (History)

4Talent

website http://4talent.channel4.com

Industry Talent Specialist Priscilla Baffour

Through 4Talent, Channel 4 aims to help people wanting to work in the broadcasting industry gain experience, qualifications and career development.

There are a range of options including apprenticeship, graduate and scholarship programmes, work experience, training, events and workshops. For full details see website.

Channel 5

10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN

tel 020-8612 7000

website www.channel5.com

Director of Programmes Ben Frow

Brands include Channel 5, 5* and 5USA, and an on-demand service, Demand 5. Channel 5 works with independent production companies to provide its programmes.

Commissioning

Information about commissioning and related processes and guidelines can be found at: www.channel5.com/commissions.

Factual, News and Current Affairs

Commissioning Emma Westcott, Michelle Chappell, Guy Davies, Ninder Billing, Lucy Willis

Factual Entertainment, Features and Entertainment

Commissioning Greg Barnett, Sean Doyle

Acquisitions

Head of Acquisitions Katie Keenan, Programme

Acquisition Executive, Series Marie-Claire Dunlop, Programme Acquisition Executive – Film Sebastian Cardwell, Acquisitions Manager Cherry Yeandle

Children’s Programming: Milkshake!

Head of Children’s Sarah Muller

RTÉ

Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland

email info@rte.ie

website www.rte.ie

Director General Dee Forbes

RTÉ (Raidio Teilifis Éireann) is Ireland’s national public service broadcaster. A leader in Irish media, RTÉ provides comprehensive, free-to-air multimedia services.

Commissioning

RTÉ works in partnership with independent producers to create many of Ireland’s favourite TV programmes. RTÉ commissions content in the following areas: lifestyle and formats; entertainment; young people; regional; diversity; wildlife; and education, factual, drama, sport, religion, comedy, talent development and music. Full details of RTÉ’s commissioning guidelines, specifications and submissions can be found at www.rte.ie/commissioning.

S4C

Parc Ty Glas, Llanishen, Cardiff CF14 5DU

tel 0870 600 4141

website www.s4c.co.uk

S4C is the only Welsh-language TV channel in the world, broadcasting over 115 hours of programming weekly on sport, drama, music, factual, entertainment and events. See website for full details of commissioning and production guidelines and personnel.

Management team

Ceo Ian Jones

Creative Content Director Amanda Rees

Director of Communications Gwyn Williams

Director of Partnerships Catrin Hughes Roberts

Director of Corporate and Commercial Elin Morris

DIGITAL TV PROVIDERS

Sky

Grant Way, Isleworth TW7 5QD

tel 0333 100 0333

website http://corporate.sky.com

Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch

BT

81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ

Customer postal address BT Correspondence Centre, Providence Row, Durham DH98 1BT

tel 020-7356 5000 (switchboard) or 0800 800 150 (customers)

website http://home.bt.com

Ceo Gavin Patterson

Virgin Media

Media House, Bartley Wood Business Park, Hook, Hants RG27 9UP

website www.virginmedia.com

Ceo Tom Mockridge

Freesat

23–24 Newman Street, London W1T 1PJ

tel 0345 313 0051

website www.freesat.co.uk

Managing Director Alistair Thom

YouView

3rd Floor, 10 Lower Thames Street, London

EC3R 6YT

email info@youview.com

website www.youview.com

Ceo Richard Halton

Organisations connected to television broadcasting

BARB

20 Orange Street, London WC2H 7EF

tel 020-7024 8100

email enquiries@barb.co.uk

website www.barb.co.uk

Chief Executive Justin Sampson

The Broadcasters Audience Research Board is the official source of viewing figures in the UK.

Ipsos Connect

(specialist division of Ipsos MORI)

3 Thomas More Square, London E1W 1YW

tel 020-3059 5000

website www.ipsos-mori.com

Managing Director, Ipsos Connect Liz Landy, Ceo Ipsos MORI Ben Page

Involved in the work of BARB and RAJAR.

