Writers have never had it so bad. And that's after 100 years of having to fight for protections, compensation and credit that should've been given in the first place.

Think about it: the was formed in 1920 to Hollywood was still in its infancy and already writers were getting screwed. Writers were forced to raise their collective voices before you could even hear people talk on screen.

You know the but he's still standing there, unharmed? Think of that as a metaphor for the writer in Hollywood who has union protection. Except that every block the writer walks, there's another facade falling. On every sidewalk.

Which brings us to the WGA strike of 2023.

The sidewalks now have 11,500 WGA writers joined by the 160,000 actors in , marching, carrying signs and pushing the occasional striking baby and/or dog in a pram (Obviously, not every member is out picketing every day, but look at the photos outside studios, corporate headquarters and filming locations in LA and NY, it's a massive turnout and growing each day. )

Writers and actors have a lot of complaints in common, as do many Americans and people around the world who are feeling the horrible squeeze of the Gig Economy and the general unpleasantness wrought by the Silicon Valley way of thinking (Remember when we were all inspired by it?)

When began about 15 years ago, we were optimistic. The promises of creative freedom and additional venues for creativity felt real. But like any new technology that requires a pipeline of art (and craft) to supply it, the people creating that flow needed to be paid and protected. Hence, the last , which was largely about making sure we got residuals and minimums from those nascent streaming services, just like we earned from the networks in the .

Writing a script is the same amount of hard work whether it's for a network or a streaming service. Yet, a script for a streamer earns a fraction of the residuals the same script would earn for a network or even basic cable. That needs to change.

Scripts and writers are the foundation shows and films are built upon - and are often the creative spark that brings it to life and keeps it alive - and writers should be rewarded in success. BTW, residuals are but a tiny percentage of the zillions a company earns from any successful project. In fact, if the WGA got everything we're asking for, it would only cost the studios/streamers 2% of the profits they make off our writing and work ().

In the past, if you worked hard - and had some luck and a good spec script - you could actually get hired on a staff and have a nice middle class life as a writer in LA or NY. In the 90's, I remember how if you got a writing job on a TV show, there were certain things you could count on: you would be on staff for the life of the show and because of that, not only would you be getting a regular salary, you'd have the opportunities to learn everything you needed to know about making a show and maybe even someday running one; if the show went to multiple seasons, you'd get promoted each year, all the while gaining more responsibility and more valuable skills; Writing a script - and rewriting it as a group - was just one part of a rewarding TV writing career. And you'd get decent residuals for the episodes you wrote.

Now much of that has been taken away, especially the word "career".

Gradually but radically the studio system has been reframed into a gig economy where job security is never guaranteed. Where instead of being on a show for its entire run, you're lucky if you get hired for a 10 week mini-room where the studio insists you work out the entire season in those short weeks then boom, you're kicked out, time to find another job. Oftentimes, the showrunner is left to make the show with either a fraction of the writing staff or no staff at all. The idea of being able to rewrite an episode with a staff of writers during production? When you actually see a scene on its feet with real actors and realize changes need to be made right then? A proven way that worked well since, well, pretty much the beginning of television? Forget it. (The show is a good example of the rare show that was able to fight this - creator and showrunner insisted he have his staff for the entire production and you can see the difference that made.)

And speaking of Succession, this is all happening at a time when there has never been more great television and the community of television writers has never been more wonderfully diverse. This should be an era that feels incredibly promising, where all sorts of tired creative boundaries are being broken and the fusion of art and commerce is working symbiotically to improve everyone's lives and everyone wins.

But - cue hacky 80's RECORD SCRATCH - along comes corporate greed, whispering in CEOs' ears. Psst, if you kill a show after its successful third season, not only can you save a ton of money, those annoying actors can't renegotiate for higher salaries. And if you pull it entirely from your service, you won't have to pay them or those pesky writers ANY residuals. And that movie or TV series you sunk millions into? Well, pull it before it's even released and take a big tax write off. It's the short term bottom line that matters.

