BBC Audio Drama Awards Return For Second Year


The BBC Audio Drama Awards return for a second year to celebrate the exceptional talent and vibrancy of audio drama, with entries open from today.
The awards pay tribute to the cultural importance of audio drama, on air and online, and are intended to give recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers and others who work in the genre.
Following on from last year’s hugely successful ceremony, hosted by David Tennant, the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2013 is once again calling for entries from all makers of audio drama, both for the BBC and other broadcasters, analogue, digital and online.
The BBC is delighted also to be joining forces for a second time with the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and the Society of Authors to announce and celebrate the winners of this year’s Imison Award for best original radio drama by a writer new to radio and the Tinniswood Award for best original radio drama.
In its inaugural year, the BBC Drama Awards 2012 - the first awards of its kind - received more than 150 entries from dramas created across the country and internationally. Winners included David Tennant for Best Actor, acclaimed writer Katie Hims for Best Audio Drama, Andrew Scott for the Best Supporting Actor and writer Hugh Hughes for Best Scripted Comedy Drama.
Among those presenting the awards were Johnny Vegas, David Edgar, June Whitfield, Richard Wilson, Don Warrington, Niamh Cusack, Bertie Carvel, Nina Wadia and Julie Myerson.
Short-listed entries will be announced on 7 January 2013 and the winners revealed at a ceremony to be held on 27 January 2013 in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House, London.
The award categories are:
  • Best Audio Drama (Single Play)
  • Best Audio Drama (Series or Serial)
  • Best Actor in an Audio Drama
  • Best Actress in an Audio Drama
  • Best Supporting Actor in an Audio Drama
  • Best Supporting Actress in an Audio Drama
  • Best Adaptation from Another Source
  • Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama
  • Best Scripted Comedy
  • Best Online Only Audio Drama
Tim Davie, Director of BBC Audio & Music, says: “After the success of last year, I am very proud that BBC Radio will continue to host the awards for a second year. There is so much outstanding and innovative drama on radio, and it deserves to be recognised.”
David Edgar, President of the Writers' Guild, says: "It was a privilege to give out the Imison and Tinniswood awards for radio drama as part of the BBC's Audio Drama Awards at Broadcasting House. Writing radio drama can be a lonely affair, and it was wonderful to be part of such a public celebration of one of the most enduring and effective forms of drama. It's terrific news that the BBC are bringing the awards back for another year."
Lenny Henry, actor and writer, says: “Radio drama rocks! A creative mind can make drama happen in any location, at any time period whether at the beginning of time or at the end of the world or just five minutes ago at the Slaughtered Lamb on Ilkley moor. Douglas Adams used to say on radio the sets and costumes are much better because they were in our minds - I'd like to second that!”
Johnny Vegas, actor and comedian, says: “Radio drama is a rich source of storytelling that treats the imagination rather than cheating it. It is a well-documented fact that visual lie-detection doesn’t work. Closing your eyes and listening is the surest method when searching for the truth. In an age where visual manipulation is at the heart of most television or film based drama, radio continues to trust the listener to paint their own pictures, to draw inspiration from their own mind’s eye. Whilst other media continue with technological advances in a desperate attempt to fill in the gaps, radio remains, quite simply and beautifully, CGI for the soul.”
Dame Harriet Walter, actress, says: “Radio drama is often underrated for precisely the reasons that make it miraculous. It is experienced in privacy and doesn't get the visual splash of movie and theatre promotion. But what an achievement to create worlds, atmospheres, and people we care about with nothing but words and sounds. To take a listener from kitchen sink to mountain tops, back in history or into the future, to place fictitious strangers deeply in our hearts and heads within 30-60 minutes. These awards are vital to boost radio drama to the status it deserves.”
Fiona Shaw, actress, says: “For actors, radio drama allows for a free range without public scrutiny and casting restrictions: the ugly can become beautiful, the untidy neat, the weak powerful; the actors can become their true selves given free rein on radio, their best ambitious selves.”
The closing date for submissions is midnight on 13th October 2012. Further details are available online at: http://bbc.in/audiodrama2013
Thanks to the BBC.

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