Victoria Wood Honoured by Writers’ Guild Awards for The Shadow Line, Peep Show, Eric & Ernie

LONDON, November 17, 2011 -

Victoria Wood won the top accolade for a TV writer last night (Wednesday) when she was honoured with a special Writers’ Guild Award recognising her outstanding contribution to writing.

A compilation of her work, including her classic song “Let’s Do It” and clips from her successes including “Acorn Antiques”, “Dinnerladies”, “Housewife, 49″ and “Pat and Margaret”, was shown to huge applause after fellow writer Peter Bowker announced the award and praised her writing career.

And Bowker himself picked up a TV drama award for his “Eric & Ernie” - the story of the early careers of Morecambe and Wise, which came from an original idea by … Victoria Wood.

As always, the Writers’ Guild Awards 2011 celebrated the best writing across many genres. Since 1967 they have been the occasion when writers are honoured by their peers - but this is the first time a woman has received the top trophy.

Among the other winners were Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain and Simon Blackwell for “Peep Show”; Hugo Blick for his TV drama series “The Shadow Line”; Roy Williams for his play “Sucker Punch”; John Finnemore for his radio comedy “Cabin Pressure”; and authors Ned Beauman for his novel “Boxer, Beetle” and Nicola Shulman for “Graven with Diamonds”, a biography of the 16th-century courtier, poet and spy Thomas Wyatt.

The Writers’ Guild Awards 2011 were presented by the comedian and writer of “Harry Hill’s TV Burp”, David Quantick, at a reception at the Tabernacle, Notting Hill, London. They were held in association with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and sponsored by BBC Writersroom. BBC Vision, ITV Studios and Ambassador Theatre Group.

Full list of awards:

Best Continuing TV Drama
Dana Fainaru - Casualty: Place of Safety

Best Play for Children and Young People
Lisa Evans - The Day the Waters Came

Best Videogame
Alex Garland and Tameem Antoniades - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Best Non-Fiction Book
Nicola Shulman - Graven with Diamonds

Best Children’s TV Script
Chris Chantler and Howard Read - Little Howard’s Big Question: Why Do Things Have to Die?

Best Radio Drama
Ed Harris - Troll

Best Screenplay
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy - 127 Hours

Best Fiction Book
Ned Beauman - Boxer, Beetle

Best Short-Form Drama
Peter Bowker - Eric & Ernie

Best Play
Roy Williams - Sucker Punch

Best Radio Comedy
John Finnemore - Cabin Pressure

Best TV Comedy
Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain and Simon Blackwell - Peep Show

Best TV Drama Series
Hugo Blick - The Shadow Line

Special Award for Outstanding Writing
Victoria Wood

Note: The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is the TUC-affiliated trade union representing writers in TV, theatre, film, radio, videogames and books.

www.writersguild.org.uk

For further information please contact: Bernie Corbett,
General Secretary, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, 40 Rosebery Avenue London EC1R 4RX, corbett at writersguild.org.uk, +44(0)20-3372-8401, +44(0)7590-355-922