About

Welcome to Out of the Gate – the UK’s first online audio soap opera to target a 16-24 year old audience.

Out Of The Gate is created and written by a group of young scriptwriters from different parts of London. Some of the group came to Out Of The Gate from LIVE magazine, others via the SOS Gangs project at St Giles Trust and Urban Academy in south London.

Our aim is to highlight the problems faced by a young offender leaving prison who’s determined to change his ways for the better. For this pilot series, we approached the production process in the same way as any professional team of writers who are creating a soap opera for radio i.e. collectively brainstorming ideas, creating characters, story lining, writing and re-writing scenes, and scripts. Also in this case, writing lyrics and making beats.

We set out to combine professional production values with the raw talent of novice script and lyric writers. Al Smith (writer: EastEnders, Holby City) gave a session on writing for series and Maggie Boden (script editor: Spooks, EastEnders, Dead Set) joined us to talk about story structure. 

Amateur actors then worked alongside professionals like Aml Ameen (Silent Witness) and Arnold Oceng (Adulthood) to bring the scripts to life. Music producer Skitz Beatz helped with production in studio, and Bashy endorsed the project by recording the introductions. 

We’re now planning a longer run to continue Josh’s story and the ups and downs in the lives of the rest of the Hamgate crew. We want to know what you think of the drama, so please download it, have a listen and get in touch. 

Lucy Hannah
Creative Director, Out of the Gate