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Â鶹Éç ALBA & Â鶹Éç Scotland Co-Commission Call-out for Short Form Drama

Â鶹Éç Scotland and Â鶹Éç ALBA launch an exciting commitment to work together to fund new Gaelic-language production in Scotland. With a co-commissioning pot of £800k over two years, funded by the Â鶹Éç and MG ALBA, these two distinct Â鶹Éç channels will work together to source new projects that can work for all Scottish audiences, and which will be made available on a variety of platforms including iPlayer, YouTube, and TV. Producers will respond to genre specific content briefs over the two years with a view to making Gaelic content across different genres and which develops talent within the Highland and Islands creative sector.

The first production opportunity will be for digital-first drama skewed to younger audiences. Inspired by the success of Â鶹Éç Scotland’s recent award-winning short-form dramas including Float and this year’s Royal Television Society Scotland drama award-winner Dog Days, the digital-first dramas will be pitched as short ten-minute episodes primarily aimed at Â鶹Éç iPlayer and a window on Â鶹Éç ALBA YouTube. After an initial phase of development, the ambition is that the successful project will go into production in 2025.

Unscripted opportunities will be announced later in the year.

This commitment seeks to build a production skill and talent base in the Highlands and Islands and to develop and feature young Gaelic-speaking talent.

New Gaelic-language digital-first drama opportunity

Â鶹Éç ALBA and Â鶹Éç Scotland invite pitches for a new short-form episodic drama series aimed at younger audiences. In a similar format to Â鶹Éç Scotland’s recent award-winning short-form dramas including Float and 2024's Royal Television Society Scotland drama award-winner Dog Days, the new Gaelic digital-first drama will be episodes of ten-minute durations primarily aimed at publishing on the Â鶹Éç iPlayer with a window on Â鶹Éç ALBA YouTube.

We are open to a range of idea types and drama genres. Stories should be fast-paced and hooky, tackling themes and exploring territory relevant to younger audiences of 16-24 years old. Whether coming-of-age, horror, sci fi or romance, producers should be clear on why their initial concept will cut through in a competitive drama market for younger viewers. Although we welcome wit and attitude, we are not looking for out-and-out comedy genres such as sitcom or sketch-based shows.

This drama opportunity does not support stand-alone stories or monologues and should be episodic in nature with cliffhanger episodes and captivating characters we will want to stay with across a series. We will, however, consider stylistic approaches to episodes that lean into the digital budget such as single takes, phone filmed dramas, Dogme 95 etc (although a more traditional television style is also absolutely fine!)

We are united in a desire to develop Gaelic-speaking talent so please keep this front of mind when looking at on and off-screen talent involved in the creation and realisation of the idea. Cultural and linguistic authenticity are really important. We are not looking for ideas that have been wholly originated in English, or that require translation. However, we are open to collaborations between Gaelic and English-language writers.

Pitches should come via any Scottish production company but must clearly state how the offer supports the development of talent and production in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Priority will be given to projects which have creative talent (writers, directors, producers) in, or from, the area.

We will also give weighting to projects which have two or more of the following elements in the Highlands and Islands.

• Stories

• Locations

• Production

• Company base

We will also welcome partnerships between production companies if one of them is not based in the Highlands and Islands.

Please note, if you are an emerging Gaelic writer interested in this opportunity but unsure of how to connect with production companies, please email Bill Macleod here - bill.macleod@mgalba.com - for support.

Final programmes can have a mixed language-scheme, but the predominant language should always be Gaelic.

Digital drama is a low tariff genre of circa £3k-£4k per minute and we would expect producers to shape their editorial ambition and crew scale to reflect this - or work with additional funders to increase the overall production budget.

Initial Ideas (short treatments) should be submitted before 6/1/25 with funded development available to support a number of projects before a production decision in Spring 2025. Please include information regarding the writer(s) and a writing sample in Gaelic with an English language transcript.

Pitches should be submitted to gaelicdigitalcommissioning@bbc.co.uk

This opportunity forms part of Â鶹Éç Scotland and Â鶹Éç ALBA’s two-year commitment to support new Gaelic-language production opportunities with further unscripted opportunities to be announced later this year.

Comedy Series

We remain particularly keen on diversifying the talent base for comedy and the geographical setting of our scripted output. Please look at our output over recent years and consider how you can add fresh voices and new range to the slate.

