£5000 Script Commission for Best Sitcom

With an emphasis firmly on script development, The Sitcom Mission is an international sitcom writing competition, 'the X-Factor for sitcoms'. It showcases 15-minute sitcom scripts at The New Diorama Theatre in London in front of the comedy commissioners from British TV and radio.

Now in its third year, The Sitcom Mission is in partnership with Hat Trick Productions, the award-winning independent production company behind such programmes as Outnumbered, Have I Got News For You, Father Ted and Episodes. The prize is a £5000 script commission from Hat Trick.

Jimmy Mulville, MD of Hat Trick comments: "Every 1's A Critic and Hat Trick are on a joint mission to find more of the writing stars of the future. We want to discover and support the very best new writers and to present the final judging panel with an outstanding shortlist of material with a terrific opportunity for the talent to develop their ideas with our help."

Over 1,200 scripts were entered into the 2011 contest. The competition was won by What Next? (pictured), written by Abigail Dooley and Emma Edwards. The writers have been given a £5,000 half hour script commission by Hat Trick, as well as an opportunity to work with the agency The Writers' Company who have an impressive roster of writers for TV and film.

Declan and Simon comment: "We're absolutely delighted to be working with the legendary Jimmy Mulville and his brilliant, proactive, forward-looking staff at Hat Trick Productions. They are responsible for ground-breaking sitcoms like Father Ted, Drop The Dead Donkey and Outnumbered, and it's our mission to spread the net wide and find the next one. The first rule of our competition is that it's open to everyone, and we're looking forward to unearthing a gem that we know is out there."

Last year's final was judged by Lucy Lumsden (Head of Comedy, Sky TV); Anne Gilchrist (Creative Head, BBC TV Comedy); Claire Zolkwer (Commissioning Editor, Entertainment and Comedy, ITV); Chris Collie (Director of Programming, Comedy Central) and Andy Hamilton (Writer and Director, Outnumbered).

The winners, Abigail Dooley and Emma Edwards, said: "Everyone involved in What Next? is absolutely delighted to have won. Our experience of The Sitcom Mission has been a fantastic learning curve from start to nail-biting finish. It has been great taking the script from page to stage and we would like to thank our director and cast for bringing the show to life so brilliantly. We are also indebted to producers Declan and Simon for their unstinting hard work, commitment and invaluable support. We are thrilled to have an opportunity to work with the legendary Hat Trick, and would like to thank them for their continued support of new writing."

But it's not just the winners who get picked up, one of the runners-up, In The Meantime by Ciaran Murtagh and Andrew Jones, has also been optioned by Hat Trick. Andrew adds, "it's not just about the grand prize, this is a great opportunity to have your work read and assessed by lots of very useful people!"

To find out more about entering the 2012 contest see entry information