Henry Dalton heads to New York with Bafta

A former Top Gear director has won a top new comedy writing competition.

Henry Dalton and his writing partner Paul Cope, both pictured, will be given the chance to impress American network executives at the New York Television Festival, after winning the Bafta Rocliffe competition.

They will join fellow new winners Samuel Jefferson and Tom Moran at a showcase session in October.

Previous winners of the award, which seeks the UK’s most promising comedy creators, have been given the chance to wow the likes of Stephanie Laing, executive producer of Veep and Greg Daniels, of The Office and Parks and Recreation.

Farah Abushwesha, founder of talent development organisation Rocliffe, said: 'I’m so proud and delighted that we have discovered three new writing teams who I hope, like their predecessors, will go on to forge great careers.

'There is no doubt that these writers have huge potential, and the great thing about this platform is that they will get the support that they need in order to thrive.'

Last year's winners included comedian Tommy Rowson and Uncle producer Izzy Mant.

This year's winning scripts were:

Samuel Jefferson: Flatlined. A dry-humoured window into the lives of staff at a central London A&E department. Jefferson, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is a former doctor who quit to study a master’s degree in screenwriting at The London Film School.

Tom Moran: Printheads. Following a phone-hacking scandal, disgraced tabloid editor Louise Sharpe retreats to a small rural town to take over her father’s weekly paper. Stand-up Tom Moran, from Axminster in Devon, studied scriptwriting and performing at the University of East Anglia and produced his first comedy play, Writer’s Block, in 2011.

Henry Dalton & Paul Cope: Winners. Three hopeful losers seek success, Love and Happiness in a world of egg-obsessed matriarchs, six-foot grumpy spiders and bionic-handed Transylvanian theatre owners. Henry Dalton, originally from Poole in Dorset, has acted as producer, editor or director on shows such as Top Gear, James May’s Man Lab and James May’s Toy Stories; while Paul Cope, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire has produced, edited or directed shows including Mashed, Rude Tube and Craic Addicts for Channel 4. Between them the pair have written and created sketches for the BBC, Channel 4, and online.

• Meanwhile, new stand-up George Lewis has won this year's Amused Moose Laugh Off talent search at the Edinburgh Fringe. Runners-up were Mo Gilligan and James Loveridge. Lewis last year won the Nando's New Comedian of the Year and Brighton Comedy Festival Squawker awards too.

Published: 10 Aug 2015