Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

It's not the first time that the BBC Writersroom have been an instrumental part in changing my career for the better. That's not an understatement.

The Award was established in 1992 to commemorate the life and work of Alfred Bradley, the distinguished BBC Radio Drama Producer and is run by Radio Drama North in conjunction with BBC Writersroom.

Previous winners include Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, War Horse), Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Debt) and Cat Jones (Doctors, Waterloo Road) who have all gone on to have huge success across radio, TV and film. 

Entries for the 2020/21 Alfred Bradley Bursary Award close at 5pm on Friday 6th November 2020

Testimonies

The winner of the 2018/19 Award has been announced as Alex Clarke and runner-up Jill O'Halloran

Read Jill O'Halloran's blog post about hearing her script produced for BBC Radio 4

See the shortlisted writers for the 2015/16 Award who received development support from BBC Radio Drama North before the overall winner was announced as Piers Black for his script 'Hand to Mouth'.  This was subsequently reworked and retitled 'Human Resources' before being recorded by BBC Radio Drama North in June 2017 for July broadcast.

Furquan Akhtar was the winner of the 2013 Award and developed his winning script 'Shamed' with BBC Radio Drama north. It was broadcast as an Afternoon Drama on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 19 February 2015 at 2.15pm and was available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days. 'Shamed' was subsequently long-listed for the Imison Award for the best original script by a writer new to radio.

Alan Mockler was the runner-up in 2013 and Ian Townsend won a special BBC Writersroom prize.

Cat Jones was the winner of the 2011 Award. Read her blog about why people should enter

Read more blog posts about the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award

Previous Winners

2018/19 - Alex Clarke with "Poundshop Vanilla Princess"

2015/2016 - Piers Black with "Hand to Mouth", recorded as "Human Resources"

2013 - Furquan Akhtar with "Shamed"

2011 - Cat Jones with "Glory Dazed"

2009 - Chris Wilson with "Playing The Game" recorded as "Lump-Boy Logan"

2006 - Mark Shand with "Abigail Adams'

2004 - Anthony Cropper with "I'll Tell You About Love"

2002 - Julia Copus with "Eeenie Meenie Macka Racka"

2000 - Pam Leeson with "There’s Me, David, Chelsea, Charlene, Scott and Bianca"

1998 - Peter Straughan with "The Ghost Of Federico Garcia Lorca Which Can Also Be Used As A Table"

1996 - Mandy Precious with "Patty & Chips with Scraps"

1994 - Lee Hall with "I Luv You Jimmy Spud"

1992 - Donal Thompson