Rocliffe New Writing Forum

Find out more about the invaluable forum for aspiring screenwriters.

Latest News & Events

Greg Daniels To Chair BAFTA Rocliffe Event At New York Television Festival

Greg Daniels _{07 October 13}

Greg Daniels, showrunner of The Office and co-creator of King of the Hill and Parks And Recreation will review the work of our Rocliffe Comdey Writers at this year's New York Television Festival. He will lead a masterclass where he will offer live feedback on the writing in the scenes performed by professional actors as part of our NYTV BAFTA Rocliffe New Writers Forum.

Read the press release to find out more >

BAFTA Rocliffe Comedy Writers 2013

_{15 July 13}

BAFTA and Rocliffe set out in search of the UK’s most promising comedy writers as part of a nation wide competition and five winning scripts have been selected.

Meet the talented comedy writers selected by BAFTA to showcase their scripts at the New York Television Festival and Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival in 2013. Read the winners' profiles >

BAFTA Rocliffe May 2013 with Ben Stephenson, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning

_{15 May 2013}

On Monday 13 May, the latest BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum took place at 195 Piccadilly. Joining on the night was Ben Stephenson, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning who offered his tips and experience on the works of our three selected rising screenwriters - Aisling Corristine, Romily Masters and Natalie Malla. After an incredibly insightful evening, Malla has shared some of her thoughts from the night and how her work has already started to turn heads.

My Director David and the company of Actors were making my words come alive in rehearsal and I was really pleased with how it was all looking and sounding, but ten minutes to go before the event was due to begin, and I was still so ridiculously nervous, that it was taking all my energy to stop myself from running and hiding.

Luckily the audience really responded to the characters and there was laughter in all the right places. I was kind of terrified of getting critiqued infront of a live audience, but the feedback from Ben Stephenson was so useful. He told me to put more of myself in to my work and really make sure that my voice was clear, so that commissioners could understand why I am the only person who can tell the stories I want to tell.

It was such an amazing experience taking part in the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum, and it has meant that I have now started to make contact with Kudos, Island Pictures, Eleventh Hour and a couple of Literary Agents who have shown some interest in my work. Here’s hoping this is just the beginning.

Download the event programme > (1.2 MB)

Event review

Jury Announced for BAFTA Rocliffe in Edinburgh and New York

_{22 April 2013}

BAFTA/ Steve Butler Jessica Hynes and Jennifer Saunders amongst comedy creatives who will choose new writers to showcase their work at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival and the New York Television Festival.

Read the press release >

Best Of 2012 & What's To Come In 2013

_{Thursday 7 February 2013}

2012 was filled with loads of BAFTA Rocliffe success stories and we have high hopes for 2013.

Part of our hope this year is to support writers not just leading up to the event but also provide post-event advice. Writers, whose work is featured at our UK events, will be offered a full script report from a top script reader after the event. This will be timed so as to give the writers time to revise their work taking into account feedback received at the event.

Rob Brown’s work Sixteen was featured at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2011 and has since gone into production.

Writing partners Anne-Marie Draycott & Charity Trimm had their winning script Pregnant Pause (now renamed Unexpected) optioned by the team behind The Inbetweeners, Bwark Productions. With Bwark they have also been commissioned by BBC Comedy to write a sitcom pilot script Friends Reunited. In August 2012 they were one of the winners of the London Screenwriters Festival '50 Kisses' initiative and their winning short film script Dream Date has been filmed by two production companies. They are also working with another production company on another new script - but they can't say any more about that at the moment as its very early days!

After returning from New York, writing partners Thomas Phipps and Pete Bowden went onto secure an agent, have their script optioned by a production company and secured additional freelance writing work.

In 2012, writing partners Matthew Barry and Kayleigh Llewellyn have had their winning script Grey optioned by Company Pictures and are in development with BBC One. Kayleigh has also begun writing her own regular column for Funny Women.

Sarah Courtauld is in talks with a couple of indies to option her winning script, The Slush Pile and, through exposure to the selection Jury and their production companies with her script, Sarah has also been hired as a writer on a new sketch show, The Kerry Howard Show, slated for BBC Three in 2013. Whilst at the New York TV Festival, Sarah won a Hasbro Studios development deal with a Children’s TV idea Buckle and Swash.

Written Off: Watch this BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Forum Documentary