Sally Wainwright

Cracking Telly: Screenwriter Ryan Brown shares his story

"I probably have more of a writer's soul than an actor's soul" - Ryan Brown

Although still early in his career himself, Brown has been making waves, having won the Bafta New Writing Prize of Drama in 2016, and been runner up in an Idris Elba-fronted writing competition, 'Write to Greenlight'.

Competitions are now key to breaking into the industry as a young writer, he believes. While in the past it was possible to get your break with a killer script and the right opportunity, now young writers need an ‘in’. Competitions, he believes, are the key.

Happy Valley's Sally Wainwright: "I write people I want to be, not who I am"

The screenwriter received the Judges’ Award among others at the RTS Programme Awards 2017 for her “outstanding contribution to the UK’s television and media industry.”

“I feel very lucky that I have been able to achieve my ambitions and been able to do the things that I want to do,” she says humbly.

She is humble too about her past achievements: Baftas, RTS Awards, TV Choice Awards, Broadcast awards and more litter the shelves of her study in her Cotswold home.

“It’s nice to be recognised,” she says.

BBC One announces new drama Shibden Hall from Sally Wainwright

The eight-part series follows the story of landowner Anne Lister who returns from years of travel to re-establish her faded ancestral home Shibden Hall, Halifax.

Society dictates that she should re-open her coal mines and marry well, yet the charming and single-minded Anne has no intention of marrying a man and instead seeks a wealthy female suitor.

Shibden Hall is a love story based on historical facts, taken from the diary entries of Anne Lister which contained the intimate details of her life.

Watch: Expert tips on entertainment, journalism, documentaries and drama

Speakers included Sally Wainwright, creator and writer of Happy Valley; Rohit Kachroo, ITV News Security Editor; documentary filmmaker Rowan Deacon and Suzy Lamb, Head of Entertainment at Thames TV.

We've rounded up the very best of the day's tips in the video below.

Sally Wainwright tackles the Brontë sisters for BBC One

To Walk Invisible takes a closer look at the extraordinary lives of the Brontë sisters, who overcame many obstacles, to rise from obscurity to producing some of the greatest novels in the English language.

Speaking at a recent RTS event, Sally Wainwright explained her interest in the characters. She told audiences how when she wrote the script, she wanted the characters to reflect real life. She complained that past retellings of the story have seen actors with sparkling teeth and RP accents, describing it as “offensive.”

Discovering Nicola Shindler: the UK's most secretive TV exec

Nicola Shindler is not a great one for giving interviews, possibly because, as the founder and Chief Executive of one of Britain’s most successful drama producers, she sees her job as telling other people’s stories, not her own. As I say to her, her Who’s Who entry is the least personal I have ever read, absent of parents, partners and children. “Good,” she says, “I don’t want people to know anything about me.”

Sally Wainwright to tell story of the Brontes

To Walk Invisible will star Jonathan Pryce as the novelists' father, and reunite Happy Valley actors Charlie Murphy and Adam Nagaitis as sister and brother Anne and Branwell Bronte. 

"I am such an admirer of Sally Wainwright that if she were filming the phone book I would want to be in it!" said Pryce. "Her film will be a characteristically honest look at the whole Bronte family."