The BBC Audio Drama Awards were presented on March 24. There was one winner of genre interest, Best Supporting Performance by Mark Heap in Kafka’s Dick.

Also, many readers will be interested that Benny and Hitch, about “The explosive relationship between Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock brought to life by Andrew McCaldon”, was honored with The Society of Authors  Imison Award, which celebrates the best in new writing for the medium of audio drama and is worth £3,000.

The complete list of winners follows the jump.

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BEST ORIGINAL SINGLE DRAMA

• WINNER: Dear Harry Kane by James Fritz, producer Sally Avens, BBC Audio Drama London

 BEST ADAPTATION

• WINNER: Bess Loves Porgy by Edwin DuBose Heyward, adapted by Roy Williams, producer Gill Parry, feral inc

COMMENDATION: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, adapted by Tim Crouch and Toby Jones, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North

COMMENDATION: Beowulf Retold based on the version by Seamus Heaney, producer Pauline Harris, BBC Audio Drama London

 BEST ORIGINAL SERIES OR SERIAL

• WINNER: Trust by Jonathan Hall, producer Gary Brown, BBC Audio Drama North

COMMENDATION: There’s Something I Need to Tell You by John Scott Dryden and Misha Kawnel, producer Emma Hearn, Goldhawk Productions

 BEST ACTOR

• WINNER: Hiran Abeysekera, Dear Harry Kane, director Sally Avens, BBC Audio Drama London

COMMENDATION: Lorn Macdonald, Confessions of a Justified Sinner, director Kirsty Williams, BBC Scotland

 BEST ACTRESS

• WINNER: Rosamund Pike, People Who Knew Me, director Daniella Isaacs, Merman

 BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

• WINNER: Mark Heap, Kafka’s Dick, directors Polly Thomas and Dermot Daly, Naked Productions

THE MARC BEEBY AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE

• WINNER: Rosalind Eleazar, Hindsight, director Gaynor Macfarlane, BBC Scotland

COMMENDATION: Jadie Rose Hobson, Exposure, director Anne Isger, BBC Audio Drama London

COMMENDATION: Dan Parr, The Test Batter Can’t Breathe, director Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London

 BEST SIT COM OR COMEDY DRAMA

• WINNER: Where to, Mate? devised by Jo Enright, Peter Slater, Abdullah Afzal, Nina Gilligan, Andy Salthouse, Keith Carter, Jason Wingard, producer Carl Cooper, BBC Studios Audio

 BEST STAND UP COMEDY

• WINNER: Sarah Keyworth: Are You a Boy or a Girl by by Sarah Keyworth, additional material Ruby Clyde, producer Georgia Keating, BBC Studios Audio

COMMENDATION: Janey Godley: the C Bomb by Janey Godley, producers Julia Sutherland and Richard Melvin, Dabster Productions

 BEST USE OF SOUND

• WINNER: Hamlet Noir, sound by David Chilton, Lucinda Mason Brown, Weronika Andersen, producers Charlotte Melén, Carl Prekopp and Saskia Black, Almost Tangible

 BEST PODCAST AUDIO DRAMA

• WINNER: Badger and the Blitz by Richard Turley and Darren Francis, producer Richard Turley, ROXO

 BEST EUROPEAN DRAMA

• WINNER: This Word by Marta Rebzda, producer Waldemar Modestowicz, Polish Radio Theatre

 IMISON AWARD 2024

• WINNER: Benny and Hitch by Andrew McCaldon, producers Neil Varley and Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London

COMMENDATION: In Moderation by Katie Bonna, producer Sally Avens, BBC Audio Drama London

TINNISWOOD AWARD 2024

• WINNER: Cracking by Shôn Dale-Jones, producer John Norton, BBC Cymru Wales

 OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION

• Oliver Emanuel, presented by Dan Rebellato.

 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

• Graham Garden, presented by Charlotte Moore.

The shortlist for the 2024 BBC Audio Drama Awards was released on December 21. The winners will be announced on March 24, 2024 in a ceremony in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House London.

The finalists of genre interest follow. Click here for the complete 2024 shortlist.

Best Adaptation

• Beowulf Retold based on the version by Seamus Heaney, producer Pauline Harris, BBC Audio Drama London
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, adapted by Robert Macfarlane and Simon McBurney, producer Catherine Bailey, Catherine Bailey Productions and Complicite
• If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, adapted by Tim Crouch and Toby Jones, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North

Best Original Series or Serial

• The 5000 by Sebastian Baczkiewicz, producers Gaynor Macfarlane, BBC Scotland

Best Actor

• Toby Jones, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, director Nadia Molinari, BBC Audio Drama North
• Tim McInerny, Benny & Hitch, director Tracey Neale, BBC Audio Drama London

Best Actress

• Dinita Gohil, Victory City, producer Alison Crawford, BBC Bristol

Best Supporting Performance

• Mark Heap, Kafka’s Dick, director Dermot Daly, Naked Productions

Best Stand Up Comedy

• Olga Koch: OK Computer by Olga Koch and Charlie Dinkin, producer Benjamin Sutton, BBC Studios Audio

Best Use of Sound

• The Dark is Rising, sound by Gareth Fry, producer Catherine Bailey, Catherine Bailey Productions and Complicité
• Slow Air, sound by Alisdair McGregor and Eloise Whitmore, producer Polly Thomas, Naked Productions

Best Podcast Audio Drama

• Below by Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen, producer John Wakefield, HTM Television
• The Haunter of the Dark – The Lovecraft Investigations by Julian Simpson, producer Sarah Tombling, Sweet Talk Productions
• The Salvation by Justin Lockey, Jeffrey Aidoo, and AK Benedict, producers John Hamm and Boz Temple-Morris, Holy Mountain and Free Turn

Although not genre, many readers will also be interested in the Best Original Single Drama finalist Benny and Hitch which is about “The explosive relationship between Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock brought to life by Andrew McCaldon.”

