We Inherited This Mess

WE INHERITED THIS MESS (TV) - Winner of The Elevate Script Competition 2025

The Elevate Prize in partnership with Scribe Lounge, announced Tommy Ross-Williams as one of the winners of the 2025 Elevate competition — a program celebrating emerging screenwriters with exceptional storytelling talent. Tommy was selected for their project We Inherited This Mess, earning recognition from industry readers and opportunities to meet with production companies and industry professionals.

We Inherited This Mess was first developed on the BBC Writers’ Voices Programme 2024. Tommy was then selected by BBC Writers to be paired with script developer Martha MacDiarmid for a further six months of development to write the pilot from their series outline.

Logline: Desperate to help her terminally ill mother, 19-year-old Yanexi joins her hero’s secret activist programme. But in this elite world, she must decide how far she’ll go — and what she’s willing to sacrifice — for true justice.

Yanexi’s story is drawn from Tommy’s decade of work as a community organiser in South London, particularly with the Latinx community and youth climate activism — including the real-life Choked Up while Tommy was creative director at The Advocacy Academy, a social justice fellowship for young activists in South London.