Audio - BBC Audio Drama Awards Shortlist

The shortlist for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2019 has been revealed and there's some familiar names on there...

The quality of work in this year's awards list is better than ever and we're really pleased that we don't have to choose the winners with our friends at Big Finish, Bafflegab Productions, AND the Wireless Theatre Company going head to head in the category for Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama. Elsewhere, Best Actor will also be a hotly contended category with David Threlfall, Derek Jacobi and David Tennant in the running.

The Beast and 19 Weeks are up for more than one award, with The Beast up for Best Debut Performance and Best Use of Sound and nods for Best Single Drama and Best Actress for 19 Weeks. It's also good to see such a mix of story types represented with classics standing beside brand new works and comedies up against mystery up against serious drama, showing the medium of audio is alive and well.

The BBC Audio Drama Awards celebrate the range, originality and cut-through quality of audio drama on air and online and give recognition to the creativity of actors, writers, producers, sound designers and others who work in this genre.

The finalists will be announced on Tuesday 8th January 2019, and the winners will be revealed at a ceremony in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House London on the evening of Sunday 3rd February 2019.


Here's the full shortlist

Best Original Single Drama

19 Weeks by Emily Steel, producer Helen Perry
All of the Beauty in the World by Eve Steel, producer Gary Brown
The Chosen One by Avi Garvi, producers Nadir Khan and John Dryden
County Lines by Amelia Bullmore, producer Mary Peate
Holbein’s Skull by Martyn Wade, producer Tracy Neale
The Trials of CB King by David Morley, producer Marc Beeby


Best Original Series or Serial

Stone by Martin Jameson, Richard Monks, Cath Staincliffe, Alex Ganley, Vivienne Harvey, producers Nadia Molinari and Gary Brown
Subterranean Homesick Blues by A L Kennedy, producer Sally Avens
Tommies by Avin Shah, producers David Hunter, Jonquil Panting and Jonathan Ruffle
The Truth about Hawaii by Oliver Emanuel, producer Kirsty Williams
The Unforgiven by Barbara Machin, producer Allegra McIlroy
The Wilsons Save the World by Marcus Brigstocke and Sarah Morgan, producer Julia McKenzie


Best Adaptation

The Art of Foot-binding by Danielle McLauglin, producer Kevin Brew
Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan, adapted by Claudine Toutoungi, producer Gemma Jenkins
Das Kapital by Karl Marx, adapted by Sarah Woods, producer James Robinson
Love Henry James: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, adapted by Linda Marshall Griffiths, producer Nadia Molinari
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, adapted by Lucy Catherine, producer Sasha Yevtushenko
A Tale of Two Cities: Aleppo and London by Charles Dickens, adapted by Ayeesha Menon, producer Gill Parry


Best Actor

Liam Brennan, Five Days Which Changed Everything
Jasper Britton, A Month of Maureen – Three Journeys
Derek Jacobi, The War Master 1.1 Beneath the Viscoid
George McKay, The Glass Menagerie
David Tennant, Wild Honey
David Threlfall, Spike and the Elfin Oak


Best Actress

Sudha Bhuchar, My Son the Doctor
Jessie Buckley, The Effect
Mandeep Dhillon, Freezing to Death (And How to Avoid It)
Jo Martin, The Interrogation
Eve Myles, 19 Weeks
Sydney Wade, D for Dexter


Best Director

Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateus Dymek, The King of the Flat White As Narrated by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Steve Bond and Judith Kampfner, Shadowbahn
Abigail le Fleming, The Effect
Peter Kavanagh, The Wild Duck
Shan Ng, Tiger Girls


Best Debut Performance

Salvatore D’Aquilla, Operation Crucible
Karlo Diaz, The Beast
Daisy Head, Love Henry James: the Golden Bowl
Yolanda Mercy, Quarter Life Crisis
Rebekah Murrell, The Gift
Georgia Scholes, Billy Homeless Dies at the End


Best Use of Sound

Anansi Boys, sound by Wilfredo Acosta, producers Allegra McIlroy and Dirk Maggs
The Beast, sound by Steve Bond, producers Nicolas Jackson and Steve Bond
Love Henry James: the Turn of the Screw, sound by Steve Brooke and John Benton, producer Nadia Molinari
The Quanderhorn Xperimentations, sound by Alisdair MacGregor, producer Andrew Marshall
Unmade Movies: Dennis Potter’s The White Hotel, sound by Wilfredo Acosta, producers Laurence Bowen and Peter Ettedgui
A Taxi Stops, sound by Rikke Houd and Mike Woolley, producer Rikke Houd


Best Scripted Comedy (Longform)

Ability by Lee Ridley and Katherine Jakeways, producer Jane Berthoud
Bridget Christie’s Utopia by Bridget Christie, producers Simon Nicholls and Alison Vernon-Smith
Mae Martin’s Guide to 21st Century Addiction by Mae Martin, producer Alexandra Smith
Plum House by Ben Cottam and Paul McKenna, producers Sarah Cartwright and Paul Schlesinger
Robert Newman’s Total Eclipse of Descartes by Rob Newman, producer John Whitehall
Tim Key’s Late-Night Poetry Programme by Tim Key, producer James Robinson


Best Scripted Comedy (Sketch Show)

Agendum by Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris, producer David Tyler
Dead Ringers by Nev Fountain, Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden, Tom Coles, Sarah Campbell, James Bugg, Max Davis, Sarah Gibbs, Alex Hardy, Laura Major and Lewis Cook, producer Bill Dare
John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme by John Finnemore, producer Ed Morrish
Lucy Porter in the Family Way by Lucy Porter, producer Gordon Kennedy
Newsjack by the great British public, producers Adnan Ahmed and Suzy Grant
Sketchtopia by Kai Samra, Ling Low, Bilal Zafar, Lizzie Bates, Anna Emerson, Elizabeth Caproni, Sarah Gibbs, Luke Manning and Paul G Raymond, producer Gus Beattie
Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones by Milton Jones, James Cary and Dan Evans, producer David Tyler


Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama

ATA Girl by Gemma Page, Victoria Saxton, Helen Goldwyn and Jane Slavin, producer Helen Goldwyn, Big Finish Productions
Blind Terror – The Gods of Frost by Guy Adams, producer Scott Handcock, Big Finish Productions
Blood on Satan’s Claw by Robert Wynne-Simmons, adapted by Mark Morris, producer Simon Barnard, Bafflegab Productions
Double Bubble by Carl Cattermole, producer Katie Bilboa, Prison Radio Association
Red Moon written and produced by Robert Valentine, The Wireless Theatre Company
Tracks: Strata by Matthew Broughton, producer James Robinson, BBC


Best European Drama

100 Songs by Roland Schimmelpfennig, producer Manfred Hess, SWR/ARD Germany
The Confession by Fyodor Dostoevsky, adapted by Doina Papp, producer Ilinca Stihi, Radio Romania
The Cremator by Ladislav Fuks, adapted by Lenka Veverková, producer Eva Vovesná, Czech Radio
The Day It Rained 449 Franz Klammers by Mathias Cavelty, producer Reto Ott, SRF Swiss Radio and Television
July 22nd: How Could It Happen? by Mathias Calmeyer, producer Øystein Kjennerud, NRK Norway
Munch and Munch – Diptych by Jasna Mesarić, producer Katja Šimunić, HRT Croatian Radio
Wrapped by Tracy Martin, producer Kevin Reynolds, RTÉ Ireland

Image - BBC