The Responder

UK training organisation ScreenSkills and The Responder firm Dancing Ledge Productions have unveiled four leading writers to mentor rising stars in the ScreenSkills New Writers Programme 2022.

The four are: Joe Barton (Giri/Haji), whose mentee is yet to be confirmed; Chris Lang (Unforgotten), who will work with Abigail Rolling; Camilla Blackett (New Girl), who mentors Larissa Hope; and Sarah Williams (The Long Song), whose mentee is Jess Jackson.

The programme was first commissioned in 2017 by the High-end TV Skills Fund of the skills body ScreenSkills and developed and delivered by Dancing Ledge Productions.

It was set up to discover and nurture a new generation of TV writers, providing them with a career changing opportunity that was directly linked to helping get their scripts made.

A second iteration of the programme was supported by UK broadcaster ITV with the ScreenSkills High-end TV Skills Fund now fully funding the third round of the initiative.

Two shows have recently launched that were born out of the New Writers Programme: Tony Schumacher, who worked with mentor Jimmy McGovern, was behind BBC drama The Responder; and Daniel Brierley, whose mentor was Jed Mercurio, wrote ITV’s Trigger Point.