Imison Award 2004
The Richard Imison Memorial Award 2004
--sponsored by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation
For the best dramatic work broadcast by a writer
new to radio
FINALISTS FOR 2004
The Society of Authors is delighted to announce that this year’s award has
been won by Stephen Sharkey for
All You On the Good Earth.
The Richard Imison Memorial Award, generously sponsored by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, honours original radio drama. The prize of £1,500 is given for a broadcast dramatic work by a writer new to radio.
2004 Judges: Candida Clark, Edwina Currie, Paul Donovan, Joe Dunlop, Philippa Gregory, Naomi Gryn, Steve May, Tony Staveacre Neville Teller and Gavin Weightman.
All You On the Good Earth by Stephen Sharkey
Produced by Janet Whitaker, BBC Radio Drama
In 1968 the Apollo 8 Mission, the first manned flight to the moon, orbited the moon 10 times on Christmas Eve. In this play, it’s progress is followed obsessively by 10 year old astronaut enthusiast Neil O’Brien, of 168 Lyme Cross Road, Liverpool, England. Neil imagines himself to be one of the official monitors of the mission, via his TV and his radio. He becomes increasingly engrossed in the mission as he tries to block out the arguing of his parents. (The ultimate horror at Christmas - the TV set breaks down and Neil’s father goes to his uncle’s to borrow another one without telling anyone where he’s gone so Neil thinks a family disaster is about to happen).
The play unfolds in a series of official reports that Neil writes - in which Neil attempts to be professional and formal - e.g. he refers to the TV as the primary observation monitor and the radio as the auxiliary observation monitor and uses the official time codes. Woven across this formal structure, are the family scenes, the arguing of Neil’s parents, and genuine archive footage from the astronauts.
The build up to the launch and the excitement of the mission is mirrored in the family’s build up to Christmas and Neil’s ultimately positive experience of Christmas that year.
Stephen Sharkey
Stephen was winner of the Arts Council’s 2002 Translation Commission Award and has the following theatre credits: Ion by Euripides - a new translation from the Greek May 2000, Gate Theatre, London; The Glass Slipper - a new version of Cinderella, 2000, Southwark Playhouse; The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens - new adaptation, 1999 Southwark Playhouse. Tomorrow is a Lovely Day - an original play about Dennis Potter, 1997, Pleasance Edinburgh (and previewed at BAC, London); Oblomov by Goncharov - contemporary adaptation, 1997, Pleasance London, 1996 Courtyard Theatre, London; The Gambler by Dostoyevsky - new adaptation, 1995, Pleasance Edinburgh, 1993 Courtyard Theatre, London;
The Trojan Women by Euripides - new translation from the Greek, 1992; Courtyard
Shortlisted Candidates
Full Blown by Anita Sullivan
Produced by Karen Rose, Sweet Talk
At the Beach by Tom Kelly
Produced by Toby Swift, BBC Radio Drama
Little Lives by Kate Atkinson
Pauline Harris, BBC Radio Drama
Pressing the Flesh by Francis Turnly
Tanya Nash, BBC Northern Ireland Radio Drama
