UKTV Female Pilot Club script call finalists revealed
- Hayley Tamaddon, Leigh Douglas, Nikki Patel and Sydney Stevenson are the UKTV Female Pilot Club script call finalists
- UKTV says: "We have four fantastic, delightfully funny scripts all featuring female leads over the age of 45 that we can't wait to showcase in the new year"
The four finalists for the UKTV and Female Pilot Club script call have been announced.
The call for submissions invited women to submit original comedy scripts featuring female lead characters over the age of 45. The finalists will now receive development help from FPC and UKTV before a live reading with "top flight comedy talent" in the New Year.
Below are the biographies of the four finalists:
Hayley Tamaddon Hayley is best known for playing Delilah Dingle in Emmerdale, and Andrea Beckett in Coronation Street. She also won the fifth series of ITV's hit show, Dancing On Ice. She's played leading roles in numerous West End musicals and TV series, and starred in the award winning film Eaten By Lions. Hayley loves to write comedy and is thrilled to be a part of this brilliant initiative.
Leigh Douglas is an actor, writer and stand-up comedian and trained at The Gaiety School of Acting: The National Theatre School of Ireland. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show, Sacrament, has been produced at Theatre Upstairs, Dublin, Vault Festival, and the King's Head Theatre. Her comedy short, You're Alright Hun, is screening at Kerry International Film Festival, FilmBath - Shorts and Los Angeles Queer Film Festival among others. She is currently developing her debut novel with Niamh O'Grady at The Soho Agency.
Nikki Patel began her creative career as a teenager, as series regular Amber on Coronation Street. She made her stage debut in a leading role at The Old Vic and starred opposite Derek Jacobi in Romeo & Juliet in the West End. Onscreen, she recently wrapped her first feature film Little English. Her audio work spans across radio, video games and audiobooks. Her first piece of writing, The Patels, is a love letter to the strongest person she knows: her mother.
Sydney Stevenson is a writer, actor and director whose motto in life is, "if in doubt, comedy it out." Her writing includes Bubonic - long listed for the Papatango prize, M*n And Women - winner of the Voices From Home competition with Broken Silence Theatre, Next Door - An Awkward Love Story (Tabard Theatre), The Three Musketeers - Attempts By Foolhardy (online run 2021). Her acting credits include Misfits, Red Dwarf, Me And Mrs Jones and Doctors.
UKTV development executive Lindsey Rost says: "We're thrilled to be working with these four brilliant female comedy writers in partnership with Female Pilot Club. We received an incredibly strong batch of submissions, which goes to show once again that female and diverse comedy writing talent is out there for anyone looking for it. We have four fantastic, delightfully funny scripts all featuring female leads over the age of 45 that we can't wait to showcase in the new year."
Female Pilot Club was founded with support from Comedy 50:50 by writers Kay Stonham, Emily Chase and Abigail Burdess to address inequality. Since 2019 Female Pilot Club has produced readings of new comedy scripts in front of live audiences with actors such as Kerry Howard, Arabella Weir, Jordan Stephens, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Sindhu Vee. This is the club's first collaboration with a broadcaster.
Kay Stonham says: "Female Pilot Club exists to amplify brilliant female comedy voices and we've been proud to partner with UKTV on this groundbreaking initiative to find stories that foreground the lives of older women. We were amazed and pleased to receive over 340 submissions from talented writers across the UK."
More information about Female Pilot Club and the initiative can be found on femalepilotclub.co.uk
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