BBC Radio Blog

The Winners of 500 Words 2011

It's that time again. Thoughts at the Chris Evans Breakfast Show have turned to all things literary. We've inked our quills and gathered our most eloquent thoughts in preparation for today, where we've launched 500 WORDS - our short story writing competition for children aged thirteen and under.

Buoyed by the success of last year's inaugural event, we're attempting it all over again - only this time we want to make it much bigger and even better!

We have already secured a stellar panel of judges steeped in the art of children's literature: Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Charlie Higson, Lauren Child, Andy Stanton and David Walliams. Walliams and Wilson are returning judges from last year, because they were so blown away by the range and creativity of the young authorial talent on display.

David Walliams will be joining Chris live in the studio on Friday as the climax to our launch week - last year he let slip that he'd be swimming the Thames for Sport Relief, for his sake we hope there's no similar revelation this year. Mr Evans also reprises his role as chair of judges after receiving glowing reviews for his performance last year from our independent adjudicator.

The original idea was born when Chris went to the Hay Festival in the Summer of 2010. Very pleasantly surprised by the inclusive family atmosphere that washed over him there, he decided he wanted to inspire the nation's kids to get writing. He also wanted the nation's teachers to get involved - acting as judges in our first round of adjudication. His production team promptly sprang into action.

Assistant Producer Day Macaskill and Radio 2 Interactive were faced with an epic conundrum - how to get hold of a piece of software that could not only accept every story submitted, but also keep personal information totally separate (in abidance with Child Protection regulations), then assign a totally random anonymised batch of stories to a teacher from a completely different geographical location to that of the children in their batch. It had never been done before.

We took expert advice from our colleagues at Blue Peter, who have been running similar competitions for children since the year dot; and Day and his able assistant Bethany Minelle hooked up with a very clever computer programmer called Pete Davison who designed us a bespoke monster of a database. Just as well really, as we were stunned to receive nearly 30,000 stories from children.

And with almost 2,000 teachers offering their marking services as well, we quickly realised we were going to have to employ several extra staff to deal with all aspects of processing the enormous beast this competition has become.

Then there was the small matter of an outside broadcast to organise - the Top 50 shortlisted authors were all invited with their families to the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, to watch a very special Radio 2 Breakfast Show go out live. Our judges had selected five finalists in each age category (9 and Under and 10-13), and an overall winner from each age range. Ten celebrities including the likes of Richard Hammond, Anne Robinson, Alex Jones and Alexandra Burke all made the trip to our little tent in a big field in the middle of Wales to read the winning stories aloud.

The atmosphere that morning was extraordinary.

Chris Evans described it as one of the most moving programmes he's ever been involved in - and the reaction the show received via text and email really did bear that out. We had truckers telling us they had pulled over at the side of the road in floods of tears, people unable to leave the house until they heard how a particular story concluded, and kids that were refusing to get out of the car at school, because they wanted to know which tale could possibly top the one they had just heard! It was a very different Radio 2 Breakfast Show that the nation woke up to that morning, but it was one we were all immensely proud to have been involved in.

So, to this year. We *think* we are in a much better state of preparedness for what may ensue over the next month (we close the competition on World Book Day - Thursday 1st March). This time around, every stage of the competition will be conducted completely online - including all the marking - so at least the printers at Western House can relax, even if no-one else can! And we have some juicy on air tie-ins with Newsround, Blue Peter, Radio 4 Extra and 6 Music to explore this time around as well.

To sum up, if you know someone aged thirteen or under who has a wicked and wild imagination, get them to check out the 500 WORDS website and have a bash at entering a story in our competition.

We know of 9 million people who can't wait to hear what they've got to say.

Helen Thomas is executive producer, BBC Radio 2

• Go to the 500 Words website to find out more, meet last year's winners and to enter.
• Read last year's top 50 entries including the winners.

The 1963 production of Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton with Producer Douglas Cleverdon

The BBC will be 90 years old this November and that feels like a good moment to be celebrating one of the longest-lived programming genres with the first ever BBC Audio Drama Awards.

In the UK, drama has been on-air since the earliest days of BBC radio (from February 1923), initially with extracts from plays by Shakespeare, then plays for children and the first original play written specially for this new medium was Danger by Richard Hughes in 1924. Set in a coalmine after a cave-in, the characters had to communicate in the dark without sight of each other, a situation, it was felt, that reflected the particularity of this new medium - the dark, that is, not the disaster.

The presence of drama programming quickly caught listeners' attention and comments: as early as the late 1920s came letters complaining that the sound effects or the background music were too loud - and that is still the case 80 years on!

By the time World War II broke out, drama and comedy were felt to be such necessary contributions to British morale that a group of actors was contracted to 'play as cast' and evacuated for a short time, with other BBC staff, to Evesham in the first months of the war.

