The Giles Cooper Awards were honours given to plays written for BBC Radio. Sponsored by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and Methuen Drama, the awards were specifically focused on the script of the best radio drama produced in the past year. Five or six winners were chosen from the entire year's production of BBC drama, and published in a series of books. They were named after Giles Cooper, the Anglo-Irish radio dramatist who wrote over sixty scripts for BBC radio and television between 1949 and 1966. These awards ran annually between 1978 and 1992, instigated by Richard Imison at the BBC and Geoffrey Strachan at

Eyre Methuen Methuen Publishing Ltd (; also known as Methuen Books) is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially, Methuen mainly published non-fiction acade ...

. There was no prize money, but publication was a notable mark of permanence in the ephemeral world of broadcasting.

List of winners

1978 *

John Arden John Arden (26 October 1930 – 28 March 2012) was an English playwright who at his death was lauded as "one of the most significant British playwrights of the late 1950s and early 60s". Career Born in Barnsley, son of the manager of a glass ...

– ''

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...

'' (published separately as per special arrangement with Eyre Methuen) *

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. Having studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he rose to prominence as an icon of the British New Wave. He received numerous a ...

– ''Is It Something I Said?'' * Don Haworth – ''Episode on a Thursday Evening'' *

Jill Hyem Jill Hyem (8 January 1937 – 5 June 2015) was a British actor, and radio and television writer. Early life and acting career Jill Hyem was born in 1937 in Putney, London, England, to Hilda (''née'' Gladwell) and Rex, a solicitor, and was raise ...

– ''Remember Me'' * Tom Mallin – ''Halt! Who Goes There?'' * Jennifer Phillips – ''Daughters of Men'' *

Fay Weldon Fay Weldon (born Franklin Birkinshaw; 22 September 1931 – 4 January 2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright. Over the course of her 55-year writing career, she published 31 novels, including ''Puffball'' (1980), '' The Cloning o ...

– ''Polaris'' 1979 * Shirley Gee – ''Typhoid Mary'' * Carey Harrison – ''I Never Killed My German'' *

Barrie Keeffe __NOTOC__ Barrie Colin Keeffe (31 October 1945 – 10 December 2019) was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Best known for his screenplay for the gangster classic ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, Keeffe ...

– ''Heaven Scent'' * John Kirkmorris – ''Coxcomb'' * John Peacock – ''Attard in Retirement'' * Olwen Wymark – ''The Child'' 1980 *

Stewart Parker James Stewart Parker (20 October 1941 – 2 November 1988) was a Northern Irish playwright. Early life Born into a working-class family in East Belfast in 1941, he was one of the post-WWII generation to be the first in their family to attai ...

– ''Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner'' * Martyn Read – ''Waving to a Train'' * Peter Redgrave – ''Martyr of the Hives'' *

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016) was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of sho ...

– ''Beyond the Pale'' 1981 * Peter Barnes – ''The Jumping Minuses of Byzantium '' * Don Haworth – ''Talk of Love and War'' *

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

– '' Family Voices'' * David Pownall – ''Beef'' * J. P. Rooney – ''The Dead Image'' * Paul Thain – ''The Biggest Sandcastle in the World'' 1982 * Rhys Adrian – ''Watching the Plays Together'' *

– ''The Old Man Sleeps Alone'' * Harry Barton – ''Hoopoe Day'' * Donald Chapman – ''Invisible Writing'' *

Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...

– '' The Dog It Was That Died'' *

– ''Autumn Sunshine'' 1983 * Wally K. Daly – ''Time Slip'' * Shirley Gee – ''Never in My Lifetime'' * Gerry Jones – ''The Angels They Grow Lonely'' * Steve May – ''No Exceptions'' * Martyn Read – ''Scouting for Boys'' 1984 * Stephen Dunstone – ''Who Is Sylvia?'' * Robert Ferguson – ''Transfigured Night * Don Haworth – ''Daybreak'' *

Caryl Phillips Caryl Phillips (born 13 March 1958) is a Kittitian-British novelist, playwright and essayist. Best known for his novels (for which he has won multiple awards), Phillips is often described as a Black Atlantic writer, since much of his fictional ...

