Mayo man captures prestigious TV writing award

A Mayo writer has won an award for Best TV Drama script.

Ray Lawlor, from Castlebar, has won a Zebbie Award for Best TV Drama Script at the 17th Writers’ Guild of Ireland (WGI) Zebbie Awards for his RTÉ television series Obituary.

Lawlor received the award for the opening episode of the first series of Obituary. The awards are named in honour of O.Z. ‘Zebby’ Whitehead, a Broadway and Hollywood actor who was a great supporter of theatre and writing in Ireland after he moved to Dublin in 1963.

The second series of black comedy Obituary will start filming on location in Ballyshannon, Donegal this week with the addition of new cast members. The RTÉ and Hulu show follows the exploits of Elvira, Bodkin and The Dry star Siobhán Cullen, an obituary writer on a smalltown newspaper who turns to murder to drum up business.

Co-produced by UK company APC Studios and Galway-based Magamedia, the new season will see BAFTA-nominated Irish actress Máiréad Tyers (Extraordinary, My Lady Jane) joining the cast.

The new six-part series will again be written by award-winning Mayo scriptwriter Ray Lawlor, with Gemma O'Shaughnessy (KIN, Red Rock) producing. Ray told the Western People that his hometown provided some of the inspiration for the show. “I think half the punters in Mick Byrne's will be thinking, 'Is this me?'" Ray joked. “Set in the fictional Mayo town of Kilraven, this is a fun, darkly twisted drama that proudly allows me to transport some of the wit and characters I encounter every day in my hometown of Castlebar into the living rooms of the Irish people.”