The winners of the UK children’s writing competition, 500 Words, have been unveiled on World Book Day in a special episode of The One Show hosted by Alex Jones and Roman Kemp on BBC One and iPlayer.

From thousands of entries, six exceptional young authors who submitted their stories to the BBC’s 500 words competition were crowned last week at the Grand Final in Buckingham Palace, with their identities kept secret until the big reveal on The One Show.

Her Majesty The Queen invited celebrity readers Olivia Colman, Rob Brydon, Matt Lucas, Rose Ayling-Ellis, JB Gill and McFly bandmates Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones to Buckingham Palace for the final event, opened by a special performance from the cast of Oliver! the musical.

All the excitement from the event, including the live performances by celebrity readers of the winning stories, will be available to watch on CBBC from 4pm on March 7th.

The judges for this year’s competition were Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, Olivia Dean and Malorie Blackman, chaired by The One Show’s Jones. The winning stories have also been illustrated by children’s illustrators, framed, and put into a BBC 500 Words winners’ book.

Speaking at the Grand Final, Her Majesty The Queen, said: “I know from meeting the judges that they have had an almost impossible job – and from the illustrators that they have had an extremely enjoyable one! I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has contributed to this very special BBC 500 Words competition.”

BBC Head of Education, Helen Foulkes, added: “BBC 500 Words is all about encouraging children from across the UK to enjoy writing and bringing people together to celebrate children’s boundless creativity. We encourage every child to write a story they would love to read with no need to worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar. We hope everyone who entered continues to enjoy storytelling.”

The six winners were chosen from two age group categories, ages 5-7 and 8-11 with each consisting of gold, silver and bronze awards.

500 Words Gold Winners

• The GOLD Winner for 5-7 age group is Harvey from Kent, his story, Bruce’s Big Choice was read by actor and comedian Matt Lucas. Harvey said: “Nice stories are lovely, but gruesome and scary stories are better!”
• The GOLD Winner for the 8-11 age group is Theo from Greater Manchester, his story, A New Harmony was read by actor and comedian, Rob Brydon. Theo said: “My story was inspired by a love of music. When I read my story to my family, they loved it, especially the dramatic bits.”

500 Words Silver Winners

• The SILVER Winner for the 5-7 age group is Michael from Surrey, his story, Thumbed Cat was read by McFly duo, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones.
• The SILVER Winner for the 8-11 age group was Blake from Derbyshire, his story, The Transformation was read by singer and presenter JB Gill.

500 Words Bronze Winners

• The BRONZE Winner for the 5-7 age group was Dylan from Cheshire, his story My Name is Jack was read by actor Rose Ayling-Ellis.
• The BRONZE Winner for the 8-11 age group was Ash from Greater Manchester, his story A TRAM-atic Journey was read by actor, Olivia Colman.

Each of the finalists’ stories are available to read now on the BBC Teach website, alongside audio versions which have been voiced specially by BBC Radio Drama Actors.

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Categories: Press Releases

Tags: BBC, CBBC, queen, The One Show