The prestigious screenwriting competition held annually by Red Planet Pictures has, for the first time, been won jointly by two writers.

The winners were announced Wednesday 29 October as documentary editor Paul McIntyre and former film art executive Tracy Ann Baines.

Iron Roads is the winning entry from Baines, and is a period drama set in the 19th century about the men who built the iron roads for Britain’s railways during the industrial revolution.

McIntyre’s offering, The Family Next Door, tells the story of a woman who discovers a hole in the wallwhich leads to her neighbour’s house, revealing a series of long-buried secrets.

On announcing the winners, Red Planet founder Tony Jordan said: “The quality of this year’s competition was extraordinary, perfectly illustrated by the fact we have two winners. They were two wonderful scripts and we look forward to working closely with Tracy and Paul at Red Planet Pictures in the future.”

The competition has been running for seven years and has proved a hotbed for finding and nurturing fresh talent. A previous winner, Robert Thorogood, went on to write BBC One’s Death in Paradise, the fourth series of which has just finished shooting in Guadaloupe.

This year’s judging panel was made up of industry figures from Red Planet, Channel 4 and Kudos, including Kudos‘ Jane Featherstone and Channel 4’s deputy head of drama Beth Willis.

For more on Red Planet’s ongoing production slate, head over to Production Intelligence, our online database of advance and archive productions.