The BBC Audio Drama Awards were presented on March 30 and included two winners of genre interest.
Best Podcast Audio Drama went to The Skies Are Watching, written and produced by Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto.
Heather Haskins went missing two years ago. Discovered aboard a flight without a ticket or identification, she now believes she’s a woman named Coral Goran, it’s 1938, and that she was abducted on the night of Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds broadcast. Her family struggles to come to terms with this turn of events while searching for answers.
Best Use of Sound was won by Restless Dreams, sound by Eloise Whitmore, producers Eloise Whitmore and Polly Thomas. It was one of the drama produced to mark the centenary of Kafka’s death, and inspired by his work.
The shortlist for the 2025 BBC Audio Drama Awards was released on December 16. The winners will be announced on March 30, 2025 in a ceremony in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House London.
Doctor Who – the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles by Georgia Cook, Max Kashevsky and Alfie Shaw, producer Alfie Shaw, Big Finish Productions *
The Skies Are Watching written and produced by Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto, Goldhawk Productions
SHOW NOTES:
English Rose is “Stylish and surprising fantasy horror with a comic twist.”
Money Gone takes a look fifteen minutes into the future: “Valentine’s Day 2025. The UK awakes to financial catastrophe and no one can access any money. Ross sees opportunity as the country descends into chaos, but Grace has picked the worst day run away.”
Randy Feltface’s Destruction Manual is about accelerating climate change and ending humanity.
Camlann is “A post-apocalyptic fiction podcast inspired by Arthuriana.”
The blurb for Crybabies Presents…Bagbeard says, “When recently fired science teacher, Chris Mystery, discovers an alien being in Slugwich Woods, he’s thrust into an epic adventure as he attempts to evade a psychopathic government agent and present his discovery to the Institute of Brilliant Scientists (IBS)…”
Doctor Who – the Eleventh Doctor Chronicles is likely self-explanatory.
In a couple of cases the “genre interest” extends to a pair of dramas marking the centenary of Kafka’s death, one in which he figures as a person, Franz and Felice, and another inspired by his work, Restless Dreams.
And The Call is genre adjacent: “A woman caller wakens a college professor just before dawn. She says she works for the Intelligence Services and that he, the teacher, is to stay on the phone as he is to evacuate all the neighbours in his block after which it is going to be destroyed by a missile.”
Likewise, The Skies Are Watching: “Heather Haskins went missing two years ago. Discovered aboard a flight without a ticket or identification, she now believes she’s a woman named Coral Goran, it’s 1938, and that she was abducted on the night of Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds broadcast. Her family struggles to come to terms with this turn of events while searching for answers.”
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.
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
Mark Heap
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
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.
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 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 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 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 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.”