(Sorry about the attempt at satire here. It could use a rewrite but I'm on strike so that's all you're getting in terms of entertainment. I'll try to toss in some Simpsons references later.)

What's particularly scary about all these useful things being taken away - just to satisfy the short term bottom line - is it hits younger writers - those just starting out in the profession - the hardest. They're the future of this industry but the CEO's and their lawyers and accountants don't seem to care. I have a feeling a lot of mid-level executives care but they're increasingly powerless. More and more people in Hollywood are powerless and the frustration is beginning to bubble over.

There are now endless levels of approval, an infinite series of hoops writers must jump through before they ever get paid. Even Buster Keaton would get exhausted by this and jump on the first train out of here. Well, the very front of the first train out of here, .

That's another complaint - it used to be (and I'm talking about the early 2000's, not the 1900's) you could have an idea, flesh it out in a month, go in to a network, pitch it and they might actually buy it in the room. Or you'd pitch it to a studio, they'd buy it and pay you to develop it. Now you have to spend a year developing it, find actors/studios/whatever to attach to it, go through endless rounds of notes from the studio that is supposedly there to "help" you before you can even pitch it. And all FOR FREE. And don't get me started on Pitch Decks, which no one seemed to need for, oh, let's say the entire first 100 years of the entertainment industry.

The idea that writers must do so much for free while the people they're doing it for are getting paid is, to put it mildly, extremely infuriating. Meanwhile, the writers who are getting paid to be on staff find their salaries getting stretched thinner and thinner. How can this all be happening in a prosperous time for the industry, one with "peak TV"? I won't go into the complexities of "Span Protection" but it's another incredibly important issue. I'll just tell you the following sobering fact: Ten years ago, 33% of working TV writers were earning WGA minimum. That's what you're supposed to get when you're starting out. Now that number has ballooned up to 49%, including many showrunners (). Not much incentive in that. And for film writers, it's even worse. Their median pay hasn't increased since 2018 and they, too, are facing increased demands to do free work. And comedy variety writers? They don't even have a minimum if they're writing for a streaming service.

Well, Buster Keaton didn't let buildings fall on him for free and neither do I.

If you think I'm bringing up the past so much, there's a reason (and not just 'cause I'm a former Simpsons writer who loves oldtimeyness. ) The CEO's and the  (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) are acting like oldtime movie villains. And not the sophisticated-though-flawed type CEO. I'm talking the old moustache twirling, tie-you-to-the-railroad-tracks villain. If you wrote the villainy that's taking place in Hollywood today into a script, it would be rightfully noted as too over-the-top and contrived. Yet here we are. But this time, thanks to the very internet I decry, the whole world is on to their shortsighted, unmotivated, out-of-touch, laughable-if-it-weren't-hurting-so-many-people cruelty. When a CEO made nearly half a billion dollars over four years yet a writer for the hit show, The Bear, couldn't even afford to pay their rent, there's something horribly wrong.

So there you have it. As the world of streaming expanded, the life - and quality of life - of the working writer in Hollywood contracted drastically. To the point where many writers literally cannot make a living writing or even dare dream of it.

And if there aren't real people writing those words to give us hope, to make us laugh, to make us cry, to make us jump out of our seats with a really brilliant fright - if it's only AI generating those scripts and faces on screen, well, then, we've lost two important things. The Entertainment Business. And our Humanity.

That's why we're striking. And that's why so many hard working people from other professions - the Teamsters, the hotel workers and more - are joining our pickets and we, theirs. Everyone's feeling the pinch. It's time to pinch back.

So until it's resolved, I'll be picketing at the Fox lot, by the Galaxy Gate, where I used to drive in when I worked on the Simpsons and seemed like just a funny cartoon character.

There's your Simpsons reference.

