Birmingham

The scheme will be comprised of workshops, expert-led sessions and networking opportunities across an eight-week period. From June 2024, the soon-to-be script writers will learn each stage of writing for screen, covering all bases.

This will be the second “Write Across” scheme the BBC has initiated after the successful “Write Across Liverpool” last year.  

Being left alone to work out how to make television is part of the secret to Guz Khan’s success, he has revealed. The multiple RTS award-winner was talking at the Birmingham premiere of the fourth and final series of the hit BBC comedy Man Like Mobeen.

RTS Midlands co-hosted a drinks reception before a screening and Q&A for fans.

The creative partnership comes after the creation of Knight (Peaky Blinders, Taboo, See) and Kudos’ BBC series SAS Rogue Heroes. The deal will give Kudos a first look at Knight’s UK based projects, and will utilise Knight’s Digbeth Loc. Studios in Birmingham, showing a firm commitment to increasing financial investment in skills and training in the West Midlands.

Over recent weeks, many column inches have been written concerning the success of the Birmingham-inspired TV series Peaky Blinders.

Its move from BBC Two to BBC One has been seamless. More people watch it in the Midlands than anywhere else in the country.

Peakys has undoubtedly put Birmingham firmly back on the national and global map, but the city’s reputation struggles to shake off some outdated prejudices.

The screenwriter about to become a studio mogul; the boardgame inventor whose next drama will launch Apple’s foray into television; the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? creator nominated for an Oscar – there are many ways to paraphrase the extraordinary career of Steven Knight. Let’s start, however, with the blacksmith’s son who launched a million haircuts.

The TV veteran received a certificate from Midlands vice-chair Dorothy Hobson. “I hope to remain active to at least 2036 when it is my aspiration to organise a lecture for the RTS entitled ‘Television: the first 100 years’,” he said.

Terry Stanton’s interest in television began at an early age when his father bought a Marconi set to watch the funeral of King George VI in 1952.

The first Ultra-HD sets simply increased the resolution, but the new format offers much more to television audiences. Both high dynamic range and a wider colour gamut are features of the latest TV sets in the shops.

At the Midlands event in mid-January, Salmon, lead research engineer at BBC R&D, discussed the principles of Ultra-HD television and, in particular, the greater range of colours – the wider colour gamut – available on new TV sets.

Birmingham-born writer Phil Ford – the co-creator, with Russell T Davies, of CBBC series Wizards vs Aliens – discussed his career in front of an audience of RTS Midlands and Writers’ Guild members in October.

Ford was quizzed by BBC One Midlands Today presenter Joanne Malin at the BBC Academy in Birmingham, with the conversation covering his TV work and valuable insights into the craft of writing.