Public Media Alliance

University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ

tel (01603) 592335

email info@publicmediaalliance.org

website www.publicmediaalliance.org

Contact Sally-Ann Wilson

World’s largest association of public broadcasters. Previously known as the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.

Royal Television Society

7th Floor, 3 Dorset Rise, London EC4Y 8EN

tel 020-7822 2810

email info@rts.org.uk

website www.rts.org.uk

The leading forum for discussion and debate on all aspects of the TV community. In a fast-changing sector, it reflects the full range of perspectives and views. Hold awards, conferences, seminars, lectures and workshops.

RADIO

UK domestic radio services are broadcast across three wavebands: FM; medium wave; and long wave. A number of radio stations are broadcast in both analogue and digital and there are growing numbers of stations broadcasting in digital alone. Digital radio (DAB – digital audio broadcasting) is available through digital radio sets, car radios, online, and on games consoles and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Radio provision in the UK comprises of public service radio programming provided by the BBC and programming provided by independent, commercial stations.

BBC Radio

The BBC operates 10 national radio stations offering music and speech programming for the whole of the UK: Radio 1, Radio 1 Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio Five Live, Radio Five Live Sports Extra, Radio 6 Music and Asian Network. In addition, there are over 40 regional/local radio stations.

Director, Radio Bob Shennan

Service controllers

Controller Radio 1/1Xtra Ben Cooper

Head Radio 2 Lewis Carnie

Controller Radio 3, BBC Proms and the BBC Orchestras and Choirs Alan Davey

Controller Radio 4/Radio 4 Extra Gwyneth Williams

Controller Radio 5 Live/Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Jonathan Wall

Head Radio 6 Music Paul Rodgers

Controller Radio & Music Multiplatform Mark Friend

Commissioning

For full details of commissioning and delivery guidelines, see www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/radio/. For details of how to pitch programme ideas to BBC Radio, see www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/radio/articles/pitching-to-radio.

Radio 1/1Xtra/Asian Network Controller Ben Cooper

Radio 2 Head Lewis Carnie, Commissioning Editor Robert Gallacher

Radio 3 Controller Alan Davey, Head of Music Edward Blakeman, Head of Speech Matthew Dodd,Commissioning Manager David Ireland

Radio 4/4 Extra Controller Gwyneth Williams

Radio 5 Live/5 Live Sports Extra Controller Jonathan Wall

Radio 6 Music Head Paul Rodgers, Commissioning Editor Robert Gallacher

World Service Controller (English) Mary Hockaday

Radio & Music Multiplatform Controller Mark Friend, Programme Manager Helen Cox

Commercial radio

There are around 300 commercial radio stations operating in the UK, most of which serve a local area or region. A small number of commercial radio stations operate nationally, including Classic FM, Absolute Radio, talkSport and LBC. The majority of commercial radio stations are owned by one of three groups:

Global Radio

website www.thisisglobal.com

Bauer Media

website www.bauermedia.co.uk

Wireless Group

website www.wirelessgroup.co.uk

Organisations connected to radio broadcasting

Media.info

website http://media.info/uk

This website provides detailed listings of UK radio stations plus information about TV, newspapers, magazines and media ownership in the UK.

RAJAR

6th Floor, 55 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1BS

tel 020-7395 0630

website www.rajar.co.uk

Chief Executive Jerry Hill

RAJAR – Radio Joint Audience Research – is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It is jointly owned by the BBC and the RadioCentre on behalf of the commercial sector.

The Radio Academy

website www.radioacademy.org

Managing Director Roger Cutsforth

The Radio Academy is a registered charity dedicated to the promotion of excellence in UK radio broadcasting and production. For over 30 years the Radio Academy has run the annual Radio Academy Awards, which celebrate content and creativity in the industry.

RadioCentre

6th Floor, 55 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1BS

tel 020-7010 0600

email info@radiocentre.org

website www.radiocentre.org

Chief Executive Siobhan Kenny

RadioCentre is the voice of UK commercial radio and works with government, policy makers and regulators, and provides a forum for industry-wide debate and discussion.