For more background to the 2023 WGA writers' strike visit the 成人论坛 News website:

成人论坛 News - 2nd May 2023 

成人论坛 News - 2nd May 2023

成人论坛 News - 3rd May 2023

Read more Hollywood news stories on the 成人论坛 News website

- including details of the writing process and his reaction to the strike

- read his blog post

Watch an interview with Josh Weinstein on the 成人论坛 Writersroom website 

From as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to write for TV. I was one of those nerdy kids who would watch the credits at the end of programmes. I began to notice which writers I particularly liked, writers whose work spoke to me. I was in awe of the fact that everything I’d watched had come out of one person’s head. But I couldn’t help but notice that it was rare to see a character who was disabled, and even rarer to see a character with cerebral palsy like me. I decided long ago that this was something I could help change.

So I was proud to finally have my first original pilot produced and broadcast last year. It was a long slog. I’d been writing TV pitches and scripts for the previous 13 years. I’d practically become an expert at getting rejected. I remember vividly going for a meeting with some 成人论坛 TV producers in 2009 about my first attempt at a comedy pilot script. They told me that, if you took away the fact that my main character was disabled, then the script didn’t have a USP. I asked why on earth would you want to take that away? Surely making the character disabled gave him a different home life situation and lived experience that would be unique and engaging to audiences? But at the time they did not agree.

Now I’m not for one minute claiming that first script was perfect, far from it in fact, which is somewhat ironic given that I gave it the title Perfect! Between then and finally getting produced, there have been a string of other failed pilots, script notes, mentoring schemes and training courses. I learnt that the only way to really get better at screenwriting is to pick yourself up after a rejection, dust yourself down, learn from your mistakes and have another go. As Jack Thorne once told me, 95% of this job is being told where you’ve gone wrong!

But also a lot has changed in terms of the screen industry’s attitude towards including disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people over the past few years, although undoubtedly there’s further to go. Significantly, there is a growing recognition that there are only a certain number of stories to tell, therefore a way of making those stories new, interesting and exciting is to include characters from a range of diverse backgrounds, drawing on lived experience. For example, a thriller about a single mum suddenly gets an added dimension if we make that character a wheelchair user who as to navigate all of the various attitudes, barriers and systems that come with that situation.

I’ve noticed, particularly in continuing drama, it feels like there’s a tendency to have disabled characters because they know they ought to, but the writers don’t really know what to do with them. So, these characters are present on screen but don’t get any of the juicy storylines. I put this down to two factors: a fear amongst non-disabled writers of getting it wrong; combined with a lack of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent writers up until now. Certainly, whenever I’ve done writers’ rooms, I’ve always put myself forward to write for the disabled characters, not least because it’s easier as I can draw upon my lived experience.

This is why it’s so important that 成人论坛 Writersroom are currently recruiting another cohort of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent writers for their Writers’ Access Group. As someone who did it last time, I can vouch for the fact that it gave me the knowledge and skills I needed to start earning a living from screenwriting. The more screenwriters like myself we have working in the industry, the more authentic, nuanced portrayals informed by lived experience we'll see on our screens.

And what did I call my pilot which was broadcast last year? Why what else but… Perfect! It was a completely different script to the one that was rejected in 2009, because I’m now a better writer, but it had the exact same themes. It just wasn’t dismissed as lacking a USP as the industry has moved on and learnt to value lived experience. And I figure, if you are going to plagiarise, probably best to plagiarise yourself!

Applications are currently open for the Writers' Access Group training programme for deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent writers.

What stood out for you about Jennifer Coolidge’s win at the Golden Globes in The White Lotus. What was it about that role and performance that stimulated you to tweet?

I think that she’s an incredible performer and the role and the show () are brilliant, and I love it, but what really made it stand out for me was her acceptance speech. It really hit home because we have times in our career, I think, as women of a certain age, that we remember as fruitful. There are times that are fruitful and there are times which aren’t, and I loved the way she spoke about that. To employ a woman who has been in the industry for an awfully long time and at times has been more successful than at others, and to get to a stage where she’s standing in front of the whole Hollywood Foreign Press (and the world in a way) and for her to be able to say that there were times when work was thin on the ground, that really resonated.

