‘Working class’ writers prize launched by ‘Boiling Point’ star Stephen Graham & Birdie Pics

Boiling Point

Boiling Point‘s Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters of Matriarch Productions and Phil Temple of Birdie Pictures have teamed up to establish a new initiative to help writers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds kickstart their careers and gain proper access to the TV industry.

The Grass Routes writing competition will offer a prize of £5,000 ($6,100) and will see Matriarch and Birdie also paying a further unspecified amount to option the script.

The writer will then develop their project with Matriarch and Birdie before pitching it to different buyers, with the intention to get their work seen by key decision makers and gaining insight into the industry.

As part of the initiative, Matriarch and Birdie will help the winning writer obtain an agent, and arrange meetings with other leading industry writers, directors, producers, script executives and commissioners, helping them grow their network of contacts so vital for a career as a writer in TV.

Graham (Help) and Walters (This Is England) will judge alongside Phil Temple (Code 404), Ashley Walters (Top Boy) and others, with the deadline for submissions set as Monday 8 January, 2024.

The organisers said: “We are driven by a passion to reform the system which holds back many talented, working class writers. This will be a scheme that hopes not just to raise awareness of the issues, but to help in a practical way to change it, and to also challenge others in the industry to take steps themselves to address them.”

Temple added: “Many industries are unrepresentative of wider society in regard to socio-economic background. Nowhere is this truer than in creative professions, including television, where writers work on a freelance basis with no job security and no guarantee of income.”

For more info, visit the sites of Matriarch or Birdie Pictures.