Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) have announced the winners of the 2018 Writers’ Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for film, television, radio, theatre, comedy, books and videogames categories at a ceremony at the College of Physicians in London. Hosted by writer and actor Vicki Pepperdine, the prestigious event honoured the cream of British UK writing talent in front of an audience from a broad range of creative industries.
Innovative and provocative British playwright Caryl Churchill was presented with the coveted Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award. Churchill was presented by playwright (and fellow Writers’ Guild Award winner) Lucy Kirkwood in honour of her illustrious body of work and career which has spanned over six decades since penning and staging her first play,Downstairs, in 1958. Writing for theatre and radio, Churchill has had her work staged in London and New York, including productions at the Royal Court Theatre, Young Vic and National Theatre, and televised for the BBC. Consistently writing for 60 years, her works include Ants (1962), Lovesick (1967), The Judge's Wife (1972), Fen (1983), Three More Sleepless Nights (1980), Serious Money (1987), Mad Forest (1990), The Skriker (1994), Far Away (2000), A Number (2002), A Dream Play (2005), Love and Information (2012) and Ding Dong the Wicked (2013). The dramatist has seen a number of her works recently re-imagined, including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976), Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982), alongside new recent works including Here We Go and Escaped Alone, which premiered in 2015 and 2016.
Alongside Churchill’s recognition, it was a big night for celebrating female writers, who were represented in 9 of the 15 awards across theatre, TV, radio, comedy, books and videogames categories; Best Short Form TV Drama winner Sarah Phelps for the critically acclaimed The Witness for the Prosecution; Best Radio Drama went to Ming Ho for The Things We Never Said; Sarah Kendall took home the award for Best Radio Comedy for Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy ‘A Day In October’; Sheena Kalayil picked up the Best First Novel award for her debut The Bureau of Second Chances; and the winner of the Best Play went to Lucy Kirkwood for The Children, and Sarah McDonald-Hughes scooped the award for Best Play for Young Audiences with How to Be a Kid.
Best Writing in a Video Game was won by Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe together with Tameem Antoniades for dark fantasy action-adventure game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice; and writer Emily Ballou formed part of the writing team alongside Chips Hardy, Steven Knight, Ben Hervey, who picked up the award for Best Long Form Drama for the highly applauded dramaTaboo.
Other winners included the critically acclaimed Inside No. 9 ‘The Bill’, written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, which scooped the Best TV Situation Comedy award; Best Screenplay was awarded to Miss Sloane by Jonathan Perera; Best Long Running TV Series award went to BBC drama Holby City, Series 19, Episode 2 ‘Rocket Man’ written by Peter Mattessi; picking up the award for Best Children’s TV Episode was Tim Bain for Counterfeit Cat: Room of Panic; Babak Anvari was awarded Best First Screenplay for Under the Shadow, while Marek Larwood walked away with the Best Online Comedy award for Showreel for One Word or Less Parts.
During the ceremony comedian Paul Merton and WGGB Chair Gail Renard paid tribute to Steptoe and Son scriptwriter Alan Simpson OBE and Dramatist and Novelist Rosemary Anne Sisson, plus other WGGB members who sadly passed away in the last year.
Host Vicki Pepperdine said of the event; "As a previous Writers’ Guild Award winner I know how much it means to receive one. The knowledge that your peers have considered your work to be the very best in its class is a great accolade, which writers working in any of the broad range of media recognised by the Guild, would be proud to receive. It has been a great privilege to be invited to host the Writers’ Guild Awards ceremony this year, when once again we honour some truly inspirational writing talent.”
WGGB President Olivia Hetreed said; “The range and quality of talent represented this year has been awe-inspiring and our winners are outstanding in their fields. With the always-inventive and challenging playwright Caryl Churchill taking our highest award it's especially good to see there are plenty of Top Girls writing today (9 female winners over 15 awards). We are hugely grateful to our sponsors, ALCS, the BBC, ITV, Silver Reel, Lionsgate, Company Pictures and Nick Hern Books for helping us to foster the best of British writing, as they all do in their everyday work.”
Other presenters included Daisy Goodwin, April De Angelis, Helen Lederer, Mata Haggis, Howard Read, Charlie Hardwick, Tony Grisoni, Lisa Evans, Natalie Cutler, Jack Docherty, Brenda Gilhooly and Stefan Booth.
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is the lead sponsor of the 2018 Writers’ Guild Awards. Other sponsors are BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide, ITV, Company Pictures, Nick Hern Books, Silver Reel and Lionsgate.
Full list of Writers’ Guild Awards 2018 Winners;
CATEGORY AND PRESENTER WINNER
Outstanding Contribution to Writing
Presenter: Lucy Kirkwood Caryl Churchill
Best Online Comedy
Presenter: Jack Docherty Showreel for One Word or Less Parts by Marek Larwood
Best Long Running TV Series
Presenter: Natalie Cutler Holby City, Series 19, Episode 2 ‘Rocket Man’ by Peter Mattessi
Best Writing in a Video Game
Presenter: Mata Haggis Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice by Tameem Antoniades and Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe
Best Children’s TV Episode
Presenter: Howard Read Counterfeit Cat: Room of Panic by Tim Bain
Best Radio Comedy
Presenter: Helen Lederer Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy ‘A Day In October’ by Sarah Kendall
Best Long Form TV Drama
Presenter: Stefan Booth Taboo by Chips Hardy, Steven Knight, Ben Hervey, Emily Ballou
Best First Novel
Presenter: Daisy Goodwin The Bureau of Second Chances by Sheena Kalayil
Best First Screenplay
Presenter: Tony Grisoni Under the Shadow by Babak Anvari
Best Radio Drama
Presenter: Nicholas McInerney The Things We Never Said by Ming Ho
Best Play for Young Audiences
Presenter: Lisa Evans How to Be a Kid by Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Best Play
Presenter: April De Angelis The Children by Lucy Kirkwood
Best Screenplay
Presenter: Robert Harling Miss Sloane by Jonathan Perera
Best TV Situation Comedy
Presenter: Brenda Gilhooly Inside No. 9 ‘The Bill’ by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton
Best Short Form TV Drama
Presenter: Charlie Hardwick The Witness for the Prosecution by Sarah Phelps
