TV Drama

BBC Drama produces series, serials, singles, and factual drama for TV. BBC Drama will not consider sample spec episodes of existing or previous dramas; they are looking for writers with original voices and calling card scripts.

A returning series creates characters and uses them to tell a self-contained story each week (sometimes over two episodes per week). Examples include: Doctor Who, Merlin, Waking the Dead, Silent Witness, Spooks, Hustle, and Lark Rise to Candleford.

A serial is a single story told over a finite number of episodes. It should not run indefinitely but conclude in the final episode. Examples include: Jekyll, Five Days, State of Play, Criminal Justice. Most adaptations take the form of a serial, for example: Bleak House, Jane Eyre, The Line of Beauty.

A single is a one-off, self-contained story for TV, for example: White Girl, Soundproof, Capturing Mary, Fear of Fanny, A Short Stay in Switzerland.

Factual projects tend to be single or two-part dramas, and will tend to be either ambitious large-scale projects with factual authority, such as Hillsborough and Bloody Sunday, or social documentary dramas such as Out of Control.

Submitting to writersroom

A submission for a proposed returning series or serial should consist of a full episode script (between 45-60 minutes) and be accompanied by a brief outline (1-3 pages) of how the series would develop over further episodes. 

A submission for a proposed single or factual drama should comprise the full script.