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500 Words 2020 launch!

Zoe launches 500 Words 2020, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2's story-writing competition for children aged 5-13, live from Four Acres Primary School in Liverpool.

Zoe launches 500 Words 2020, Radio 2's short story writing competition for children aged 5-13, as it returns to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Zoe is live from Four Oaks Primary School in Liverpool along with Tina Daheley on news, Richie Anderson on travel and Mike Williams on sport plus celebrity judges Charlie Higson, Francesca Simon and Frank Cottrell-Boyce as well the kids and teachers.

We hear top tips for how to write a successful short story as well as a beautiful rendition of The Beatles' Blackbird by the school choir!

On top of all that Zoe also reveals the location for the 500 Words 2020 Final....Buckingham Palace! And you could be there just by entering a story of no more than 500 words by the closing date on 27th February.

The winners will have their story read live on air by the world’s biggest celebrities to the Breakfast Show’s millions of listeners. Previous names have included David Walliams, Jason Isaacs, Julie Walters, Tom Hiddleston, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Benedict Cumberbatch. Not only will finalists rub shoulders with the most popular entertainers, they'll also be serenaded by fantastic pop-stars performing at the final.

For further inspiration, helpful hints and tips, and to enter, visit www.bbc.co.uk/500words. And teachers and librarians can also sign up on the site to help judge the thousands of entries.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Thu 16 Jan 2020 06:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2

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Music Played

  • The Killers

    Human

    • Day & Age.
    • Mercury.
    • 1.

  • Pet Shop Boys

    Monkey Business

  • Michael Jackson

    Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

    • Michael Jackson - History.
    • Epic.

  • Blondie

    Maria

    • The Female Touch 2 (Various Artists).
    • Global Television.

  • The Foundations

    Build Me Up Buttercup

    • Million Sellers Vol.12 - The Sixties.
    • Disky.

  • Barry White

    You See The Trouble With Me

    • Barry White - The Collection.
    • Mercury.
    • 2.

  • Deacon Blue

    City Of Love

    • City Of Love.
    • earMUSIC.

  • Travis

    Sing

    • The Invisible Band (Deluxe Edition).
    • Concord.

  • Bob Marley & The Wailers

    Iron Lion Zion

    • (CD Single).
    • Tuff Gong.

  • Simply Red

    Stars

    • Simply Red Greatest Hits.
    • East West Records.

  • The Script

    Run Through Walls

    • Sunsets & Full Moons.
    • Columbia.

  • KT Tunstall

    Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

    • (CD Single).
    • Relentless Records.

  • George Ezra

    Paradise

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.

  • Years & Years & Jess Glynne

    Come Alive

    • The Greatest Showman: Reimagined (Various Artists).
    • Atlantic.

  • Phil Collins

    Two Hearts

    • Singles.
    • Rhino.

  • Lucky Daye

    Fly

    • Spies In Disguise O.S.T. (Various Artists).
    • Keep Cool/RCA Records.

  • Womack & Womack

    Teardrops

    • And They Danced All Night.
    • Debutante.

  • James Morrison

    Wonderful World

    • (CD Single).
    • Polydor.

  • Manic Street Preachers

    A Design For Life

    • Everything Must Go - 20th Anniversary Edition.
    • Columbia.
    • 16.

  • Kash Doll, Kim Petras, ALMA & Stefflon Don

    How It's Done

    • Charlie's Angels O.S.T. (Various Artists).
    • Silver Cloud.

  • Gregory Porter

    Revival

    • (CD Single).
    • Decca.

  • Harry Styles

    Adore You

    • Fine Line.
    • Columbia.

  • Nina Simone

    Ain't Got No, I Got Life

    • (CD Single).
    • Sony BMG.

  • The Beatles

    Penny Lane

    • The Beatles - 1.
    • Apple.
    • 017.

  • µþ±ð²â´Ç²Ô³¦Ã©

    Crazy in Love (feat. JAY-Z)

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
    • 3.

  • McFly

    All About You

    • (CD Single).
    • Universal.

  • Grace Carter

    Amnesia

    • (CD Single).
    • Polydor.
    • 1.

  • The Beach Boys

    Little Deuce Coupe

    • The Best Of The Beach Boys (CD 1).
    • EMI.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, author and screenwriter:

This morning we’ve been launching the 500 Words - Radio 2’s MASSIVE children’s writing competition. ÌýOver the course of its ten years something like a million children will have taken part. ÌýSo that’s 500 million words. Each year the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s sharpest minds ANALYSE all the words and tell us the word that dominated the year. Ìý

Did you have one of those diaries in your teens where by the time you got to February you were down to one word per day. ÌýMonday - School. Tuesday - School. Wednesday - Dentist. And then School.

Ìý

The list of dominant words in the 500 word entries reads like some giant has kept a diary with one word per year. Ìý2015 - Hashtag. Ìý2016 - Refugee. 2017 - Trump. ÌýOh what an explosion of pungent puns that word produced. Ìý2019 was the year of plastic. ÌýThank you David Attenborough.

We don’t really see things clearly till we can name them. I love that glow that you get on Scottish fields sometimes just before sunset but I couldn’t share it until I knew there was a word for it. Gloaming. ÌýThe smell of dusty pavements after rain. Petrichor. The same goes for feelings. ÌýEspecially bad feelings like schadenfreude. Ìý

One of my favourite writers is Helen Keller. Blind and deaf she didn’t even know what words were until she was seven. ÌýHer genius of a tutor Anne Sullivan held Helen’s hand under the water pump and kept making the sign for water until Helen finally understood that this cold, flowing feeling had a name. ÌýShe ran around the farmyard naming things like Adam in Eden.

In the beginning was the word – as it says in the Bible.Ìý We form words with the breath of our bodies and they reach out to others, through time and space. ÌýAnd God SAID let there be light - his own breath blowing down the walls of his own darkness. ÌýCreation breathes through us. If we listen, I believe we can hear it naming our joys and fears. ÌýAfter these last few years of yelling and bickering, wouldn’t it be wonderful if this year’s word was ‘listen’.

Broadcast

  • Thu 16 Jan 2020 06:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2