UKTV puts out diverse talent call
Multi-channel broadcaster UKTV has unveiled two writers’ initiatives to boost diversity across comedy and drama, including plans to commission an anthology series for its Dave channel that will be written, made and performed by diverse talent.
The 4×30’ anthology series will be produced following a writing competition that will whittle down aspiring writers to six finalists.
The finalists will then receive a paid commission to write a half-hour script based on their own experiences of living in the UK today.
Four of these scripts will be selected to be produced and broadcast on Dave, with the potential to secure a full-series commission.
UKTV has joined forced with inclusion networks Triforce Creative Network and Dandi for the writing competition.
Submissions are open from midday February 18 until 23.59 on March 25. For more information about how to submit work, visit the WriterSlam page.
Meanwhile, the Female Comedy Writers’ Initiative seeks to turbocharge female voices in UKTV’s scripted comedy pipeline.
Working with Comedy 50:50, an initiative that addresses gender imbalance in comedy, the broadcaster is funding 10 treatments for half-hour comedies from female writers for either its Dave or Gold channels.
The aim of the Female Comedy Writers’ Initiative is to extend one or more projects into series commissions and order three full scripts from the treatments.
Initial submissions are requested for top-line ideas no longer than two paragraphs, along with a five-page writing sample, to [email protected], with a deadline of midnight on February 26.
Elsewhere, UKTV has announced the extension of its All Voices Initiative, which works with Film London’s Equal Access Network and offers paid positions on UKTV Original productions.
All Voices Initiative employs people to work on multiple UKTV productions over a 12-month period in roles including production secretary and camera assistant.
This year, UKTV will take on 20 people with all its production partners also asked to make a role available to one of the candidates.
Finally, the broadcaster has committed to ringfencing a minimum of a quarter of its development budget for diverse production companies and on-screen talent and to employ 20% of its production talent from underrepresented groups.
It has set out to reach these targets for all productions from July 1.
Richard Watsham, UKTV’s director of commissioning, said: “We aspire to be the best in the industry at discovering, developing and promoting underrepresented talent, and it’s vitally important that we empower talented individuals to tell their unique stories on screen.
“We are not seeing enough of those voices in comedy despite enormous amounts of talent out there. These two initiatives will offer tangible opportunities, funding and a support structure that I hope will help us take a big step in the right direction.”