We are particularly keen on mainstream, mass audience, broad, relatable worlds, easily digestible offering, works on both services equally i.e. Channel and Â鶹Éç One Scotland. (e.g. Scot Squad).   While we can and will still progress these ideas locally we’re keen to find worlds and characters we can partner with the network to develop.  Our network colleagues have emphasised the need for scripted comedies with a high gag rate and a move away from anything too dramatic. This chimes with our current direction of travel too when it comes to half hour comedy projects. We are delighted last years pilot opportunity has lead to a series of Only Child and are keen to find another high value sitcom from Scotland. We are also interested in other co-financing opportunities internationally, though the content should feel that it has a distinct Scottish sensibility (e.g. Dinosaur). We don’t want to be pitched shows about English families moving to Scotland.

Think about the broad family / relationship dynamics and workplace laughs conjured by shows like The Scotts, Scot Squad and Only Child. We are looking for relatable precincts and situations that our audiences can instantly recognise.

We are keen to find more high impact comedy titles we can co commission as well as maintaining a healthy slate of local comedies (e.g. Stevens & McCarthy) for the channel and opt out slots. We are keen to find Scotland’s equivalent to series like Young Offenders, Derry Girls and This Country – which have all performed well amongst younger audiences but have had a detailed and authentic sense of place.

Drama

It will come as no surprise that high end, high impact drama titles have significant reach for Scottish audiences. Over the short life of the channel we’ve had a range of tones from the award winning dramedy Guilt to 2 series of a slightly softer crime drama in Granite Harbour that played to large audiences in the North East and we’ll soon have a full throttle firework of a series as co commissioners of Richard Gadd’s new project Lions. We are also working with international partners to stand up a new thriller set in Scotland and abroad.

This range means we are very open to different tones of dramas but always with our overarching brief of reflecting the lives of our contemporary Scottish audience. That means we are less likely to look at genre pieces such as sci-fi and horror. Similarly period is tricky for us but recent nostalgia or factual stories that help us make sense of the world today are worth further discussion. We are also keen to see ideas that highlight authentic portrayal of working class stories as this is important to reach underserved Scottish audiences. Ideas in contained environments (e.g. Boiling Point or The Bear) are intriguing and would love to see ideas that fit with this small environment, high drama feel but with a distinctively Scottish flavour.

We are keen to find ways to tell stories across all of our platforms and want to increase the volume of new ideas coming through and have development funding to support this ambition. We are focussed on returning series or multi episodic factual. Single films are difficult to finance at this time.

As with Comedy, we are working closely with network colleagues to bring new ideas with particular appeal to Scottish audiences to air. At present, drama commissions for the Â鶹Éç One Scotland opts and the Â鶹Éç Scotland channel are likely to need significant co-funding. We’re looking for entrepreneurial producers who can work with us to piece the funding together. 

• 60 mins
• Tariff varies according to finance model
• Genre: Scotland Drama
• Channel: Â鶹Éç One Scotland or Scotland Channel
• Commissioner: Gavin Smith

Scripted Comedy

While TV is the priority for our scripted spend with other parts of the Â鶹Éç servicing radio comedy, we are able to use radio as a pipeline for new sitcoms and characters should that be the best home for a project. Do we have a Jonathan Pie or Philomena Cunk in Scotland?

• 3-6 x 30 mins
• Tariff: £40k-£60k per 6-part series
• Genre: Scotland Comedy
• Channel: Â鶹Éç Radio Scotland
• Commissioner: Gavin Smith

Short Stuff

We’d like to hear ideas that could play out in our Short Stuff short form comedy strand, aimed at developing character worlds and diverse talent. These are experimental, low cost, talent lead sketches for sharing digitally.  It is an experimental platform for the germination of new talent and character brands. Suppliers may also wish to dive in to our digital content such as Short Stuff and The Social to see the comedy talent that are coming through.  This can also be a good platform for emerging indies to engage with Â鶹Éç Scotland.We encourage anyone who is interested in Short Stuff to pitch in or reach out if they want to chat about it. This is not only a great avenue for emerging writers and producers but also for more experienced indies to test characters and new comedy talent.

Comedy - Short Films

The Comedy Short Films are single 10 minute pieces for iPlayer curated in a single destination on iPlayer featuring work from all around the UK. We work in partnership with Network here and see this space as a way for upcoming talent to test and showcase characters and worlds. Similar to the general strategy for comedy, these should also feature high gag rates and strong comedic characters.

You can read more about the opportunities here and while there is a central submissions process, do feel free to talk to me directly about ideas in this space.

Again we are particularly interested in a more diverse range of voices in the writing and on screen representation.

We have had award winning success with our digital dramas Float and Dog Days. These consist of 10 minute episodes and are typically aimed at younger audiences. We are open to ideas that can fit in this space as well as other experimental ways to do episodic drama for younger audiences. Please bear in mind tariffs are very low so concepts should be practical on small cast and crew.  Given the rising prominence of digital content, we are open to conversations around tweaking longer form pitches into a shorter digital space