The BBC Audio Drama Awards were presented on March 19 and three out of the four genre finalists came away with awards.

End of Transmission by Anita Sullivan won Best Original Single Drama, and the Tinniswood Award. Anton Lesser was named Best Actor for his work in One Five Seven Years.

The complete list of winners follows the jump.

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The finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2023 have been revealed. They include several productions and performances of genre interest.

Best Original Single Drama

• Daughter by Testament, producer Gary Brown, BBC Audio Drama North
• End of Transmission by Anita Sullivan, producer Karen Rose, Sweet Talk

Best Actor

• Anton Lesser, One Five Seven Years, director Nicolas Jackson, Afonica

Tinniswood Award 2023

• End of Transmission by Anita Sullivan, producer Karen Rose, Sweet Talk Productions for BBC Radio 4

The complete list of finalists is here. The winners will be announced on Sunday March 19 in London. 

The winners of the 11th BBC Audio Drama Awards 2022 were announced in a virtual ceremony on March 25. None of the nine nominees of genre interest won their categories.

The awards are presented by the BBC together with the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain to “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….”

The complete list of winners follows the jump.

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The finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2022 have been revealed. They include several productions and performances of genre interest.

Best Actor

• Toby Jones, Grief is the Thing with Feathers – A family has lost its mother, and black-feathered Crow – “therapist, healer, feathered Mary Poppins – promises to stay until they no longer need him.”
• Christopher Eccleston, Murmuration — a non-sff production, however, it is about a man who hears voices. (And Eccleston did used to play Doctor Who!)

Best Supporting Performance

• Jenny Bede, The Hauntening (ghosts)
• Joanne Whalley, Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls (horror)

Best Original Single Drama

• The Goldilocks Zone by Tanika Gupta — Astrophysicist Sofia Khaled’s discovery of a potentially habitable planet opens up painful memories for her but a startling new truth for humanity.

Best Adaptation

• The Brummie Iliad by Homer, adapted by Roderick Smith — The Birmingham accent is not normally associated with the classical world’s epic poetry, but its hard-edged, cynical and wistful qualities turn out to be a perfect vehicle for a story of blood-thirsty warriors, long-suffering women and meddling Gods.
• Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, adapted by Ayeesha Menon

Best Original Series or Serial

• London Particular by Nick Perry — Investigating the disappearance of her brother, Alice uncovers powerful secrets in the forgotten corners of London. Time travelling drama. 

Best European Drama

• Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, adapted and produced by Ilinca Stih

Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama

• Tracks: Abyss by Matthew Broughton – fifth season, description hints it might have fantastic elements

The winners will be announced March 20.

The complete list of finalists follows the jump.

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The winners of the 10th BBC Audio Drama Awards 2021 were announced in a virtual ceremony on March 26.

The awards are presented by the BBC together with the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain to “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….”

Two productions of genre interest won their categories.

Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama

• Unwell: a Midwestern Gothic Mystery, producers Jeffrey Nils Gardner and Eleanor Hyde, HartLife NFP

Lillian Harper moves to the small town of Mt. Absalom, Ohio, to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town’s boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house’s strange assortment of residents.

Best Use of Sound

• The Grey Man and Other Lost Legends, sound by Steve Bond, producers Joby Waldman and Steve Bond, Reduced Listening, BBC Radio 4

A strange craft crash lands on a mountain plateau, with far-reaching consequences. Sebastian Baczkiewicz weaves interviews about Scotland’s yeti into an innovative audio drama.

The full list of winners follows the jump.

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The finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2021 have been revealed. They include several productions of genre interest.

• Body Horror, about someone in 2050 who receives a new body, is a nominee for Best Original Series or Serial
• Murmurs, 10-episode series of the horror and supernatural is a finalist in the Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama category. “There’s a crack in reality and something’s breaking through. Ten mind-altering tales from some of the best new drama podcast writers.” Episode One, Over and Out, is nominated for Best Use of Sound.
• Another Best Use of Sound finalist is The Grey Man and other lost legends, “A strange craft crash lands on a mountain plateau, with far-reaching consequences. Sebastian Baczkiewicz weaves interviews about Scotland’s yeti into an innovative audio drama.”

The winners will be announced March 26.

The complete list of finalists follows the jump.

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The finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2020 have been revealed.

In contrast with last year, few programs of genre interest have made the list. In the Best Director category, Mary Ward-Lowery is a contender for Talk to Me: HP Lovecraft. Body Tourists by Jane Rogers is a finalist for Best Adaptation. And so is Orlando by Virginia Woolf – which ought to count as genre by today’s reckoning, being about an immortal changing gender.

The winners will be announced Sunday, February 2.

The complete list of finalists follows the jump.

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