BPG Awards 2021: TV and streaming nominations revealed

Three BBC dramas – Normal People, Small Axe and I May Destroy You – lead the nominations for this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild TV and Streaming Awards, alongside two ITV dramas, Des and Quiz.

Normal People is shortlisted as Best Drama Series (5+ episodes), and its stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal are nominated as Best Actor and Best Actress and for the BPG Breakthrough Award. Small Axe receives nominations for Best Drama Series (5+), Best Writer, Best Actor (Shaun Parkes), Best Actress (Letitia Wright) and the Breakthrough Award (Amarah-Jae St. Aubin). Michaela Coel is shortlisted as Best Actress and Best Writer for I May Destroy You, which is also nominated as Best Drama Series (5+).

Quiz is shortlisted for Best Drama Series (1-4 episodes), Best Actor (Matthew Macfadyen) and Best Writer (James Graham). Des is nominated as Best Drama (1-4) and for Best Actor (David Tennant, who is also shortlisted for Staged). Other dramas nominated for the series awards are Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (Sky One), The Salisbury Poisonings (BBC One), All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5) and I Hate Suzie (Sky Atlantic).

Dolly Wells (Dracula) will compete with Coel, Edgar-Jones and Wright for the Best Actress award and Emma Corrin (The Crown) is nominated alongside Edgar-Jones, Mescal and St Aubin for the BPG Breakthrough Award.

The BPG Television, Streaming and Audio Awards – for work commissioned or premiered in the UK and screened in 2020 – are prized by programme-makers because they are chosen independently by TV and radio correspondents, critics and previewers. This year, instead of the usual BPG Awards lunch – attended by the winners, BPG members and guests – the 47th Awards will be a virtual event. The winners will be announced – and will accept their awards – via Twitter on Friday March 12th 2021, from 1pm to 3.30pm.

BBC Two’s Inside No 9. is shortlisted for Best Writer (Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton) and as Best Comedy, where it is up against Friday Night Dinner (Channel 4), Staged (BBC One), This Country (BBC Three) and The Trip (Greece) on Sky One.  Taskmaster’s first series on Channel Four is shortlisted for the Best Entertainment award, with Big Zuu’s Big Eats (Dave), Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (BBC Two) and Race Across The World (BBC Two).

Robert Rinder’s BBC One documentary My Family, The Holocaust and Me is shortlisted for Best Documentary Series (1-3 episodes) alongside Freddie Flintoff – Living with Bulimia (BBC One), 8 Minutes And 46 Seconds – The Killing of George Floyd (Sky News) and The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty (BBC Two). In the longer documentary category (4+ episodes), Nigella’s Cook, Eat, Repeat (BBC Two) competes against Dispatches (Channel 4), Portrait Artist of the Year (Sky Arts) and Once Upon a Time in Iraq (BBC Two).

This year’s BPG ‘Innovation in Broadcasting’ award recognises the industry’s creative response to the COVID-19 lockdown. There are three nominations: BBC for its Lockdown Learning initiative (BBC TV/Online/social media); Grayson’s Art Club – Grayson and Philippa Perry tackling lockdown through art (Channel 4); and PE With Joe – Joe Wicks’ lockdown PE lessons (YouTube).

Further information from Torin Douglas, BPG, 07860 422992

Notes to editors

  1. The winners will be announced online at the 47th BPG Awards event via Twitter. The Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting and the BPG Jury Prize are in the gift of the BPG Executive Committee and will be presented as well.
  2. The BPG Television, Streaming and Audio Awards are presented for work commissioned or premiered in the UK and screened in 2020. Programmes which were first streamed online are nominated and voted for alongside broadcast channel commissions originating in the UK.
  3. The shortlists for Audio Broadcaster of the Year, UK Podcast of the Year and Radio Programme of the Year will be announced in a week’s time on February 25th
  4. The Broadcasting Press Guild was founded in 1974 and has more than 175 members. They are journalists who specialise in covering television, streaming, radio podcasts and the media, and include critics, previewers, media correspondents and feature writers from national newspapers, broadcasters and leading trade journals and online publishers.
  5. Past BPG Best Actress winners include Glenda Jackson, Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Gillian Anderson, Vanessa Redgrave, Maxine Peake, Anne-Marie Duff, Dame Diana Rigg, Zoe Wanamaker, Gina McKee, Dame Julie Walters, Olivia Colman, Keeley Hawes, Sheridan Smith, Juliet Stevenson and Jodie Comer.
  6. The BPG Best Actor award has been awarded in previous years to Sir Mark Rylance, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Sir Alec Guinness, Albert Finney, Charles Dance, Robert Hardy, Jim Broadbent, Christopher Ecclestone, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones and Dominic West among others (see more details and photos at http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org/.)