She spoke about how that one man, (The White Lotus creator and writer), took what was, in her head, a chance on her. But to me it doesn’t look like taking a chance. She seemed so humble and so grateful in her speech, but she did such an amazing job in the series that if I was a Producer or Commissioner or running a channel then I’d think that she was a safe bet.

It seems like Mike White was a bit of a guardian angel for her, and we all need those at times, someone who champions you. I’ve had a few people like that in my life.

Why do you think her speech had such a big response?

Her speech in general smacked of someone who had lived a life but wasn’t done yet. Who felt not just that she was being appreciated again in her 60s but felt “I’m doing a bang-up job of being a woman in my 60s in this industry”. Jennifer Coolidge showed us that it isn’t just about making a living. The passion and the gratitude that she showed for her career is also very deep inside me. I still feel that one day I’ll be ‘found out’ – the imposter syndrome.

When you look at you don’t think of an old woman. She was flying the flag for all of us over 50s, even late 40s women who have moved out of the ‘juve’ lead. Who are reading scripts where the role is the Mum or the Gran – sometimes I’m even a Nan now – It struck a chord not just with me, but there are an awful lot of brilliant actors out there who I think have been side-lined when they get to a certain age. I suppose what we should be asking ourselves is “instead of a 40-year-old man playing that role, could a 50-year-old woman?”

It’s amazing that one win and one speech can start such a movement for women who feel the same.

From your experience how have the scripts and roles you are offered evolved during your career?

It’s a first for me to seem like a champion for older women in this industry, because I’ve never been this age before! This is a first for me to get to being 50 years old and suddenly the roles aren’t there. They are a lot thinner on the ground. When you’re reading something, the parts are smaller. But watching the shows that I like to watch and the ones that have had such a massive impact recently – Happy Valley, The White Lotus – they have older women in lead roles. If they are so successful and so needed and so championed, then why do we not have more? We could do with a few more women like Happy Valley's  and at the forefront of Drama and Comedy.

I’ve worked a lot with who has written a few things with me in mind but the responses that we have had from the industry have often been along the lines of “it’s not our demographic”. Most people seem to be chasing after the 15–25-year-old demographic, but that age group are not watching television. I’m in that audience who still sit and put on 成人论坛 One, ITV, Channel 4, and I feel like we’re not seeing ourselves very much, but when we are then it’s lauded and celebrated.

Women are not seeing ourselves on TV as we really are. The women that I know who are over 50 are funny and sexy and interesting and clever and bright and sparky. They don’t take any sh*t! They are very interesting to watch. I loved Alma’s Not Normal, it’s all women, crazy personalities, it was so refreshing to watch. But there are very minimal projects either for us to audition for, meet for or read but also for us to watch. For a woman who still feels like she’s in her 30s it feels like we’re not really done yet, we’re not ready to be shelved at a certain age just because you’re not the juvenile lead. There are interesting, funny characters to be written, watched, and played by women of an older age.

To be fair I feel very lucky to have made a living and had a range of diverse jobs across theatre, TV and film but I don’t feel ‘done’. The stuff I’m reading now is mainly much smaller roles, which I’m fine with if it’s an interesting role. To give an example, I’m in the next series of ITV's  and I’m very proud of it. It’s quite harrowing, it’s right up my street really. I play the Nan. That works because of the nature of the role you believe that she would have had her kids young, but I suppose that is now the area I’m going into. But I had my actual kids ‘late’, I was 37 and 41, so I’ve still got a 10-year-old. I also have a 32-year-old man, so of course I still feel in my 30s, but the reality of it is that I don’t really see that on the screen. We’ve made great moves forward in other areas, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true of ageism. And I’m not unusual now to have young kids at my age.

You don’t see female characters over 50 running around like a 30-year-old unless they’re some kind of ‘cougar’. I’m looking for older women’s roles which are written in a beautiful, rounded way where there are loads of different characteristics you can tap into, not just a broad brushstroke of ‘She’s a Nan’ or ‘She’s a cougar’. But why does it still feel so unusual for the women to be older and the men to be younger? It doesn’t have to come under the umbrella of a ‘cougar’ show or a teacher/student relationship that shouldn’t have happened. It never seems to be two people happy in love. I read things and think ‘Why is he 50 and she’s 30?’, and that seems to come right down from Hollywood.