– ''The Wasted Years'' * Christopher Russell – ''Swimmer'' *

Rose Tremain Dame Rose Tremain (born 2 August 1943) is an English novelist, short story writer, and former Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Life Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on 2 August 1943 in London to Viola Mabel Thomson and ...

– ''Temporary Shelter'' 1985 * Rhys Adrian – ''Outpatient'' * Barry Collins – ''King Canute'' * Martin Crimp – ''Three Attempted Acts'' * David Pownall – ''Ploughboy Monday'' * James Saunders – ''Menocchio'' * Michael Wall – '' Hiroshima – The Movie'' 1986 * Robert Ferguson – ''Dreams, Secrets, Beautiful Lies'' *

Christina Reid Christina Reid (12 March 1942 – 31 May 2015) was an Irish playwright. Life Reid was born in North Belfast. She left school in 1957 and married in 1963. She enrolled at Queen's University Belfast in 1981 but winning a BBC playwrighting competi ...

– ''Last of a Dyin' Race'' * Andrew Rissik – ''Anthony'' * Ken Whitmore – ''Gingerbread House'' * Valerie Windsor – ''Myths and Legacies'' 1987 * Wally K. Daly – ''Mary's'' * Frank Dunne – ''Dreams of Dublin Bay'' * Anna Fox – ''Nobby's Day'' * Nigel D. Moffatt – ''Lifetime'' * Richard Nelson – '' Languages Spoken Here'' * Peter Tinniswood – ''The Village Fête'' 1988 *

Terence Frisby Terence Peter Michael Frisby (performing name Terence Holland; 28 November 1932 – 22 April 2020) was a British playwright, actor, director and producer, best known as the author of the play ''There's a Girl in My Soup''. Early life Frisby ...

– ''Just Remember Two Things: It's Not Fair and Don't Be Late'' * Ken Blakeson – ''Excess Baggage'' *

Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He directed ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), ...

– ''Cigarettes and Chocolate'' *

Rona Munro Rona Munro (born 7 September 1959) is a Scottish writer. She has written plays for theatre, radio, and television. Her film work includes Ken Loach's '' Ladybird, Ladybird'' (1994), '' Oranges and Sunshine'' (2010) for Jim Loach and '' Aimée ...

– ''Dirt Under the Carpet'' * Dave Sheasby – ''Apple Blossom Afternoon'' 1989 * Elizabeth Baines – ''Baby Buggy'' * Jennifer Johnston – ''O Ananias, Azarias and Misael'' * David Zane Mairowitz – ''Stalin Sonata'' * Richard Nelson – '' Eating Words'' *

Craig Warner Craig Warner (born 25 April 1964) is a multiple award-winning playwright and screenwriter who lives and works in Suffolk, England. His play '' Strangers on a Train'', based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, ran in London's West End in 2013� ...

– ''By Where the Old Shed Used to Be'' 1990 * Tony Bagley – ''The Machine'' * David Cregan – ''A Butler Did It'' * John Fletcher – ''Death and the Tango'' * Tina Pepler – ''Song of the Forest'' * Steve Walker – ''The Pope's Brother'' 1991 * Robert Glendenning – ''The Words Are Strange'' * John Purser – '' Carver'' *

– ''

In the Native State ''In the Native State'' is a radio play by Tom Stoppard. First broadcast by the BBC in 1991 it was later adapted by Stoppard into the stage play ''Indian Ink''. The production was first broadcast on BBC Radio Three on 20 April 1991. It was dire ...

'' * Steve Walker – ''Mickey Mookey'' *

– ''Figure with Meat''

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite report , title = Annual Report and Accounts 1989/90 , date = 1988 , publisher = BBC , location = London , isbn = 9-780563-360445 , url = http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BBC-Annual/BBC-Year-Book-1989.pdf , accessdate = 14 January 2018 , section = Awards , page = 91 , ref = {{sfnref, BBC Report and Accounts 1989 {{cite book , title = Pearl: A Play about a Play Within a Play , last1 = Arden , first1 = John , publisher = Eyre Methuen , location = London , date = 1979 , isbn = 0-413-40090-5 International Radio Drama – Social, Economic and Literary Contexts, Tim Crook
/ref>

External links

1978 establishments in the United Kingdom 1991 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Awards disestablished in 1991 Awards established in 1978 BBC awards British literary awards British radio awards Dramatist and playwright awards