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The Alfred Bradley Bursary Award was
established in 1992. It is a biennial award in commemoration of the
life and work of the radio producer Alfred Bradley. It aims to encourage
and develop new radio writing talent in the BBC North region. Some years years have targeted comedy
drama, verse drama, etc. Entrants must live or work in the North region.
The aim of the award is to help writers pursue a career in writing for
radio. This page gives the winners since 1994.
From 2025 the award will be managed by BBC Culture, Music and Arts North in collaboration with Radio 4.
2025- Award announced 21st September 2025 in Bradford.
The 2025 short list is:
Me for You by Rachel E. Thorn
A Little Bit of Love by Jilly Sumsion
Weekend Warriors by Sean McMahon
The Counsellor by Abby Walker
Dave is Definitely Not A Robot by Liam Gillies
The 2025 judges are : Oscar Winner 2025, writer Peter Straughan, Executive producer Susan Roberts , Radio 4 drama commissioner Alison Hindell and Rachel Bradley.
2023 - Chrissy Jamieson Jones with "Mouth". Drama on Four: 13th March 2024, 14.15
2021 - Paul Jones with "Patterdale" (14th February 2022, R4, 14.15)
A GBP 5,000 cash bursary in addition to receiving a 12 month development mentorship with a Radio Drama Producer where they'll continue to develop their drama script for a chance to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
2020-2021 SHORTLISTED PLAYS
Driving Lessons by Juliana Sumsion (Lancaster)
Kelly Ann is twenty-one and wants driving lessons, but she has Downs Syndrome. Everyone including her own family doubts her ability to learn. Can she prove them all wrong?
Pica by Emilie Robson (Newcastle)
There's something about Kae; something earthy, creepy even; as if she's done a few laps of this world already. And if folk weren't talking about her before, they are now she's vanished.
Mabel by Houmi Miura (Manchester)
Awaiting the outcome of a school investigation, teacher Suzi, is trying to stay vegan and not having a nervous breakdown, until she finds an unlikely saviour in a brutally honest talking houseplant.
Patterdale by Paul Jones (Liverpool)
A young boy in foster care runs away to his nan's house. As he runs, his story unfolds.
...UPDATE - Paul won the Bradley Award for 2020-21
Dagger Lane by Duncan MacInnes (Hull)
A retired DCI George Young enlists his carer, Simone to help unearth past evidence exonerating his dead West Indian best friend from 1956 before George's Alzheimers erases any possibility of justice.
2018/19 - Alex Clarke with "Poundshop Vanilla Princess", recorded as "Waking Beauty" (R4, 19th March 2021,14.15 repeated 3rd July 2024)
Jill O'Halloran (runner-up) - Monique and Me (R4 28 Nov 2019 repeated 16th November 2021, Stephen Collins, Geraldine Lang, Mandip Dhesi).
2015/2016 - Piers Black with "Hand to Mouth", recorded as "Human Resources"
17 Jul 2017 (R4, repeated 22nd August 2019): Human Resources: a salesman receives a call from a girl calling for help. Dylan: Matthew Baynton, Gina: Katie West, with Ceallach Spellman, Krissi Bohn, Graeme Hawley, Russell Dixon, Ashley Margolis. Produced by Nadia Molinari. (Interesting play - ND)
Shortlisted, from 232 entries: Piers Black-Hawkins: Hand To Mouth; Andrew Crowther: The Wakefield Courier; Phil Davies: Girl X; Karen Featherstone: The End of Sleep; Mike Heath: The Big Things.
2013 - Furquan Akhtar with "Shamed" (Drama on 4, 19th Feb 2015, 14.15)
Shabana's son has been arrested for a very serious crime. She is determined to be supportive and to clear his name
Shabana: Shobna Gulati; Aisha: Maya Sondhi; Rizwan: Sacha Dhawan; Deena/Aliya: Bhavna Limbachia; Mrs Amjad/Mrs Shafiq: Bharti Patel; Geoff/Prison Guard: Roger Morlidge; Producer: Gary Brown.
