Today in History – Writing – 1st January

On this day….

1^st January

In 1951 the first episode of the BBC’s radio serial The Archers – farming folk of Ambridge. It is the world’s longest running radio ‘soap’.

One of the main acknowledgements of the soap is the writers’ and producers skills to craft real-life events into the soap. This at times can be incredibly challenging for the production team, some significant but unforeseen events require scenes to be rewritten and rerecorded at short notice, such as the death of Princess Margaret (particularly poignant because she had appeared as herself on the programme, the World Trade Center attacks, and the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The events and implications of the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis required many “topical inserts” and the rewriting of several storylines.

For budding script-writers a visit to this webpage which tells Carole Solazzo’s story (a scriptwriter and producer of the archers) about a typical day, her proudest moment and what she’s learnt from the production could be inspirational.

Also, the BBC regularly publish script competitions. The next one is Opening Lines – BBC Radio 4’s showcase for short stories is submissions accepted January 5th – February 13th 2015.

Maybe 2015 is the time to write your screenplay – goodluck J

Source –

http://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/onthisday/onthisday.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135286