Do you think the problem lies with writers not creating these fully rounded and nuanced roles for more mature women? Or does it lie elsewhere in the industry?

I don’t think the problem is the writing, there is a flow of creativity coming from writers that seems to be three dimensional and rich and colourful. I’ve had many writers get in touch with me since the tweet and say “That’s all I write, I’ve got four projects, I only write for mature women”. But if the feedback from industry is “that’s not our demographic” then there’s nothing writers can do – except for get it made yourself - but that’s easier said than done.

Where are the people who are making programmes for my demographic? I think the plays, the TV scripts and film scripts are out there. Maybe Jennifer Coolidge has just made it a bit ‘cooler’ and things will change?

How important do you think it is that writers have the same life experience as the characters they write?

I don’t think writers need to have the same experience, but they do need to have an understanding. They need an understanding of the human psyche and where that person might be in their life.

What would be your advice to budding writers who want to include more mature female roles in their work even if they are not from that demographic themself?

Maybe younger writers could spend some time with some women over 50. Whether that means going and having a drink, shadowing them. I’m not trying to sound patronising, but I think with much younger writers they need to be reminded of how youthful a 50-year-old woman is now. We are not in a rocking chair and knitting! With how people live much longer and healthier lives now on the whole the narrative of what a woman over 50 is like feels like it needs rewriting.

And once we hit 50 women don’t all fall into one category (although I do think that more mature women tend to have developed greater emotional intelligence). There’s still a massive, colourful range of women who are completely different from one another and they’re desperate to see themselves on telly. I would sit down and watch most things that have women in who are over the age of 45 and all of my friends feel the same. I also think writers don’t need to shy away from tough subject matter when writing mature female roles.

When these characters are given a chance - we see that in the writing of Sally Wainwright, Sharon Horgan, the late Kay Mellor - their shows are brilliant. But there are more than just ten great writers for women. The main thing is that women are shown authentically, that’s what we’re all striving for.

In the end this isn’t a gripe, it’s just an observation. If Jennifer Coolidge can create such massive waves with a character that’s drawn beautifully then think how women would feel represented if there was one character like that in every programme?

Listen to Friends will be Friends featuring Tamzin Outhwaite and best friend and fellow actor Julie Graham on 成人论坛 Sounds

Watch Freeze the Fear with Wim Hof on 成人论坛 iPlayer featuring Tamzin and fellow celebrities

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(Editor's note: The title has been updated to WRITING TODAY - Please write more great characters for women over 50 to more accurately reflect the content of the interview.)

What’s your favourite montage of a writer at their desk overcoming writer’s block and turning out pages? (as ) in  thoughtfully debating the pros/cons of coffee and a muffin as instigator for writing or reward for writing. Barton Fink slowly losing his mind in, well . gleefully typing away, remorselessly turning her hometown’s most recent murder into her next bestseller. Part of you is saying No Jessica, the body is still warm - it’s not right! Another part of you grudgingly admires, she’ll have a chapter done by lunch at that rate.

It’s a trope and not even a good one. The writer rubs their face, mutters different opening lines to themselves, paper is rolled up and thrown into an already overflowing bin. What these scenes generally have in common is that they are set in large well lit rooms, with a mahogany desk, bookshelves everywhere. Autumnal light spills in the bay window. These writers also have a sickeningly endless amount of time to complete their magnum opus. The demands of rent, social obligations and time lost to their own inherent vices do not enter the story logic. Mahogany desk, autumnal light…this is not what my writing space looks like. I doubt yours does either.

I’m a glutton for writer interviews. Process, regime, technique. Apparently commits to writing a novel with the intensity of an ultra marathon runner. Life is reduced to a cycle of writing/exercise/sleep until the work is done. It’s genuinely impressive. However my own regime is more akin to a malfunctioning couch to 5k app, where life is reduced to an endless cycle of writing/job 1/family commitments/job 2/relationship maintenance/dog walking/gentle weeping and not enough sleep.

