You might have wondered where the writers of television hit shows like Hollyoaks and London's Burning get their inspiration from. Five students from Barnet are about to spend three months finding out.

The teenagers have all won mentorships with some of the country's best writers, as part of the London-wide competition Write Up Your Street, run by the East-Side Educational Trust.

Between July and September this year, they will spend 16 hours with critically-renowned writers, including London's Burning writer Ed McCardie, playwright Richard Davidson and poet Dorothea Smart.

Only ten places were up for grabs, but the five students ensured the borough made up half the winners.

They were: Nishant Vadgama, 18, who studies at Hertfordshire University; Nicole Swain, 17, of St James's Catholic High School in Great Strand, Colindale; Tess De La Mare, 16, a pupil at East Barnet School in Chestnut Grove, East Barnet; Maryam Hadi, 17, who studies at Copthall School in Pursley Road, Mill Hill; and 16-year-old Lucy Tobin, who goes to North London Collegiate in Canons Drive, Edgware.

Miss Tobin, of Parkside, Mill Hill, will be working with Hollyoaks writer Tara Byrnes.

"I was really surprised I won," she said. "To enter the competition, I wrote about being in a waiting room in an Aids clinic, because I did work experience in an Aids hospital and got the idea from that.

"Ultimately, I want to be a politician or a journalist, but I am definitely interested in writing for television if the opportunity comes along."

The winners will receive £100 and their work will be published on postcards and billboards across London.

Christopher Enticott, artistic director at East-Side Educational Trust, said: "It was a difficult decision to choose the winners, but in the end it came down to a combination of personality, a willingness to learn and a passion to work in the industry traits that shone through in these winners from Barnet."

April 29, 2003 11:00