BACK   WRITERS
ANDREW NEIL
ROBERT PUGH
TRACY SPOTTISWOODE
 
 
 
BIOGRAPHY  
Tracy Spottiswoode is an actor, writer and director. As a writer she has plays broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 4 and Radio Wales and has worked with a number of theatre companies – including Theatr Clwyd, Theatr Powys, Theatr Gwent, Made in Wales and Dalier Sylw - as well as producing screenplays for film, television and animation.

Tracy was one of the first recipients of Animate It, run by S4C and Sgrin to enable new animators to make their first film.
CODENAME CORGI – a comi-tragic tale of sex, spies and stereotypes - went on to win a number of top awards including two BAFTAs, First Prize in Bradford Animation Festival 2000 and the Gold Plaque in Chicago . A further short animation for S4C was completed the following year - a black and white homage to Carol Reed entitled THE THIRD WOMAN.

In 2001 Tracy was selected for one of the Screen Gem awards from Sgrin/HTV, writing and directing her first live action short starring Philip Madoc:
DING DONG – a comedy of bellringing, brides and barmy vicars.

For the past eighteen months she has been co-scripting and script editing a 36 episode animation series –
Colin & Cumberland – for BBC Nations and Regions which won the Best Education and Best Interactive awards at the Celtic Film Festival this year and a BAFTA Cymru for Best Animation 2005.

She is currently working on two feature film scripts (one of which was selected for
Moonstone Screenwriters Lab), a half hour animated comedy series The Maiden Aunts’ Club (described as Sex & The City meets The A Team) and is developing a two pilots for television – When’s The Cavalry Coming? – for independent production company Big Bear – and Uptown for HTV.

Tracy also teaches screenwriting and animation and script edits and consults on a freelance basis.
FILM & TV  
THE MORGANS Children’s TV sitcom series based around the life of the Morgan family: live action/animation mix, half hour episodes for S4C. Produced by Paul Jones for Apollo TV Ltd. Writer.
COLIN & CUMBERLAND animated comedy/language learning series for BBC Nations & Regions 30 x 1' + 6 x 4', also a radio series and website content. Broadcast BBC1 & BBC2 Wales, Ireland & Scotland 2005/2006. Writer and script editor. Winner of BAFTA Cymru 2005 Best Animation and Celtic Film Festival Award for Best Education Programme and Best Interactive.
EVER AFTER 10 minute live action film – a fairy tale set in 1961. BBC Wales & WCMD. Writer.
DING DONG 3 minute live action comedy – recipient of SCREEN GEMS 2002 award by Sgrin (Media Agency for Wales) & HTV. Shortlisted for BAFTA Cymru 2002. Writer & Director.
NEAPOLITAN Feature film originally commissioned by BBC Films, (first draft) optioned to Ocean Films 2002. Currently undergoing fourth draft. Writer.
SNOW, BLOOD & VELVET

feature film originally commissioned by BBC.  A love/spy story set before, during and after the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.  Selected for Moonstone Screenwriters’ Lab, Italy 2001. Writer.

THE THIRD WOMAN 1 min. animation commissioned by S4C as part of Short Shorts Scheme. Writer/Director.
CODENAME CORGI 12 minute model animation commissioned by S4C and Sgrin as part of the ANIMATE IT! scheme. A comedy about sex, spies and stereotypes. Writer & Director. FIRST PRIZE Bradford Animation Festival, GOLD PLAQUE Chicago International Film Festival, WRITER OF THE YEAR, TAPS AWARDS London 2000. Winner of BAFTA WALES 2000:Best Animation & Best Newcomer categories. THIRD PRIZE Animation Category ARS Film Festival Czech Republic, shortlisted DM Davies Award, Int. Film Fest. Wales, SECOND PRIZE Best Film category British Animation Awards.
IN DEVELOPMENT:  
UPTOWN Drama series centred on high class escorts in Cardiff. In development with HTV Wales. Pilot half hour commissioned. Producer Peter Edwards.
WHEN'S THE CAVALRY COMING?

Drama series about a group of re-enactors.  In development with Big Bear Films

ASYLUM Drama series centred on a group of immigration lawyers. Pilot script available. Writer
CHAOS THEORY 90 min original romantic comedy for TV. Script available. Writer
ALL THIS Comedy drama series set in a crumbling opera house in Wales. Pilot script available. Co-writer
MAIDEN AUNTS CLUB Animated comedy series in development with Living Doll Animation. Sex & The City meets The A Team! Attracted development funding from MEDIA 2003. Writer/Director. Trailer available + designs & outlines.
GIMME AN F 24 X 1 min animated comedy series for adults based on bitter ex-kids TV cuddly toys. In development with Living Doll Animation. (Writer & director). 10 scripts available
THE CHRISTMAS BUNNY 30 minute animated Christmas special. In development for S4C & Living Doll Animation, co-produced by Telegael (Ireland). Script and trailer available. Writer/director
LOVE BITES Half hour model animated vampire spoof. In development for S4C & Living Doll Animation, co-produced by Kayenta (France). Script & trailer available. Writer & Director.
RADIO  
12 MEANS I LOVE YOU Dramatisation of Regina Kaiser's autobiography: a love story between a Stasi officer and a dissident during the cold war in Berlin. 45 min afternoon play for R4, broadcast October 2005
THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING Hour long adaptation of Kingsley Amis’s comic novel for Radio 4. Due for FEELING broadcast summer 2005. Director Gilly Adams
SAFE Hour long original drama set in a police safe house for Radio 4. Director Alison Hindell. Broadcast January 2005.
A WEEK LIKE ANY OTHER

