The Giles Cooper Awards were honors given to plays written for radio. Sponsored by the BBC and Methuen Drama, these prizes were specifically focused on the best radio drama produced in the past year. Winners are chosen from hundreds of entries, and published in a series of books. They were named in honor of Giles Cooper, the pioneering radio dramatist and director who died in 1966.
These awards were granted between 1978 and 1991, after which the program was discontinued.
List of winners[]
1978
- John Arden — Pearl (Published separately as per special arrangement with Eyre Methuen)
- Richard Harris — Is it Something I Said?
- Don Haworth — Episode on a Thursday Evening
- Jill Hyem — Remember Me
- Tom Mallin — Halt! Who Goes There?
- Jennifer Phillips — Daughters of Men
- Fay Weldon — Polaris
1979
- Shirley Gee — Typhoid Mary
- Carey Harrison — I Never Killed my German
- Barrie Keeffe — Heaven Scent
- John Kirkmorris — Coxcomb
- John Peacock — Attard in Retirement
- Olwen Wymark — The Child
1980
- Stewart Parker — Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner
- Martyn Read — Waving to a Train
- Peter Redgrave — Martyr of the Hives
- William Trevor — Beyond the Pale
1981
- Peter Barnes — The Jumping Mimuses of Byzantium
- Don Haworth — Talk of Love and War
- Harold Pinter — Family Voices
- David Pownall — Beef
- J. P. Rooney — The Dead Image
- Paul Thain — The Biggest Sandcastle in the World
1982
- Rhys Adrian — Watching the Plays Together
- John Arden — The Old Man Sleeps Alone
- Harry Barton — Hoopoe Day
- Donald Chapman - Invisible Writing
- Tom Stoppard — The Dog It Was That Died
- William Trevor — Autumn Sunshine
1983
- Wally K. Daly — Time Slip
- Shirley Gee — Never in My Lifetime
- Gerry Jones — The Angels They Grow Lonely
- Steve May — No Exceptions
- Martyn Read — Scouting for Boys
1984
- Stephen Dunstone — Who is Sylvia?
- Robert Ferguson — Transfigured Night
- Don Haworth — Daybreak
- Caryl Phillips — The Wasted Years
- Christopher Russell — Swimmer
- Rose Tremain — Temporary Shelter
1985
- Rhys Adrian — Outpatient
- Barry Collins — King Canute
- Martin Crimp — Three Attempted Acts
- David Pownall — Ploughboy Monday
- James Saunders — Menocchio
- Michael Wall — Hiroshima – The Movie
1986
- Robert Ferguson — Dreams, Secrets, Beautiful Lies
- Christina Reid — Last of a Dyin' Race
- Andrew Rissik — Anthony
- Ken Whitmore — The Gingerbread House
- Valerie Windsor — Myths and Legacies
1987
- Wally K. Daly — Mary's
- Frank Dunne — Dreams of Dublin Bay
- Anna Fox — Nobby's Day
- Nigel Moffatt — Lifetime
- Richard Nelson — Languages Spoken Here
- Peter Tinniswood — The Village Fête
1988
- Terence Frisby — Just Remember Two Things: It's Not Fair and Don't Be Late
- Ken Blakeson — Excess Baggage
- Anthony Minghella — Cigarettes and Chocolate
- Rona Munro — Dirt Under the Carpet
- Dave Sheasby — Apple Blossom Afternoon
1989
- Elizabeth Baines — Baby Buggy
- Jennifer Johnston — O Ananias, Azarias and Misael
- David Zane Mairowitz — The Stalin Sonata
- Richard Nelson — Eating Words
- Craig Warner — By Where The Old Shed Used To Be
1990
- Tony Bagley — The Machine
- David Cregan — A Butler Did It
- John Fletcher — Death and the Tango
- Tina Pepler — Song of the Forest
- Steve Walker — The Pope's Brother
1991
- Robert Glendenning — The Words are Strange
- John Purser — Carver
- Tom Stoppard — In the Native State
- Steve Walker — Mickey Mookey
- Craig Warner — Figure With Meat