Runner up was Alan Mockler, with his play 'Erosion'.
2011 - Cat Jones with "Glory Dazed" (Drama on 4, 11th July 2013, 14.15)
Hangdog: Samuel Holland; Detective: Jason Done; Oscar: Neil Bell; Birdlime: Robert Haythorne; Cohen: Oliver Lee; Cheryl/Long: Sally Carman; Delta: Chloe Massey; Producer: Sharon Sephton.
2009 - Chris Wilson with "Playing The Game" recorded as "Lump-Boy Logan" (The Wire, R3, 18th Sep 2010 repeated 6th Aug 2011 (45min) )
An adolescent boy has a frightening relationship with his acne
The judges - Jeremy Howe (Commissioning Editor, Radio 4), Kate Rowland (Creative Director, BBC Writersroom), Susan Roberts (Executive Producer, Radio Drama North), writer David Nobbs, poet and playwright Amanda Dalton and actor Shobna Gulati.
2006 - Mark Shand with "Abigail Adams" (Drama on 4, 23rd Aug 2004, repeated 23rd August 2007)
Mark's play tells the tale of Abigail Adams, a misfit teenager who, as she falls from the top of her apartment block, contemplates why she's turned out how she has, from her beloved linen suit and red trainers to her penchant for strong tea. But with parents like hers, paranoid she will turn out like them, there's no wonder she's turned out "special".
Mark Shand is originally from Rochdale and recently completed a diploma in Writing for Performance from the University of Bristol. [The unusual play title was previously used for a play by Norman Gear, 1966]
The runners-up of this year's award, receiving a GBP 1,000 bursary, are:
The Votes Are In by Andrew Turner,
Cobwebs by David Hodgson
James And Jack by Mark Griffiths.
and receiving a GBP 500 bursary:
Oh Bondage, Up Yours by Boff Whalley
Fifteen by Deborah Wain
The judges were:
Sally Wainwright, writer
Julie Hesmondhalgh, actress
Jeremy Howe, commissioning editor, radio 4
Kate Rowland, Creative Director, new writing
Sue Roberts, BBC Executive producer, BBC North.
2004 - Anthony Cropper with "I'll Tell You About Love" (Afternoon Play, R4, 12 Dec 2005, 14.15)
Four people who seem set on destroying each other. They meet for a meal. They bicker and fight, they flirt
and tell stories. They chip away at each other, pouncing on weaknesses.
Their varying interpretations of that evening highlight the difficulties of communication. The characters are out to score points and they raise the stakes until one of them breaks.
Jack: Ian Puleston-Davies; Sal: Zoe Henry; Paula: Johanna Riding; Bob: James Nickerson.
The judges - playwright and novelist Willy Russell; Caroline Raphael
(Commissioning Editor at Radio 4); poet and author Jackie Kay; actor
Barbara Marten; Petra Bradley (daughter of the late Alfred Bradley);
and Melanie Harris (project director, Northern Exposure)
2002 - Julia Copus with "Eeenie Meenie Macka Racka" (Afternoon Play, R4, 4 Sep 2003, repeated 9 Aug 2005.)
Ten year old Jess masks the unhappiness of her broken home through a fantasy world of magic and film. But her childish daydreams are punctured when she starts learning the truth about the adults who surround her.
Jess ...... Poppy Rush
Mr Khan ...... Vincent Ebrahim
Alice ...... Rosie Fleeshman
Mum ...... Sian Reeves
Siddeeq ...... Parvez Qadir
Directed in Manchester by Jim Poyser.
The runners up: Ben Tagoe with 'Keeping It Up With the Joneses' and
Katie Douglas with 'The Ballad of Colin and Brian'.
