Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters’ Matriarch Productions is teaming up with Phil Temple’s Studiocanal-backed Birdie Pictures on Grass Routes, a competition for TV writers from “socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds”.
The programme aims to help those writers “kickstart their careers and gain proper access to the TV industry.”
The winner of the annual competition will receive a £5,000 prize, with Matriarch and Birdie paying a further amount to option the script. The writer will then develop their project with the two companies before pitching it to buyers.
Matriarch and Birdie will assist the winning writer in obtaining an agent, and will arrange meetings with other industry stakeholders to grow the writer’s network of contacts.
Judges for the competition are Graham, Walters, Temple, actor Ashley Walters, writer Kayleigh Llewellyn, director Lewis Arnold and writer Theresa Ikoko.
“What an incredible opportunity to be able to give an undiscovered writer a platform to showcase their work,” said Walters and Graham. “We feel this project is imperative to help move our industry forward and give voices a chance to truly be heard.”
“I have bemoaned the lack of working-class voices in TV for a long time, so now is a good time to do something about it with brilliant, like-minded people,” said Temple. “Many industries are unrepresentative of wider society in regard to socio-economic background. Nowhere is this truer than in creative professions, including television, where writers work on a freelance basis with no job security and no guarantee of income.” Submissions for the competition close on Monday, January 8 2024.
Earlier this year Birdie Pictures received a “significant” investment from Studiocanal. Launched in September 2022, the company is developing a series adaptation of Janice Hallett’s novel The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels.
Graham and Walters set up their Matriarch Productions in 2020, aiming to provide a platform for underrepresented voices and stories in the UK. The company recently produced the Boiling Point series, in which the duo also starred, for the BBC.
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