On 17th October 2023, Arts Richmond hosted the 2023 radio playwriting competition in honour of Colin Skipp (my grandpa)

Born in 1939, Colin Skipp starred as Tony Archer for 46 years in the BBC radio drama: The Archers. On 19th November 2019 he passed away due to complicated heart problems. Thanks to Arts Richmond an award has been created in his memory to remember his acting and involvement in Radio!

The finale was held at the Exchange Theatre in Twickenham. Each finalist’s play had been recorded at the Hampton Hill Theatre beforehand, so the audience could listen to all of the plays before the winner was announced by the Mayor of Richmond- Suzanne Nicholson. Lisa Skipp (my grandma)- Colin’s wife, presented the trophy and cheque of £100 to Clare Norburn the winner. Clare wrote a short play called “The End. Roll Credits”. Each entry wrote a 15 -minute play. The lucky 4 shortlisted, had the opportunity to record their pieces with a few actors!  

I recently talked to Lisa Skipp who described the evening as “very exciting because I didn’t know who’d won it and I was looking forward to finding out!”
She told us that “the ex-mayor had been taught by Colin Skipp.” This is why she wanted to create the Colin Skipp cup, in memorial.  Lisa continued, “it was a lovely tribute for him”. This shows that even after Colin’s death he continues to “promote new young writers with this competition”.