We are delighted to announce the shortlist for our annual awards, to be presented by writer, comedian and actor Katy Brand (pictured left) on Monday 13 January 2020 at the Royal College of Physicians in central London.
WGGB President Sandi Toksvig OBE said: “In such tumultuous times, when truth becomes ever stranger than fiction, we rely on writers to reflect, to inform, to distract, to entertain and to make meaning of it all. And what a lot of talent in this year’s Writers’ Guild Awards shortlist – from page, stage, screen and across the airwaves.”
The shortlist in 15 categories follows (in addition, a special award for outstanding contribution to writing is presented at the ceremony every year):
Best Long Form TV Drama
Blood, Series 1, Episode 6 (Sophie Petzal); Gentleman Jack (Sally Wainwright); Tin Star (Rowan Joffe)
Best Short Form TV Drama
Brexit: The Uncivil War (James Graham); Care (Gillian Juckes and Jimmy McGovern); Mrs Wilson (Anna Symon)
Best Long Running TV Series
EastEnders, Episode 5028 (Peter Mattessi); Holby City, Season 21, Episode 5, ‘Mad As Hell’ (Martin Jameson); Hollyoaks, Episode 5013 (Roanne Bardsley)
Best TV Situation Comedy
Brassic (Danny Brocklehurst); Derry Girls (Lisa McGee); Home (Rufus Jones)
Best Children’s TV Episode
Danger Mouse, Series 2, Episode 39, ‘Melted’ (Ciaran Murtagh and Andrew Barnett Jones); The A List, Episode 6, ‘Far From Home’ (Dan Berlinka and Nina Metivier); The Worst Witch, ‘Bad Magic’ (Neil Jones)
Best Radio Drama
Forest 404 (Timothy X Atack); Home Front: A Fragile Peace (Katie Hims); The Not Knowing (Daniel Maier)
Best Radio Comedy
The Hauntening (Tom Neenan); Madam Mayor (Brenda Gilhooly); Prepper (Caroline Moran and James J Moran)
Best Writing in a Video Game
Heaven’s Vault (Jon Ingold); Over the Alps (Jon Ingold, Katharine Neil and Nick Bush); Telling Lies (Sam Barlow and Amelia Gray)
Best Screenplay
Beats (Kieran Hurley and Brian Welsh); Stan & Ollie (Jeff Pope); The Last Tree (Shola Amoo)
Best First Screenplay
Only You (Harry Wootliff); The Fight (Jessica Hynes); VS. (Daniel Hayes and Ed Lilly)
Best Play
Ali and Dahlia (Tariq Jordan); The Cane (Mark Ravenhill); Wolfie (Ross Willis)
Best Play for Young Audiences
Like Water For Goldfish (Mike Kenny); Small Wonders (Nessah Muthy); The Canary and the Crow (Daniel Ward)
Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting
Growl – The True Story of the Big Bad Wolf (Timothy Knapman); In The Willows – The Hip Hop Musical (Poppy Burton-Morgan); Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch (Robyn Grant and Daniel Foxx)
Best First Novel
Cygnet (Season Butler); Finally Woken (Dean Moynihan); Something Like Breathing (Angela Readman)
Best Online Comedy
Down From London (Graham Dickson and Liz Kingsman); Paper Trail (Ben Rufus Green); Side Effects of the Pill (Hannah George and Tasha Dhanraj)
Thank you to our sponsors
The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is the lead sponsor of the Writers’ Guild Awards this year. Our other sponsors are: BBC, ITV, Company Pictures, Script Angel and Nick Hern Books.
For enquiries about the awards, including the guest list, please email awards@writersguild.org.uk
For information about the Writers’ Guild Awards, including a slideshow from last year’s ceremony, a potted history and archive of winners since 1961, visit the special awards section of our website.
You can also follow the Awards on Twitter @TheWritersGuild #wggbawards
Photo of guests at the 2019 Awards ceremony: Matt Writtle
