“Never write with a filter – thinking about what ‘they’ want you to write.”
“Love the one you are with.”
“Don’t be a wanker.”
These were some of the good-humoured but sound pieces of advice on offer from established writers at the inaugural one-day RTS Story Conference, which was packed with informative sessions featuring some of the biggest names in UK television.
"Networking isn’t a dirty word,” insisted RTS North West Chair and executive producer at Manchester drama indie Rope Ladder Fiction Cameron Roach. He was speaking at the start of an inspiring late-March Student Networking Day.
“People assume that to network you have to be gregarious,” he continued. “That is not the case.”
The Liverpool-born author took the Script Writer award for his BBC One prison drama Time while its star, Sean Bean, picked up the Performance in a Drama prize.
McGovern’s drama Anthony, made by LA Productions for BBC One, which tells the story of a racist murder of a teenager and the life he could have lived, secured the Single Drama award.
Channel 4 Aids drama It’s a Sin, written by Russell T Davies and made by Red Production Company, took the Drama Series prize.
‘I’m incredibly honoured,’ said Roach. ‘The North West has a long history of exceptional programme-making
and enabling the next generation of talent – and the RTS has always celebrated and supported both.’
Theresa Wise, CEO of the RTS, said: ‘As the UK production sector returns to full swing, the work of our regional centres is central to supporting the work of our wonderful television community.’
It felt good to be in a room full of people at the RTS Cambridge Convention last month: great sessions and speakers, brilliantly curated by Ben McOwen Wilson of YouTube. Of course, there was much drama when John Whittingdale stepped in for outgoing culture secretary Oliver Dowden, but this was a great way of demonstrating to the UK broadcasting industry that the Government knows better than most what constitutes great drama.
RTS NW regret to announce that due to COVID -19 and the current social distancing guidelines we have had to cancel the RTS NW Awards 2020.
We look forward to seeing you and receiving all your amazing entries in 2021.
Over three series, The A Word has been widely praised for its honest portrayal of autism and the tensions this unleashes on a family. But The A Word is also laugh-out-loud funny and joyful – and, given its Lake District setting, beautiful to look at.
The BBC One drama, which finished its third series in early June, tells the story of Joe, a young boy with autism, and his fractious, larger-than life extended family.
A behind the scenes interview with Julie Graham, Angela Griffin, Robin Sheppard and Denise Welch from the new YouTube drama series Dun Breedin', which looks at the new and innovative way to make drama in lockdown.
The writer was talking at an RTS North West online Q&A in late April. He recalled the 2008 recession, when friends at ITV told him, “‘We don’t know if we can show this episode of The Bill tonight,’ [because] they were so short of advertisers and money.
“This recession is going to be even bigger and it’s going to affect the commercial channels hugely… and [the streamers] will start cutting back as well.
“We’ve got a Government that is morally and profoundly opposed to the BBC. Please don’t think they’ll change their minds about the BBC in this crisis.”
