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The Write Stuff

Genre	literary panel game
Running time	28 mins
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	English
Home station	BBC Radio 4
Hosts	James Walton
Starring	Sebastian Faulks John Walsh Beth Chalmers
Producers	Sam Michell
No. of series	11
Website	Website

The Write Stuff is a lighthearted quiz about literature on BBC Radio 4, taking a humorous look at famous literary figures, which has been running since 1998.^[1] It is chaired and written by James Walton.^[2] The two teams are captained by novelist Sebastian Faulks and journalist John Walsh, with Beth Chalmers reading literary extracts.

Format [link]

John Walsh and Sebastian Faulks have been team captains since the programme started. They are each joined by another journalist or novelist; frequent guests in recent years include John O' Farrell, Mark Billingham and Lynn Truss. Truss stepped in as captain to replace Faulks for series 9 (2010).^[3]

Each week, the programme has an "Author of the Week"; W. B. Yeats, E. M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence, Robert Burns, Philip Roth and J. K. Rowling have all so featured on the programme. The programme has, on occasion, featured a group of writers, rather than a single author, as its key study - for example, poets of the Beat Generation were the featured authors on 26 October 2010.^[4] Each programme begins with the panellists reading favourite extracts from the author's writing, and the first round is a series of questions about the author's life and works.

The programme normally ends with panellists having to write a pastiche (or parody; the programme uses the terms interchangeably) based on that week's author of the week. Walton descriibes these as 'the most popular bit of the programme'.^[5] Walton sets a topic that would be so out of style of the author in question that a pastiche would be humorous. For example, when Robert Burns was the author of the week, contestants were asked to write a poem, in the style of Burns, celebrating something typically English; when the very intellectual author Philip Roth was the author of the week, contestants were asked how he might have written a children's story. Faulks has published a collection of his parodies as a book, Pistache.^[6]

The intervening rounds do not focus on the author of the week. Rounds commonly included are: connections; odd one out; literary mistakes; the archive round; and a music round.

The programme has normally been broadcast at 18:30 on a weekday, the normal Radio 4 comedy slot.

Episodes [link]

^[7]

Series 1998 [link]

Series 1999 [link]

Series 2000 [link]

Series 2001 [link]

Series 1 [link]

Christmas Special 2002 [link]

Series 2 [link]

Series 3 [link]

Christmas Special 2004 [link]

Series 4 [link]

Series 5 [link]

Series 6 [link]

Series 7 [link]

Series 8 [link]

Series 9 [link]

Series 10 [link]

Cheltenham Literature Festival Special [link]

Series 11 [link]

References [link]

1. ^ https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/john-walsh/john-walsh-taboo-word-it-depends-on-whether-you-mean-the-human-bits-or-rubbish-1878747.html
2. ^ https://www.faber.co.uk/author/james-walton/
3. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006zbzb/episodes/2010
4. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vhgjw
5. ^ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3561637/Books-buzzers-and-an-ageing-Harry-Potter.html
6. ^ https://www.sebastianfaulks.com/index.php?page_id=17
7. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006zbzb BBC website
8. ^ https://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/w/wr/write_stuff__the.html
9. ^ https://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/w/wr/write_stuff__the.html
10. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007759c BBC website Series 6
11. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009j9cd BBC website Series 7
12. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dr86m BBC website Series 8
13. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00q3lcy BBC website Series 9
14. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v1qkl BBC website Series 10
15. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019h2bb#synopsis BBC website Series 11

External links [link]

• The Write Stuff at BBC Programmes
• The Write Stuff at radiolistings.co.uk