Audio Drama Awards 2020 – The Finalists

Meera Syal

The list of finalists for the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2020 has been revealed, with Black Water: an American Story, Undercover Mumbai, Forest 404, Stephen Dillane, Rebecca Front, and Alexei Sayle in contention.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in the Radio Theatre at BBC Broadcasting House London, hosted by Meera Syal, on the evening of Sunday 2 February 2020.

The BBC Audio Drama Awards – presented by the BBC together with the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain – celebrate the range, originality and cut-through quality of audio drama on air and online and give recognition to the creativity of actors, writers, producers, sound designers and others who work in this genre.

Best Actor

• Stephen Dillane, Sea Longing, director Jo McInnes, Sweet Talk, BBC Radio 3
• Sule Rimi, I Am Kanye West, director John Norton, BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Radio 4
• Stanley Townsend, The Macefield Plot, director David Hunter, BBC Radio Drama London, BBC Radio 4

Best Actress

• Rebecca Front, Love in Recovery, director Ben Worsfield, King Bert, BBC Radio 4
• Katherine Kelly, A Badge, director Tony Pitts, Savvy Productions, BBC Radio 4
• Lydia Wilson, Black Water: An American Story, director Gaynor Macfarlane, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 4

Best Adaptation

• Body Tourists by Jane Rogers, producer Clive Brill, Brill Productions, BBC Radio 4
• Black Water: An American Story by Joyce Carol Oates, adapted by Sarah Wooley, producer Gaynor Macfarlane, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 4
• Orlando by Virginia Woolf, adapted by Caroline Bird, Amanda Dalton, Zena Edwards, Hannah Silva and Karen McCarthy Woolf, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Radio Drama North, BBC Radio 3

Best Debut Performance

• Nadia Clifford, Good News Stories, director Mary Peate, BBC Radio Drama London, BBC Radio 4
• George Kent, A Kestrel for a Knave, director Fiona McAlpine, Goldhawk Essential, BBC Radio 4
• Sade Malone, Torn, director Gary Brown, BBC Radio Drama North, BBC Radio 4

Best Director

• Mair Bosworth, Deaf Republic, BBC Bristol, BBC Radio 4
• Nicolas Jackson and Steve Bond, Savages, Afonica, BBC Radio 4
• Mary Ward-Lowery, Talk to Me: HP Lovecraft, BBC Bristol, BBC Radio 4

Best European Drama

• Buzz Suppression – Recording Strictly off the Record by Ulrich Bassenge, producers Ulrich Bassenge, Martina Müller-Wallraff and Anina Barandun, WDR (Germany) and SRF (Switzerland)
• The Invisible by Jaroslav Havlíček, adapted by Marie Nováková and Renata Venclová, producer Renata Venclová, CZR Czech Radio
• The Lesson by Manu Barceló, producer Miguel Deza, Resonar (resonar.org) and Cuonda (cuonda.com), Spain

Best Original Series or Serial

• D for Dexter by Amanda Whittington, producer Mary Ward-Lowery, BBC Bristol, BBC Radio 4
• Life Lines by Al Smith, producer Sally Avens, BBC Radio Drama London, BBC Radio 4
• Undercover Mumbai Series 3 by Ayeesha Menon, producers John Scott Dryden and Nadir Khan, Goldhawk Productions, BBC Radio 4

Best Original Single Drama

• The Invisible by Linda Marshall Griffiths, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Radio Drama North, BBC Radio 3
• Sea Longing by Elizabeth Kuti, director Jo McInnes, producer Karen Rose, Sweet Talk, BBC Radio 3
• Torn by Eve Steele, producer Gary Brown, BBC Radio Drama North, BBC Radio 4

Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama

• Forest 404 by Timothy X Atack, producer Becky Ripley, BBC Bristol, BBC Sounds
• Passenger List created by John Scott Dryden, Lauren Shippen and Mark Henry Phillips, Goldhawk Productions, Radiotopia
• The Ordinary Epic by Brandon M. Crose, producer Jordan Stillman, Crose to Home Productions

Best Scripted Comedy (Longform)

• Mark Steel’s in Town – the Forest of Dean by Mark Steel and Pete Sinclair, producer Carl Cooper, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 4
• Phil Ellis Is Trying by Phil Ellis and Fraser Steele, producer Sam Michell, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 4
• Phil Wang: Wangsplaining by Phil Wang, producer Matt Stronge, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 4

Best Scripted Comedy (Sketch Show)

• Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary Sandwich Bar by Alexei Sayle, producer Joe Nunnery, BBC Studios, BBC Radio 4
• Kevin Eldon Will See You Now by Kevin Eldon with Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris, producer David Tyler, Pozzitive, BBC Radio 4
• Terry Alderton’s Whole Half Hour by Terry Alderton and Richard Melvin with Julia Sutherland, Paul Tonkinson, Steven Dick and Bobby Davro, producers Al Lorraine and Richard Melvin, Dabster Productions, BBC Radio 4

Best Use of Sound

• An Angel in Miami, sound by Steve Bond, producers Joby Waldman and Steve Bond, Reduced Listening, BBC Radio 4
• Hello Caller, sound by Michael Harrison and Alison Crawford, producer Alison Crawford, BBC Bristol, BBC Radio 4
• The Invisible, sound by Steve Brooke with Sharon Hughes, producer Nadia Molinari, BBC Radio Drama North, BBC Radio 3

Imison Award Finalists

• Vicky Foster for Bathwater, producer Sue Roberts for BBC Radio 4
• Testament for The Beatboxer, producer Gary Brown for BBC Radio 4
• Colette Victor for By God's Mercy, producer David Hunter for BBC World Service

Tinniswood Award Finalists

• Tanika Gupta for Death of a Matriarch, producer Polly Thomas for BBC Radio 3
• Katie Hims for A Fragile Peace, producer Jessica Dromgoole for BBC Radio 4
• Ian Martin for The Hartlepool Spy, producer Sam Ward for BBC Radio 4