Anna Costello's Dead Canny up against Derry Girls and Big Boys

A first-time TV writer is up for a prestigious comedy award, alongside Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee and comedian Jack Rooke.

Anna Costello has been shortlisted for best TV situation comedy in the Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Dead Canny, a pilot which aired on Dave in August.

The show revolves a  young psychic from Costello’s home town of Consett, Co. Durham, whose ability to see dead people not only earns her a few quid cash-in-hand down the local pub, but also lands her as the prime suspect in a murder investigation.

It starred newcomer Sarah Balfour in the title role alongside Denise Welch and Mark Benton.

She faces stiff competition in the Writers' Guild  award from Rooke,  whose semi-autobiographical show Big Boys has already been renewed for a second series by Channel 4, and Lisa McGee – who was nominated for the same award in 2019 and 2020.

Yesterday, McGee was awarded the freedom of the city of Derry, with mayor Sandra Duffy praising the way she had ‘captured the city and its people, our unique humour, warmth and resilience and shared it with a global audience’.

The writer said she was ‘immensely proud’ to be from the city, adding:  ‘As a writer working in television, an industry notoriously tough to break into and to survive in, being from Derry has always felt like my superpower.  It is a city steeped in story and full of storytellers. I always thought I grew up with an unfair advantage.’

She added it had been her ‘greatest privilege’ to be able to write Derry Girls, which allowed her to ‘showcase our amazing sense of humour, our warmth and humanity’.

Up for the best radio comedy at the Writers' Guild awards are Jan Etherington for Conversations From A Long Marriage, starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam; Chris Neill for his own show Raging Enigma; and David Quantick for Whatever Happened To Baby Jane Austen?, starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

And for best online comedy

Kieran Murphy for Hostage Negotiation

Eleanor Morton for Mary Shelley Writes Frankenstein

Michael Spicer for The Room Next Door - Boris Johnson Resignation Speech

In other categoires, Adam Kay is nominated for best long-form TV drama  for This Is Going To Hurt and Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery are up for best children's TV episode for Dodger.

The winners will be announced on Monday January 16 in a ceremony hosted by Rachel Parris.

Published: 6 Dec 2022