The Producer in development of broadcast drama

The OU Contemporary Cultures of Writing research group is holding a series of seminars which looks at the ways in which the commissioner of drama for screen, radio, and theatre occupies the role of co-creator in the development process.

The seminar series features leading commissioners and producers in the fields of British screen drama, broadcast drama, and theatre, in conversation with writer-academics. It will explore the role of the commissioner and producer in terms of relationships with audiences, and investigate the extent to which they can be regarded as co-creators.

Register your interest via Eventbrite.

About the speakers

Heather Larmour (BBC Drama)

Heather Larmour is the BBC Commissioning Executive for Northern Ireland, working within the Drama Commissioning department on projects such as Blue Lights, The Woman in the Wall and Wreck 2. She is also part of the Writersroom team in Northern Ireland where she works across their local and pan-UK writer development programmes. She began her career in BBC Northern Ireland’s Drama Department where she was an Audio Drama Producer for a number of years before moving to work in TV at Kudos where she was a Development Executive and a Script Editor on several of the company’s productions, including Responsible Child, Grantchester and Steven Knight’s SAS Rogue Heroes.

Dr Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill (The Open University)

Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill is a lecturer in Creative Writing at The Open University. His research interests are in authorship, politics, and structures of production; theatre for social change in post-conflict societies; and identity politics in Irish theatre, film, and broadcast drama. As a dramatist he has written for BBC Radio 4, BBC TV Drama, BBC Education and others. He was director with leading Irish theatre company Tinderbox, and a producer at Soho Theatre, London, where he ran the programmes for young and emerging professional playwrights. He was nominated for the Imison Award from the Society of Authors for his first radio play, Bull Epic, and for a Sony Award for his Radio 4 Classic Serial, Barry Lyndon. He was a winner of the BBC Double Exposure scheme and the Bill Miskelly Award from NI Screen.