Joanna Jolly

Author, Scriptwriter and Editorial Consultant

Whether I am scripting a hit audio series, writing for the stage, or shaping a flagship human rights paper, my work begins in the same place: the blank page. As an author, former BBC World Service Editor, and Harvard Shorenstein Fellow, I specialise in taking deep, often difficult global research — particularly around gender-based violence — and transforming it into powerful, gripping narratives. I  work independently with international organisations and creative producers to bring structure, emotional resonance, and clarity to important stories. 

BBC •

BBC World Service: Assignment, Nepal: Getting Away With Murder

Joanna's investigative radio documentary for the BBC World Service's Assignment strand, exposing the devastating human cost of political convenience and institutional immunity. Reporting from post-civil war Nepal, this investigation follows the families of the disappeared as they battle a wall of silence.The narrative exposes a profound societal betrayal: how politicians from both sides of the conflict chose to preserve their own power by burying war crimes, leaving grieving relatives stranded in limbo.
BBC News •

BBC: The Yorkshire Ripper and the unsolved Swedish murders

A major long-form investigative feature for BBC News that subverts traditional true-crime tropes to expose serial violence, societal bias, and cold-case justice. Reconstructing the tragic, unsolved 1980 deaths of two vulnerable women in Sweden, this deep-dive narrative uncovers how rigid gender stereotypes and systemic contempt within law enforcement allowed their cases to be marginalised and ignored for decades.