Another writing prize for comic Mulgrew

Comic Katie Mulgrew has won an award to help encourage writers from the North of England.

The stand-up, from Rochdale, wins £2,000 from production company Kudos to option her  work.

Mulgrew – whose father is the comic Jimmy Cricket – previously won a £10,000  prize to have her play Omnibus staged at the Liverpool Unity Theatre.

She said she was ‘super thrilled and absolutely chuffed to bits’ to be selected as a winner of the Northern Writers Award.

Judges at the awards, run by Kudos North and the BBC Writersroom, say they were so overwhelmed by the standard of entries that they offered three prizes, rather than the two initially intended.

The other winners were Helen Black, an author from Pontefract, who has published six books in her Lily Valentine series; and  Niki Rooney, who is from Glasgow but has spent the vast majority of her writing career in Liverpool, including writing extensively for Hollyoaks.

Laura Conway, development producer at Kudos North said; "I am thrilled to find three, fabulous Northern voices who are new to both Kudos and the BBC Writersroom. 

‘The level of work was extremely high which made the decision near impossible but Katie, Helen and Niki all expressed clear, urgent visions for their pitches and created characters which stayed with me long after the judging day. 

‘Championing top talent is what this award is all about and to find three exceptional, female writers is genuinely exciting – I can’t wait to get cracking on development.’

A total of 300 scripts were submitted. The winners will now be given support by Kudos North in developing their idea before presenting to BBC commissioners.

Published: 2 Mar 2018