Some writers set internet restriction apps, to prevent them from doom scrolling the news when they should be following their muse. Maybe I was lucky that the first desk where I ever took my own writing seriously was where the only thing that could distract me was the Rorschach test nature of the rising damp in the wall. Hmm, that mould looks a bit like - maybe this script needs a car chase?

My problems were never about distractions when I got to the desk (in reality a breakfast bar in a shared house) but getting to the desk at all. Good news - I now have a desk where I don’t have to scrape my housemates' encrusted cornflakes off before I start. Plot twist - that alone has not improved my writing.

My first ever submission to a 成人论坛 Writersroom open call was a TV pilot that I wrote in 6 woozy nights after I clocked off from my bar job. To call it a first draft would likely see first drafts everywhere, unionise and counterclaim. It was gibberish. I was so tired/elated when I finished it, I decided at the last minute to change the title to size 45 IMPACT FONT so it would really land home with its first reader what a seminal work they held in their hands. Unsurprisingly I did not make any form of long, short or middling list. More surprising was that I did not end up on any government watch lists (that I know of). Whatever it was (it shall remain nameless) it was closer to Outsider art than Spec script. But I had finished something.

And then I started thinking about how it might be much less demented to think ahead with realistic specific goals, rather than put in for each approaching deadline, like a stray dog running after every passing car, barking wildly at the tail lights. And so work life/writerly aspirational life imbalance properly began, as I know it has for many others. My partner is likewise blessed/cursed with the compulsion to write. Like me, works in the hours and minutes that can be poached from doing all the things you do to keep the wolf from the door. Or at least not fully inside the house. We daydream about having enough time to really write. These musings tend to inevitably (and unimaginatively) drift towards reveries about rural cottages, near a flowing river. Well-lit rooms, mahogany desks and bookshelves tend to feature heavily ... alas our reality is much closer to a poorly furnished Escape Room during the cleaner’s week off.

But yet we both still (strive to) write for TV. Not always when we want. Rarely where we want to. Sometimes even (oh the inhumanity! oh the irony!) at the cost of actually watching TV. I now find myself unable to watch . Not because it terrifies me. It doesn’t anymore. Now I can only feel anger at not using his boundless freedom to write a bit more efficiently (and ideally less murderously). No talking to the ghosts until you hit your word count, Jack, I’m thinking. I’ll let you into room 237 Mr Torrance, my brain reasons, when I see chapter two!

I try not to let the fantasy of endless writing time become my own Overlook Hotel. I accept the reality that I have to write when and where I can. And try not to find myself reading listicles at 4am about which famous writers only wrote standing up/sitting down/after a long walk/or in a bath eating apples. Would having a writing space torn from the pages of a broadsheet’s Sunday supplement lifestyle section be nice? I’m going to guess yes. Would having what felt like enough time to write, help? Almost certainly. Is breaking into professional writing a level playing field? Not even close.

But most open calls worth entering (like 成人论坛 Writersroom) are read blind. Your submission’s first reader won’t know (or care) if you wrote it in a townhouse or a treehouse. Under the warm hue of autumnal light or the dull flickering of a broken streetlight. The only thing they’ll care about, is the only thing you’ll have any control over - do they want to keep reading? 成人论坛 Writersroom schemes helped me stop seeing writing as a montage where inspiration strikes.

My first ever script editor Hamish taught me to fight for every percent your script can improve. It’s not very cinematic but it works. Recently, for the first time in my life I now have both a desk of my own and enough time to focus solely on writing (for a month or two anyway). I suppose it’s time to find out if I’m Jack Torrance or Jessica Fletcher.

I really hope it’s the latter.

