Previous Winners
2009
The Competition did not run in 2009 but in 2010 three prizes – Gold, Silver and Bronze were introduced and the competition was also open to entries from both years.
2008 Winners
A Long Commute – Matthew Rogers - University College Falmouth
Judges were united in their praise of this sensitive and sophisticated programme, which told the story of immigrant land-workers from Eastern Europe and their lives in the UK, saying ‘touching stories, beautifully translated’, ‘a snapshot of lives we over-report but don’t really know’.
2007 Winners
Lieutenant Pigeon – Katie Burningham - Goldsmith’s College, University of London
A five minute documentary on the ‘Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeons’, a campaign group formed in 2000 to challenge the ban on feeding pigeons in the Square. It centres primarily upon the figure of a ex-soldier and homeless man called Tony, aka Lieutenant Pigeon. Katie said ‘I was thrilled that a piece about more esoteric members of society was recognised by the judges. Winning this award was the best way of giving my thanks to the people who spared their time to take part in the feature.’ Katie won a Sony Gold Award in 2011 for her feature ‘Heel, Toe, Step Together’.
2006 Winners
Family Ties – Ruth-Anne Lynch - University of Sunderland
Ruth-Anne’s feature chronicled her return to her family home in Guyana, and the illness of her father. The Chair of the Judging Panel, Simon Elmes, said, “The voices and personalities were strong and arresting – it was quite literally a slice of life, moving and amusing. The complete freshness of the programme and its sheer zest were what took my imagination.”
2005 Winners
Inside Out – Mark Williams - Goldsmith’s College, University of London
The first award winner Mark Williams was a first year student on the Communications and Media degree course at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Mark discovered radio while serving a sentence at Wandsworth Prison is an audio diary of his last hours before release, and his first minutes as a free man. It chronicles his emotions as he awaits his moment of freedom, the euphoria which follows it and the mixed feelings on encountering the outside world again.