Audio - BBC Audio Drama Awards Finalists

The list of finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2019 has been revealed...

Press Release

The BBC Audio Drama Awards has confirmed the 2019 finalists, including a Best Actor nomination for David Threlfall (Shameless/Hot Fuzz) as Spike Milligan in Radio 4’s Spike and the Elfin Oak; Eve Myles and Sudha Bhuchar for Best Actress for their roles in 19 Weeks and My Son The Doctor (respectively); and a Best Scripted Comedy (Longform) nomination for Tim Key’s Late-Night Poetry Programme.

Elsewhere, World War I drama Tommies is nominated for Best Original Series or Serial, and the conspiracy-thriller Tracks is amongst contenders for Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama, going up against a favourite of ours, Red Moon by The Wireless Theatre Company. Irish broadcaster RTÉ’s comedy play, Wrapped, is nominated for Best European Drama - one of two new categories for 2019, the other being Best Director.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House, London on the evening of Sunday 3 February 2019, presented by Tracy-Ann Oberman.

The Audio Drama Awards recognise the cultural significance, range and originality of audio drama, on air as well as online, and credit the creativity of the actors, writers, producers, sound designers and others who work within the field. The awards highlight the popularity of audio drama, with the BBC - the biggest commissioner on a global level - best placed to celebrate the medium.

Each category is judged by a team of industry experts including Ruth Jones, Indira Varma, Paul Schlesinger, Nina Wadia, Neil Dudgeon, Danny Sapani and Arthur Darvill. In its eight-year history, the BBC Audio Drama Awards has presented trophies to leading lights including Dame Sian Phillips, John Hurt, Neil Gaiman, Sir Ian McKellen, Monica Dolan, Danny Sapani and The Archers.

The BBC Audio Drama Awards cover audio dramas first broadcast in English in the UK between 1st October 2017 and 31st October 2018 - or first uploaded/published for free listening online from the UK during the same period. Entries were welcome from all makers of audio drama, and were not restricted to BBC broadcasts. Each programme producer could enter up to four categories (one entry only per category) but the audio drama had to be submitted exactly as broadcast or uploaded. There was no entry fee.

Here's the full list of finalists

Best Original Single Drama

19 Weeks by Emily Steel, produced/directed by Helen Perry for BBC Radio 4
The Chosen One written and directed by Avi Garvi, produced by Nadir Khan and John Dryden, Goldhawk Productions for BBC Radio 4
County Lines by Amelia Bullmore, produced/directed by Mary Peate for BBC Radio 4


Best Original Series or Serial

Stone by Martin Jameson, Richard Monks, Cath Staincliffe, Alex Ganley, Vivienne Harvey, produced/directed by Nadia Molinari and Gary Brown for BBC Radio 4
Tommies by Avin Shah, directed by Jonquil Panting, produced by David Hunter, Jonquil Panting and Jonathan Ruffle for BBC Radio 4
The Truth about Hawaii by Oliver Emanuel, produced/directed by Kirsty Williams for BBC Radio 4


Best Adaptation

Das Kapital by Karl Marx, adapted by Sarah Woods, produced/directed by James Robinson for BBC Radio 4
Love Henry James: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, adapted by Linda Marshall Griffiths, produced/directed by Nadia Molinari for BBC Radio 4
A Tale of Two Cities: Aleppo and London by Charles Dickens, adapted by Ayeesha Menon, directed by Polly Thomas, produced by Gill Parry and Emma Hearn, Goldhawk Productions for BBC Radio 4


Best Actor

Liam Brennan, Five Days Which Changed Everything, directed by Kirsty Williams for BBC Radio 4
Jasper Britton, A Month of Maureen – Three Journeys, directed by Marion Nancarrow for BBC Radio 4
David Threlfall, Spike and the Elfin Oak, directed by Gemma Jenkins for BBC Radio 4


Best Actress

Sudha Bhuchar, My Son the Doctor, directed by Jonquil Panting for BBC Radio 4
Eve Myles, 19 Weeks, directed by Helen Perry for BBC Radio 4
Sydney Wade, D for Dexter, directed by Mary Ward-Lowery for BBC Radio 4


Best Director

Steve Bond and Judith Kampfner, Shadowbahn, a Corporation for Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4
Abigail le Fleming, The Effect, for BBC Radio 3
Peter Kavanagh, The Wild Duck, for BBC Radio 3


Best Debut Performance

Karlo Diaz, The Beast, directed by Nicolas Jackson and Steve Bond, an Afonica production for BBC Radio 4
Daisy Head, Love Henry James: the Golden Bowl, directed by Nadia Molinari for BBC Radio 4
Georgia Scholes, Billy Homeless Dies at the End, directed by Boz Temple-Morris, a Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4


Best Use of Sound

The Beast, sound by Steve Bond, produced/directed by Nicolas Jackson and Steve Bond, an Afonica production for BBC Radio 4
Love Henry James: the Turn of the Screw, sound by Steve Brooke and John Benton, produced/directed by Nadia Molinari for BBC Radio 4
Unmade Movies: Dennis Potter’s The White Hotel, sound by Wilfredo Acosta, directed by Jon Amiel, produced by Laurence Bowen and Peter Ettedgui, a Dancing Ledge production by BBC Radio 4


Best Scripted Comedy (Longform)

Bridget Christie’s Utopia by Bridget Christie, produced by Simon Nicholls and Alison Vernon-Smith, a BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4
Rob Newman’s Total Eclipse of Descartes by Rob Newman, produced by John Whitehall, Hat Trick Productions for BBC Radio 4
Tim Key’s Late-Night Poetry Programme by Tim Key, produced by James Robinson for BBC Radio 4


Best Scripted Comedy (Sketch Show)

Agendum by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris, produced by David Tyler, a Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
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, produced by Bill Dare, a BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4
John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme by John Finnemore, produced by Ed Morrish, a BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4


Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama

ATA Girl by Gemma Page, Victoria Saxton, Helen Goldwyn and Jane Slavin, directed by Louise Jameson, produced by Helen Goldwyn, Big Finish Productions
Red Moon written, directed and produced by Robert Valentine, The Wireless Theatre Company
Tracks: Strata by Matthew Broughton, produced/directed by James Robinson for BBC Radio 4


Best European Drama

The Confession by Fyodor Dostoevsky, adapted by Doina Papp, produced/directed by Ilinca Stihi, Radio Romania
Munch and Munch - Diptych written and directed by Jasna Mesarić, produced by Katja Šimunić, HRT Croatian Radio
Wrapped by Tracy Martin, produced/directed by Kevin Reynolds, RTÉ Ireland


Imison Award Finalists (chosen by the Society of Authors)

Ian Billings for Spike and the Elfin Oak, produced by Gemma Jenkins for BBC Radio 4
Carl Cattermole for Double Bubble, produced by Andrew Wilkie, National Prison Radio
Lulu Raczka for Of a Lifetime, produced by Polly Thomas and Eloise Whitmore, Naked Productions for BBC Radio 3


Tinniswood Award Finalists ( chosen by the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild.)

Oliver Emanuel for When the Pips Stop, produced by Kirsty Williams for BBC Radio 4
Vivienne Harvey for Playing Dead, produced by Nadia Molinari for BBC Radio 4
Martyn Wade for Holbein’s Skull, produced by Tracey Neale for BBC Radio 4

Images - BBC