I was recently having a conversation with one of my friends about diversity in TV when she asked me… “When was the last authored drama by a British South Asian writer?” and I’ll be honest my mind drew a complete blank…

So, I took to Google and asked colleagues (just in case my love for television had let me down), and found that I wasn’t the only one at a loss. Even in scripted comedy I can only think of one recent show that is written entirely by a South Asian writer.

Of course, it’s not as though this is news to me. I’ve been working in TV for over a decade, and I am aware that there are so few people who look like me when I walk into meetings or rooms. It’s something that I am vocal about, but for a long time - and to be frank - because of my own insecurities, it didn’t feel like I could talk about these issues openly. I didn’t want it to seem as if I sounded bitter. But there’s also a moment when you just feel like saying sod it - this isn’t good enough.

Often Twitter is where I voice these thoughts and sometimes (read; often) this gets me into trouble from trolls. Contrary to what my friends think, I have started to spend less time on there as a result. Now I’ll pop on to say something I find funny and try to channel this energy into my work rather than the bird site.

This is for a couple of reasons really; being the angry Muslim man on Twitter can often bleed into real life, and your reputation can precede you before you go into meetings. It creates a culture of fear. Like you’re a troublemaker, or that you’ve upset someone by stating what is quite simply the truth. If I’m honest, it’s a concern I had before I started writing this blog, but such is the life of a freelancer.

I was also hoping that by getting to a place where I could begin to “let down the ladder” after me, I could encourage and champion the work of brown creatives who are missing from the television landscape. I feel like I am getting there with the latter and that’s because I am incredibly fortunate to be working on shows that have allowed me to tell stories as a Brown writer.

Our stories are needed. I started as a trainee on a scheme at Coronation Street. It was an invaluable training ground for me because I read everything that I could but I was well aware that in a huge machine that my voice could get lost. I began to write scripts that reflected my way of life. A working class, northerner, Muslim with immigrant parents. These may seem like mere labels but they make up the foundation of every story we tell. It was with this conviction I entered the 成人论坛’s Alfred Bradley Award to tell stories about brown people even if it was on the radio. It has pushed me to write spec scripts that have opened doors for me so now I can voice my opinions on an equal footing. I can’t say I kept that conviction in all my writing but what I can say is that you always come back to it. It helps you and it has helped me and shaped me as a writer and individual.

I can only speak for my experience though, that to get to that point has been an uphill battle which (like for all writers), was littered with rejection. But like Tinder we must make the yesses count.

Brown writers are often made to feel like there is only enough space for one minority at the table, or that our stories must be bigger and more extreme. For us to get a script away it has to be about an extreme issue and why is that? Why can’t we tell quiet and beautiful stories, its as though heartbreak in film and television is reserved for those who live in the wealthy parts of London. Isn’t one of the joys of storytelling to unite people through universal themes? Yet it seems like this is something that just isn’t available to us, and I want to know why.

Everyone has different facets to their identities, but being brown is something that I’ve been aware of before I learned anything else about myself. For many British Asians it takes a while to fall in love with your identity. It hasn’t always been “cool” and a lot of that has been reinforced by stereotypes we see on TV. That needs to change. Allowing us the space to portray ourselves authentically on screen will be life changing for so many people who can pinpoint the first time they saw someone who even just looked like them on TV. South Asians should be shown as multifaceted and wide ranging on screen as they are in real life. And it’s possible as we see from the success of shows in America such as “Never Have I Ever” and “Master of None” but it’s time we had that here in the UK.

We must keep pushing our stories. We must keep hustling. We must keep lifting each other up. So that the powers that be are constantly reminded that there are no excuses. The talent is available and there are brilliant creatives of colour just waiting for the opportunity.

There’s a push to be more “British” when it comes to TV but what does that even mean? Who are the gatekeepers of “Britishness”? It’s important to remember that we are part of the fabric that make this country.

We are behind in this country when it comes to South Asian representation, and we have to do more and that begins with commissioning writers of colour so that in the next couple of years people aren’t struggling to think of shows by brown writers and that’s the only way our stories become part of the mainstream.

And to the writers of colour who might be reading this; keep going.