45 minute comedy drama for Radio 4.  Adaptation of Russian novella by Natalya Baranskaya.  Director: Geni Hall-Kenny.  Broadcast Sept. 2002.

NOW YOU SEE IT 30 min. satirical comedy for Radio Wales/Sherman Theatre Live Radio. Dir: Alison Hindell. Broadcast April 2000.
STATION ROAD Member of team of writers for soap series on Radio Wales: daily 15’ episodes.
MOTHS 30 min. comedy for Radio Wales/Sherman Theatre. Broadcast March 1998. Dir: Alison Hindell.
AU REVOIR JOHNNY ONIONS 45 min. comedy drama for Radio 4. Dir: Alison Hindell. Broadcast November 1998.
HAFOD: VISIONS OF EDEN 60 min. historical drama for Radio 4. Broadcast January 1998. Dir: Alison Hindell.
INCOGNITO 30 min. comedy for Radio Wales/Sherman Theatre Live Radio Drama season. Broadcast March 1997. Performed live at Hay Festival of Literature, repeated August 1997. Dir: Foz Allan.
SEX, SPIES & LAVERBREAD 30 min. comedy drama for Radio 4, broadcast November 1996, repeated March 1997. Selected for Pick of the Week and Pick of the Year. Dir: Alison Hindell.
THEATRE  
12 MEANS I LOVE YOU Clwyd Theatr Cymru 2006. Dramatisation of Kaiser & Karlstedt’s
autobiography: a love story between a dissident and Stasi interrogator in East Berlin during the Cold War. Director Phillip Breen.
THAT UNCERTAIN FEELING Adaptation of the Kingsley Amis novel for the stage. 2005. Seeking producer.
TAFFIA Full length Modern Restoration Comedy – commissioned by Made In Wales Stage Company. Writer.
VOICE Hour long play on theme of disaffected youth. Commissioned by Theatr Gwent for touring autumn 2001. Writer.
ISLANDS 1 act play for Chapter Arts Centre’s experimental season 12 Days Of Risk Spring 2000. Writer and performer. Also showcased for Theatr Y Byd’s season of pub theatre in Newport 2002. Recently performed off Broadway April 2006 by Mind The Gap Theatre Company, New York. Directed by Rachael Bonham-Carter.
DARE Full length stage musical for Made In Wales Stage Company performed at the Coliseum Theatre, Aberdare by a cast of 20 young people, August 1998. Writer.
ABLUTIONS Trilogy of half hour performances for Theatr Powys as part of the Victorian Festival in Llandrindod Wells, 1996. A humorous, surreal look at the Victorian preoccupation with ‘taking the waters’. Text in the form of songs, poems, remedies, ailments and jokes. Choreographed movement sequences and dances. Each piece in turn centres round an electric stimulation machine, a steam cabinet and a needle-shower. Writer and Director.
ZA ZRCADLEM
(THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS)
Site-specific labyrinth theatre (audience enter separately at intervals) in Czech and Slovak for Mandragora Theatre 1996. Combined the history of Zlín and Czechoslovakia with Alice’s journey, transforming Carroll’s characters into figures from Czechoslovak history and myth. The audience member becomes Alice travelling through a strange, surreal and half-familiar landscape. Writer and Co-Director.
THE OBSERVATORY 1 hr 15 min visual theatre piece for SCALA REVUE FANTASIA. Premiered Chapter Arts Centre 1995, played Battersea Arts Centre 1996 British Festival of Visual Theatre, toured Czech Republic 1996. Writer and Performer.
SCRIPT EDITING WORK FOR:
BBC Wales, Scotland & N. Ireland: COLIN & CUMBERLAND – 3 series of animated comedy to enable
language learning amongst 18-40 year olds.
S4C: Script editing for Animation Department
Made In Wales Theatre Company: Script editing on associate playwrights’ scripts in development for
the stage
Also worked as Script Editor/Consultant for independent companies including Cinetig, Squint Films, Wild Film Productions, Big Fat Studio and for individual writers on a one to one basis.
TEACHING
Screenwriting courses, workshops and masterclasses for various bodies including:
International Film School of Wales, University of Glamorgan, Rural Media Development Hereford, BBC Wales, Sgrin Film Agency for Wales.