2000 - Pam Leeson with "There’s Me, David, Chelsea, Charlene, Scott and Bianca"
(Afternoon Play, R4, 13 Aug 2001)
Lee lives in Salford with his mum and five brothers and
sisters. Life is very busy for him - looking after the kids,
arguing with his girlfriend, and climbing the house roof
to escape. Then Jeannie, a girl from across the street,
disappears. With Daniel Hanbridge and Jill Halfpenny.
Directed by Susan Roberts.
1998 - Peter Straughan with "The Ghost Of Federico Garcia Lorca Which Can Also Be Used As A Table"
A play about the boy actors in Shakespeare's plays.
A group of runaway teenage boys are briefly lifted above their daily hardships when they become Shakespeare's great queens. With Dax O'Callahan and Leyland O'Brien. Director Melanie Harris.
1996 - Mandy Precious with "Patty & Chips with Scraps"
(Thirty Minute Theatre, R4, 17 Jun 1997 repeated 13 Nov 1997)
Lil is newly widowed. Having always been somebody's daughter or
somebody's wife, she must now contemplate life alone with Albert's
chip van. She befriends Mudassar, a young man who pushes her
to emerge from the shadow of Albert, and together they take a
cruise - a voyage of discovery. With Rita Tushingham and Ravin
J Ganatra. Director Kate Rowland.
Three other winners included:
Ben Thompson: The Millenium Bible
....Ben writes ......I was one of the winners of the Alfred Bradley bursary in 1996. I
wrote a verse drama called "The Millennium Bible". Actually is was the first
act that won the bursary award, but the other two acts were already written
before I went to collect the award. It was in rhyming verse, with, as I
noted in the prefaces to the various acts, echoes of Coleridge, Milton, Tank
Girl, Mad Magazine and a nod in the direction of Lindsay Kemp's Adam & Eve
and the Serpent. I liked it and so did most of the people I
showed it to, including several radio producers, the reader at the National
(though it was never a possible for stage production), even Ted Hughes read
it in the last year of his life and sent me an appreciative postcard.
1994 - Lee Hall with "I Luv You Jimmy Spud" about a trainee angel. (R4, 9 Feb 1995)
Jimmy: Gareth Brown; Mother: Charlier Hardwick; Father: Dave Whitaker; Grandad/Gabriel: Joe Ging; Scout: Michael Walpert; Producer: Kate Rowland.
[Repeated in 1997 in an extended form over four plays under the title "God's Country": Part 1: I Luv U Jimmy Spud; Part 2: The Love Letters of Ragie Patel; Part 3: The Sorrows of Sandra Saint; Part 4: Spoonface Steinberg.]
Here is the definitive list of past winners from:
https://www.bbc.com/writers/about/successes/alfred-bradley-award.
Previous Winners
2023 - Chrissy Jamieson Jones with "Mouth"
2021 - Paul Jones with "Patterdale"
2018/19 - Alex Clarke with "Poundshop Vanilla Princess", recorded
as "Waking Beauty"
2015/2016 - Piers Black with "Hand to Mouth", recorded as "Human Resources"
2013 - Furquan Akhtar with "Shamed"
2011 - Cat Jones with "Glory Dazed"
2009 - Chris Wilson with "Playing The Game" recorded as "Lump-Boy Logan"
2006 - Mark Shand with "Abigail Adams'
2004 - Anthony Cropper with "I'll Tell You About Love"
2002 - Julia Copus with "Eeenie Meenie Macka Racka"
2000 - Pam Leeson with "There’s Me, David, Chelsea, Charlene, Scott and
Bianca"
1998 - Peter Straughan with "The Ghost Of Federico Garcia Lorca Which Can
Also Be Used As A Table"
1996 - Mandy Precious with "Patty & Chips with Scraps"
1994 - Lee Hall with "I Luv You Jimmy Spud"
1992 - Donal Thompson
Original page by Nigel Deacon; researched and rewritten by Stephen Shaw in 2025.
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