TV BAFTAs 2023: Stars express support for striking writers

You might have heard several winning actors thanking their writers at Sunday's Bafta TV awards.

Although the evening celebrates the best UK productions, there was a lot of talk about America.

That's because some big shows have gone off-air as thousands of screenwriters in the US are striking over pay and contracts.

It's a conversation that spilled on to the red carpet - and the stage - in London too.

Hollywood writers have not only taken action because of their wages and streaming profits, but also because they're worried things like AI could threaten their jobs.

Actress Saffron Hocking, best known for her role in Top Boy, says UK writers will feel sympathy for those on strike in the US.

"If it's happening in America, it's affecting writers over here as well," she says.

"The problem is universal so it needs to be addressed."

For her, a talented writing team is the difference between a show feeling authentic or out of touch.

"Writers are everything and without them we have nothing," she says.

"I am firmly standing with our writers and I really hope that change comes and they get what they need and deserve."

Jack Rooke wrote Big Boys, the Channel 4 comedy about two uni freshers becoming unlikely best mates.

He tells BBC Newsbeat you can't underestimate the demands of scriptwriting.

"There's so much work that goes into it," he says.

And Jack feels protesting over working conditions goes beyond his industry.

"I think it's important to remember there's people striking all over the world right now, from all different professions, because people are realising their worth," he says.

"We can't be constantly having people making work that's honest and true and authentic and not paying them for it."

The writer's role doesn't just stop with the script, as Big Boys lead actor Dylan Llewellyn points out.

He says Jack was always on set and credits that with why the programme feels so authentic.

"He's there the whole time and that really sets the tone," he says.

"When we're there we feel very precise about the whole process and about what we're doing with the script."

One of the big winners on Sunday, Irish actress and writer Sharon Horgan expressed solidarity with striking writers in her acceptance speech.

As she and her cast-mates received the Best Drama award for Bad Sisters, she said "it all begins and ends with the writers".

Nicôle Lecky, who took home the Best Miniseries award for her music drama Mood, which she wrote and starred in, agrees that writing goes way beyond the script.

"Writers are where the idea starts and you have to pay that its dues," she says.

Most of us won't have spent time on a set, but Nicôle explains it's commonplace for the writing team to be around.

She says this is especially true now the "showrunner model" - where one person has creative control over an entire production - is being used more often.

Sam Bottomley was nominated for his role in Somewhere Boy, a nomination he said he wouldn't have without the show's writing team.

"Ninety per cent of it is the script, and 10% is the acting," he says.

"Writers are always there. They know your character better than anyone else.

"It's their baby and we're just delivering it… in a weird way."

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