This repertory company soon returned to London and became established as the Radio Drama Company (RDC), remaining a constant part of BBC audio drama productions ever since. Hundreds of actors have passed though its ranks including Julian Rhind-Tutt, Emma Fielding, Alex Jennings, as well as Bertie Carvel and Nina Wadia, two of the award-givers at the ceremony on Sunday.

The RDC company members have also been complemented by many, many freelance actors and most showbiz names from the past 80 years have graced the microphones including, just in the last year, Kenneth Branagh, David Warner, Dawn French, Greta Scacchi, Juliet Stevenson, Jeremy Irons, Janet Suzman, Ian McKellen and, of course, David Tennant - to name but a few.

The other pillar of the history of audio drama is, of course, the writers.

Vital in launching many careers and nurturing and developing new writers all the time, it's worth mentioning a few names from the honours boards such as Dylan Thomas (Under Milk Wood is probably the world's most famous radio play), Tom Stoppard, Anthony Minghella, Bryony Lavery, Sue Townsend, Lee Hall, Harold Pinter, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Samuel Beckett, Christopher Hampton, Kwame Kwei-Armah and David Hare.

More recently, Lenny Henry has had his first play commissioned by and broadcast on Radio 4 and Mike Bartlett, now a prolific stage writer, cut several teeth in radio. He's written a blog on these awards, too, on the Society of Authors site.

No survey of the history of audio drama would be complete without a mention of the longest-lasting soap opera in the world, The Archers. Beginning in 1951 as 'an everyday story of country folk' with the aim of delivering agricultural advice and tips to Britain's farmers, it remains firmly at the centre of many listeners' hearts and is heard by 5 million people every week.

Of course, audio drama is not the sole preserve of the BBC. Internationally, there is still a significant presence of the medium on European and other Anglophone public broadcasting organisations, as well as some commercial production (largely non-broadcast these days).

And it's particularly interesting to see, over the last few years, a burgeoning online presence for the form. Often, but not always, short-form, it's fantastic that the power of storytelling through dialogue and sound alone is continuing to fascinate new makers as well as listeners.

So these Audio Drama Awards (hosted and organised by the BBC but not exclusive to BBC broadcasts) are designed to celebrate the talent, effort and achievement of all those individuals who contribute to this very particular and specialised form.

It's been heartening, as we have pulled the event together, how many people on hearing about the plans have responded that it's about time too. For such a prolific genre with such significantly-sized audiences it gets surprisingly little attention and we thought it was time to shout about it.

Alison Hindell is Head of Audio Drama

• Blog post: The winners of the first BBC Audio Drama Awards
• Radio producer Justine Potter (who was shortlisted for A Shoebox Of Snow by Julie Mayhew) recorded David Tennant's introduction to the Awards. You can hear it on Audioboo.
• Picture: David Tennant and Richard Wilson on stage at the Awards
• BBC News: David Tennant wins BBC audio drama award for Kafka role

Andrew Scott receives the Best Supporting Actor Award from June Whitfield

The winners of the first BBC Audio Drama Awards were announced by actor David Tennant at a special event in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House.

The awards are a celebration of audio drama, on air and online, and are about giving recognition to the actors, writers, producers, sound designers, and others who work in the genre.

The winners of the BBC Audio Drama Awards are:

Best Audio Drama:
Lost Property - The Year My Mother Went Missing by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Actor in an Audio Drama:
David Tennant, Kafka: The Musical by Murray Gold
Producer: Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3

Best Actress in an Audio Drama:
Rosie Cavaliero, Lost Property: A Telegram From The Queen by Katie Hims
Producer: Jessica Dromgoole, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Supporting Actor/Actress in an Audio Drama:
Andrew Scott, Referee by Nick Perry
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Scripted Comedy Drama:
Floating by Hugh Hughes
Producer: James Robinson, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Online Only Audio Drama:
Rock by Tim Fountain
Producer: Iain Mackness, Made in Manchester for The Independent Online

Best Adaptation:
The History of Titus Groan dramatised by Brian Sibley
Producers: David Hunter, Gemma Jenkins and Jeremy Mortimer, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 4

Best Use of Sound in an Audio Drama:
Bad Memories by Julian Simpson
Producer: Karen Rose, Sweet Talk Productions for Radio 4

Innovation Award:
The Unfortunates adapted by Graham White
Producer: Mary Peate, BBC Radio Drama for Radio 3

The winner of the Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 by a new writer is:
Amazing Grace by Michelle Lipton

The winner of the Tinniswood Award for Best Radio Drama Script broadcast in 2010 is:
Gerontius by Stephen Wyatt

You'll be able to hear some of the BBC shortlisted audio dramas again on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 4 Extra between Monday 30 January and Friday 10 February. Details to follow.

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio blog

• More about the Awards
• Read the full shortlist for the Awards