A SOUTHAMPTON university student has won a prestigious scriptwriting competition after beating hundreds of people to the prize.

Rupert Aspden, 23, from Bitterne Park, was chosen out of 200 entrants to have his sitcom performed on BBC Radio Bristol.

The Sitcom Mission competition is a national search for Britain’s future writers, where entrants have to produce a ten-minute sitcom script with a cliff hanger and the public vote for the best one.

Rupert, who is studying TV and video production at Southampton Solent University, wrote a medical sitcom following the life of a doctor.

It’s his first triumph in a writing competition and Rupert is now waiting to find out when his half-hour script will air.

He said: “It was a great experience. I entered a scriptwriting competition last year and managed to get into the top 40 out of thousands so that was enough encouragement for me to give it another go.”