Many congratulations to the nine writers and writing teams whose scripts have been selected for final consideration by our judging panel for this year's Comedy Writing Award. They are:
Brian of Britain by Katherine Bennett & Vanessa Strowger
Birth Mother by Helen Cripps
Biting Dust by Lucie Hembra
Filthy by Marina Niel & Christina Carty
Jokette by Sola Ludviksdottir
Mind The Gap by Lucy Holligan
Mock Tudor by Lily Bevan
Rocket Men by Cassie Pope
Rosebuds by Tallulah Brown
We’ve ploughed our way through 140 entries and they have been the subject of much debate amongst us and our extended team of readers! There has been recurring themes of mismatched flat mates, funeral parlours, the afterlife, sci-fi and unrequited love (of course!). Let’s face it – anything in life is fair game when it comes to comedy!
These are the top nine but there are lots of others that we liked, enjoyed and feel have great promise, so keep your eyes peeled for our 'Ones To Watch' list later this week.
The top three scripts will be announced this coming Tuesday 17th September following the judges’ deliberations. The writers will then be invited to attend the Awards final as our very special guests on Monday 23rd September.
Our judging panel includes Gavin Smith of the Comedy Unit and Andrea Mann of Huffington Post, who both represent our sponsors for this Award category. The scripts are also being read by writer and columnist Rowan Pelling, comedian and journalist Viv Groskop, producer and director Rohan Acharya, writer and producer Paul Dodgson and consultant producer for Funny Women, Karen Rosie.
This Award recognises good comedic writing and encourages women to submit scripts on all topics for potential broadcast. Judge Andrea Mann, now the comedy editor of the Huffington Post UK, has herself written for comedy performers and television programmes and is excited about the new talent that this competition might unearth. She says: “There are so many brilliant, funny women trying who deserve to have the spotlight shone on them- especially those who work behind the scenes as writers- and I believe these awards help to do just that."
The names of the final three scripts and writers will be published on Tuesday 17th September.
