The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...
(TUC) and the
International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG).
History
The union was founded in 1959 as the Television and Screen Writers' Guild (commonly known as the Screen Writers' Guild), the successor to the Screenwriters' Association dating back to 1938. During the 1960s it expanded to cover radio and book writers and adopted its present title in 1966. It sponsored the campaigns of the Writers' Action Group to establish the Public Lending Right and the
Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society which – starting from a single room in the Writers' Guild premises – has collected and distributed over £100 million in payments to writers for photocopying and overseas retransmission of broadcasts. WGGB also hosts the annual Writers' Guild Awards. In 1997 WGGB merged with the Theatre Writers Union, and membership now stands at around 2,600. Presidents, chairs and leading activists of WGGB have included:
Lord (Ted) Willis,
Jimmy Perry,
Bryan Forbes
Bryan Forbes Order of the British Empire, CBE (; born John Theobald Clarke; 22 July 1926 – 8 May 2013) was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man"Falk Q. . BAFTA. 17 October 2 ...
,
Denis Norden,
Maureen Duffy,
Alan Plater,
Rosemary Anne Sisson,
Wally K. Daly,
Ian Curteis,
J.C. Wilsher,
David Nobbs,
Anthony Read,
Olivia Hetreed and
David Edgar, the noted playwright, TV and film writer (
''Nicholas Nickleby'' for the
Royal Shakespeare Company; ''Pentecost'', which won an ''Evening Standard'' award in 1994; ''The Jail Diary of
Albie Sachs''; ''
Albert Speer'', based on
Gitta Sereny's biography of
Hitler's architect; ''Playing With Fire''; etc.) The current president is Sandi Toksvig OBE.
Activities
It represents writers working in television, radio, film, theatre, books and
multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...
.
It negotiates a series of Minimum Terms Agreements governing writers' contracts and covering minimum fees, advances, repeat fees, royalties and residuals, rights, credits, number of drafts, script alterations and the resolution of disputes. The most important MTAs cover:
BBC TV Drama;
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
Drama;
ITV Companies; PACT (independent TV and film producers); TAC (Welsh language independent TV producers);
Theatrical Management Association
UK Theatre is a British non-profit trade organisation representing theatre producers, managers, owners and operators in the United Kingdom. It partners and shares an office with the Society of London Theatre, its sister organisation.
The organisat ...
; Independent Theatre Council; and an agreement covering the
Royal National Theatre
The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...
,
Royal Shakespeare Company and
Royal Court Theatre. These agreements are regularly renegotiated and in most cases the minimum fees are reviewed annually.
WGGB advises its members on all aspects of their working lives. This includes contract vetting, legal advice, help with copyright problems and representation in disputes with producers, publishers or other writers.
Regular events are organised for members. Examples include a Meet the Agents event in London, Television Writing: Women's Work? in Leeds, an exclusive ''Archers'' event in the West Midlands, plus screenings of new and upcoming film releases. The Annual General Meeting features an address by an industry professional/s, an opportunity to debate issues of importance to writers and amend WGGB's rules.
Lobbying
WGGB is a campaigning union and effective lobbying efforts have concentrated on MEPs considering the European copyright directive, and MPs, peers and the media over the Communications Bill and the
BBC Charter renewal. WGGB made strong protests when crowd violence halted performances of ''
Behzti'' by
Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti at the Birmingham repertory theatre in December 2004, and subsequently revived its Anti-Censorship Committee. WGGB makes a point of highlighting the importance of writing for children in all media. It co-operates closely with other unions including
Equity, the
Musicians' Union and the
Society of Authors; and is affiliated to the British Copyright Council, Creators' Rights Alliance,
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom and other pressure groups. WGGB representatives attend regular briefings with the Arts Council, Ofcom, the Public Lending Right agency and other national bodies. Recent campaigns include the Equality Writes campaign, tackling inequality in the screen industries.
International affiliations
International connections include:
International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (screenwriters guilds in the UK, US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France and Mexico); European Writers Congress (over 50 organisations); Fédération des Scénaristes d'Europe (screenwriters' groups in 14 countries); UNI-MEI (worldwide trade union organisation representing millions of workers in the TV, film, media and entertainment industries). WGGB has a reciprocal membership and services arrangement with the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild. UK WGGB members who achieve TV or film writing contracts in the US can join the
Writers Guild of America without paying the usual $2,500 initial fee.
Welfare
The Writers' Guild Pension Scheme provides personal pension plans customised for freelance writers who may need to make irregular and sometimes small pension contributions. The scheme is coupled with clauses in several Guild MTAs entitling members to pension contributions in addition to their writing fees.
Over the years the Writers' Guild Welfare Fund has accumulated more than £40,000, which is available to provide loans or grants to members in financial difficulty.
Membership
Full Membership is open to anyone who has received payment for a piece of written work under a contract with terms no less than those negotiated by WGGB. Writers who do not qualify can join as Candidate Members, or Student Members.
Awards
The WGGB Awards were first given out in 1961. The WGGB also awards the
Tinniswood Award for radio dramas, which are incorporated into the
BBC Audio Drama Awards
The BBC Audio Drama Awards is an awards ceremony created by BBC Radio to recognise excellence in the radio industry, in particular in Radio drama, audio dramas. The inaugural awards were presented in 2012 and the ceremony hosted at the BBC Radio ...
. An archive of all winners since 1961 is available on the WGGB website.
The Olwen Wymark Theatre Encouragement Awards, named in honour of playwright
Olwen Wymark (1932-2013), were established in 2005 by
Mark Ravenhill and David James, and are awarded annually. WGGB members are invited to make nominations "to publicly thank those who have given them a positive experience in new writing over the previous year."
General Secretaries
:1964:
Alan Sapper
:1967: Alan Griffiths
:1970s: Elaine Steel
:1979-1982: Ian Rowland-Hill
:1980s: Walter Jeffrey
:1990s: Alison Gray
:2000: Bernie Corbett
:2017: Ellie Peers
References
External links
*
Catalogue of the WGGB archives held at the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
{{Authority control
British writers' organisations
Scriptwriters' trade unions
International Affiliation of Writers Guilds
Trade unions in the United Kingdom
1959 establishments in England
Trade unions established in 1959
Screenwriting organizations
Communications and media organisations based in the United Kingdom
Guilds in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in the London Borough of Southwark
Trade unions based in London
Trade unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress