The 2009 Radio Drama Awards were presented by Mike Hodges at a reception at the British Academy on 27th October.
The Imison Award honours the best original radio drama script by a writer new to radio, broadcast the previous year. The prize of £1,500 is donated by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and judges are members of the Society of Authors Broadcasting Committee (The 2009 Award was judged by David Docherty (Chair), Mike Bartlett, Nazrin Choudhury, Joe Dunlop, Alison Joseph, Nell Leyshon, Karen Liebreich, Sue Limb, Anne Sebba and Nick Warburton).
- The winner was Girl From Mars by Lucy Caldwell (Anne Simpson, BBC Northern Ireland)
The judges said:
'This is a gripping and powerful depiction of the effect on a family when one sibling goes missing. The beautifully-told story begins when a body is found and the remaining daughter returns to be with her family while they await identification. Girl From Mars is moving and emotionally taut. It veers away from sentimentality and felt personal and believable. The structure is complex – combining three different timescales – and uses radio to its full potential, using many techniques including voice-overs, dialogue, text messages, and voice mail. The story has a shades-of grey resolution about the way a person’s life can tragically stop short - and this is echoed in the subtle way the writer ends her own play too.'
Lucy Caldwell’s novella, The Furthest Distance has just been published by the small Irish press Netherlea. Her stage play Guardians, which premiered at the HighTide festival in May last year, is coming back for a London run and tour in 2010.
The 2009 shortlist:
- Flaw in the Motor, Dust in the Blood by Trevor Preston (Toby Swift, BBC Radio Drama)
- Girl From Mars by Lucy Caldwell (Anne Simpson, BBC Northern Ireland)
- Cobwebs by David Hodgson (Gary Brown, BBC Radio Drama)
The Tinniswood Award honours the best original radio drama script broadcast the previous year. The prize of £1,500 is donated by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society and the judges of the 2009 Award were Kate Chisholm, Colin Shaw and Roger Elsgood.
- The winner was Goldfish Girl by Peter Souter (Gordon House, BBC Radio Drama)
The judges said:
'Goldfish Girl is a perfectly paced radio drama. Just two characters sustain the action, the story behind the play unfolding through their conversations. The sophistication of this carefully crafted dialogue draws the reader in so vividly that you can hear the voices of Ally and Joe in your head. Peter Souter at first withholds but then gradually discloses, until in the final moments of the play the emotion bursts through with haunting power and resonance.'
Peter Souter has written (and executive-produced) a six part romantic comedy for ITV called Married, Single, Other (www.marriedsingleother.com) which airs this February and March, and stars Lucy Davies and Ralf Little. He has also shot a short film for Sky One called Deep & Crisp & Even starring Timothy Spall and Natascha McElhone and has a film, I Wish I Wish, in development with Hartswood Films to be produced by Beryl Vertue and Elaine Cameron, with Otto Bathurst to direct. According to webbloggers the Playlist this will star David Tennant.
Highly commended was Far North by Louis Nowra (Judith Kampfner, Corporation For Independent Media).
The 2009 shortlist:
- The Switch by Ali Smith (David Jackson Young, BBC Scotland)
- Goldfish Girl by Peter Souter (Gordon House, BBC Radio Drama)
- The Heroic Pursuits of Darleen Fyles by Esther Wilson (Pauline Harris, BBC Radio Drama, Manchester)
- Far North by Louis Nowra (Judith Kampfner, Corporation For Independent Media)
For photographs of the event please visit our Facebook fan page here.