The BBC radio play - Dusty Won’t Play, by Annie Caulfield - has been shortlisted for the Tinniswood Award, which celebrates high standards in radio drama. see Society of Authors
The judges said: The horrors of Apartheid South Africa have faded from recent memory but Annie Caulfield's play reminds us of the Kafkaesque difficulties all artists faced in deciding whether or not to play or appear there. Dusty Springfield's decision to refuse to play to segregated audiences is shown to be an impulsive yet brave decision from a young singer still worrying about how her hair looked and yet with a passionate sense of right and wrong. Its cast of characters shows us band members, South African security forces and black South Africans proud of her decision: reminding us that what was a personal dilemma for one musician had global consequences.
Annie Caulfield has won a Race in Media award for her radio playAfter You Have Gone and is a past winner of The Writer’s award from The Peggy Ramsay Foundation. This is her third collaboration with Absolutely Productions. The other two plays were the well-received Radio 3 productions, Your Only Man and Glass Chair Chair Glass. Annie has written extensively for stage and screen. She is also a travel writer, dubbed by a critic: "The Female Bill Bryson".