IMISON AWARD 2026 -
For plays broadcast from
1 Oct 2024-31 Oct 2025

NOTES

DO NOT DISTURB: GOOD SEX IN PROGRESS
A listener's review from the www.goodreads.com site: from "S":
....I really enjoyed this story! Friends who totally get each other and hilarious. That resonated. It certainly felt like a TV show. More Girlfriends than Sex in the City. Prejudice is a real and daily thing for black women, unfortunately. I didn't enjoy the ending...unless there's going to be a follow up. Please, I need a follow up! I enjoyed this and will be recommending it to friends.
(Dear 'S' - email me for credit or removal if you wish - Ed)

29 Jan 25: A Tale of Two Trumpets
By Sylvia-Anne Parker. The writer dedicates this production to the memory of her audio drama mentor, Oliver Emanuel. This is a music-fuelled drama set in the court of Henry VIII and inspired by the life of Black Tudor and royal trumpeter - John Blanke. When Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII lose a child, the King prepares a celebration of the baby prince’s life and calls in the trailblazing trumpeter John Blanke to help him. And then John sees an opportunity to help Henry VIII's private passions. John … Nicholas Pinnock with Bryon Wallen on trumpe,t Henry VIII … Rory Kinnear with Jacob Heringman on lute, Dominic … Harry Lloyd with David McCallum on trumpet, Harriet … Ayesha Antoine, Remi and Compton …Yinka Awoni, Catherine … Ruth Everett. Studio Production: Alison Craig and Mike Etherden. Production Co-ordinator: Rosalind Gibson. Sound Design: Fraser Jackson. Produced by Kirsty Williams.

15 Feb 25: Saturday Play: When Maggie Met Larry
By Tim Walker. "In real life, you only get one take..." Before Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party 50 years ago, she discreetly turned to Laurence Olivier, to prepare her for the greatest role of her life. In the play, Tim imagines how Olivier helped transform Thatcher into the formidable character so many remember today. The meeting was kept secret because Thatcher had a reputation as a "housewife" who empathised with the problems of ordinary people. However, Lord Tim Bell, one of her image advisers, said in a newspaper interview just before his death that the two had met. Olivier subsequently put Margaret Thatcher in touch with Catherine Fleming, the National Theatre's respected voice coach who had helped him perfect the deep voice he needed to play Othello. Invoices Fleming submitted to the Conservative Party for work with Thatcher between 1972 and 1976 are still held in the National's archive. [....superb play .... - Ed] Laurence Olivier ... Derek Jacobi, Margaret Thatcher ... Frances Barber. Producer ... Richard Clifford. Indie (Catherine Bailey, in association with the Michael Grandage Company).

Call for entries – Audio Drama Awards 2026

Help us continue to celebrate the best audio drama by sending in your entries for 2025. To be eligible, scripts will have to have been broadcast or made available online in the UK between 1 October 2023 and 31 October 2024.

Please apply with all supporting materials by Tuesday 4 October 2024.

Imison Award - £3,000

Best original script by a writer new to audio drama with the £3,000 prize sponsored by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, the Peggy Ramsay Foundation.

Tinniswood Award - £3,000

Best original script of the year with the £3,000 prize sponsored by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). The prize is this year administered by the SoA.

With thanks to:

The Peggy Ramsay Foundation which seeks to perpetuate Peggy Ramsay’s ideals, by directly helping dramatists at very different stages of experience in ways which it is determined to keep as quick and unbureaucratic as possible.

The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS); this is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers’ work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity, to ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 110,000 members, and since 1977 has paid around £500 million to writers (www.alcs.co.uk).

IMISON AWARD: PREVIOUS YEARS
2024 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1997 1995 1994

A summary of past Imison winners is shown below. Note that 2016 is not missing; there was a change in the way the year was worked out.

PAST IMISON AWARD WINNERS
2025 Tether, by Isley Lynn
2024 Benny and Hitch, by Andrew McCaldon
2023 Making of a Monster, by Connor Allen
2022 The Lemonade Lads, by Faebian Averies
2021 Maynard, by Fraser Ayres
2020 Bathwater, by Vicky Foster
2019 Of A Lifetime, by Lulu Raczka
2018 The Book of Yehudit, by Adam Usden
2017 Comment is Free, by James Fritz
2015 Thirty Eggs, by Eoin O'Connor
2014 How To Say Goodbye Properly, by E.V.Crowe
2013 The Loving Ballad of Captain Bateman, by Joseph Wilde
2012 Do You Like Banana, Comrades? by Csaba Székely
2011 Amazing Grace, by Michelle Lipton
2010 The Road Wife, by Eoin McNamee
2009 Girl from Mars,by Lucy Caldwell
2008 Adam Beeson, for The Magician's Daughter
2007 Mike Bartlettt, for Not Talking
2006 Nazrin Choudhury, for Mixed Blood
2005 Steve Coombs, for Mr. Sex
2004 Stephen Sharkey, for All You on the Good Earth
2003 N.Leyshon & S. McAnena for Milk; Celia Bryce for The Skategrinder
2002 Rhiannon Tise, for The Waltzer
2001 Murray Gold, for Electricity
2000 Peter Morgan, for A Matter of Interpretation
1999 Ben Cooper, for Skin Deep
1998 Katie Hims, for Earthquake Girl
1997 John Waters, for Holy Secrets (jt); Rosemary Kay, for Wilde Belles
1996 Lee Hall, for I Love You Jimmy Spud
1995 Gerry Stembridge, for Daisy the Cow who Talked (jt) and James Stock, for Kissing the Gargoyle
1994 Gabriel Gbadamosi, for The Long Hot Summer of '76

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