Quoted from Pleb "Mistakes that kills screenplays" I've heard that in the UK having the kind of name on the front page that sounds White British and middle-aged(ish) is a big no-no. So no Daves, Andrews, Stevens, Marks etc. Mental eh. Hopefully not true (although a mate of mine was told to take his name off and put the main actresses on instead).

I'm fucked...

Lol!

If you're planning on entering the BBC's script room this December, perhaps think about what you're willing to do to get ahead.

Me? I'm entering as Maxine, and if against all odds I make it in, I'm gonna have to go full Tootsie and rock up as a bird.

Or, you could just identify as someone who doesn't have a name

Go full on Prince and use a symbol

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Quoted from Pleb Lol! If you're planning on entering the BBC's script room this December, perhaps think about what you're willing to do to get ahead. Me? I'm entering as Maxine, and if against all odds I make it in, I'm gonna have to go full Tootsie and rock up as a bird.

Lol but the name thing is not true. I got to the final 4% of the BBC Drama submissions and with a name like Mark I may as well name myself white, male and privileged! Although saying that, I generally do better in US competitions than I do in the UK so maybe a pen name is in order!

Maybe if you didn't enter as Mark, you'd have made it all the way... Boom! (exploding head emoji)

Yeah I'm not sure what to make of it tbh. When I first heard it I just thought it sounded like someone trying to look for a way protect their ego, but when I took a look at those who'd been selected before it was made up of what I think would be an unlikely outcome if the writers were truly picked on merit alone. For example, half the writers would be women, with a third of the group being from ethnic minorities. And that seemed to be a reoccurring pattern too.

Funny you say about the US as the same chap who said he'd been told to use the actresses's name on his script said he hadn't had any of the same issues when dealing with American production companies. I was surprised as I thought it'd be an even bigger issue there than here in the UK.