The full list of nominations is:

Best Documentary Series 1-3 episodes

8 Minutes And 46 Seconds: The Killing of George Floyd (Sky News)

Freddie Flintoff – Living with Bulimia (South Shore Productions for BBC One)

My Family, The Holocaust and Me (Wall to Wall for BBC One)

The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty (72 Films for BBC Two)

Best Documentary Series 4+ episodes

Dispatches: all 2020 programmes (Various production companies for Channel 4)

Nigella’s Cook, Eat, Repeat (BBC Studios for BBC Two)

Portrait Artist of the Year, Series 7 (Storyvault Films for Sky Arts)

Once Upon a Time in Iraq (KEO Films for BBC Two and PBS Frontline)

Best Comedy

Friday Night Dinner, Series 6 (Big Talk Productions for Channel 4)

Inside No. 9, Series 5 (BBC Studios for BBC Two)

Staged, Series 1 (Infinity Hill/ GCB Films for BBC One)

This Country, Series 3 (BBC Studios for BBC Three)

The Trip, Series 4 (Greece) (Revolution Films for Sky One)

Best Entertainment

Big Zuu’s Big Eats (TwoFour’s Boomerang for Dave)

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Series 3 (Owl Power for BBC Two)

Race Across the World, Series 2 (Studio Lambert for BBC Two)

Taskmaster, Series 10 (Avalon Television for Channel 4)

Best Actress

Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You)

Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People)

Dolly Wells (Dracula)

Letitia Wright (Mangrove, Small Axe)

Best Actor

Shaun Parkes (Mangrove, Small Axe)

Matthew Macfadyen (Quiz)

Paul Mescal (Normal People)

David Tennant (Des/ Staged)

Best Writer

James Graham (Quiz)

Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You)

Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton (Inside No. 9)

Steve McQueen, Courttia Newland, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Alastair Siddons (Small Axe)

Best Drama Series 1-4 episodes

Des (New Pictures for ITV)

Quiz (Left Bank Pictures for ITV and AMC)

Roald and Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse (Hartswood Films for Sky One)

The Salisbury Poisonings (Dancing Ledge Productions for BBC One)

Best Drama Series 5+ episodes

All Creatures Great and Small (Playground Entertainment for Channel 5)

I Hate Suzie (Bad Wolf and Sky Studios for Sky Atlantic)

I May Destroy You (Various Artists Limited/ FALKNA for BBC One and HBO)

Normal People (Element Pictures for BBC Three and Hulu)

Small Axe (Turbine Studios/ Lammas Park for Amazon and BBC One)

BPG Breakthrough Award

Emma Corrin (The Crown)

Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People)

Paul Mescal (Normal People)

Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn (Lovers Rock, Small Axe)

BPG Innovation in Broadcasting Award

BBC for its Lockdown Learning initiative (BBC TV/Online/social media)

Grayson’s Art Club – Grayson and Philippa Perry tackling lockdown through art (Swan Films for Channel 4)

PE With Joe – Joe Wicks’ lockdown PE lessons (YouTube)

BPG Awards 2020: Gallery 1

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BPG Awards 2019 Winners news release

45th Television and Radio Awards Lunch

Friday March 15th 2019, Banking Hall

 

News release

EMBARGOED till 12 Noon Friday March 15th 2019

Hugh Grant, Jodie Comer, Nicholas Parsons and Lauren Laverne
are among the winners at the 45th Broadcasting Press Guild Awards

 

Two BBC TV dramas have each won three prizes at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, voted for by journalists who write about television and radio and sponsored by Virgin Media.

A Very English Scandal (BBC One), about the Jeremy Thorpe affair, has won the award for Best Single Drama/Mini Series and Hugh Grant, who played the former Liberal leader, was named Best Actor. Russell T Davies, who wrote the script from the book by John Preston, won the Best Writer award.

The glossy serial-killer drama Killing Eve (BBC America) has been voted Best Drama Series and its star Jodie Comer was named best actress. It also won the Best Online First/Streaming Award, having been shown as a BBC Three boxed set on BBC iPlayer, ahead of its transmission on BBC One.

The 45th BPG Awards lunch took place today at Banking Hall in the City of London, attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives. (Full list of winners below). The BPG Awards – given only for work commissioned or produced in the UK – are highly prized by programme-makers because they are selected independently by TV and radio correspondents, critics and previewers.

Jake Kanter, BPG Chair, said: “These awards are now a 45-year-old institution, and we think they are the most democratic in the land. No tedious judging panels, no political lobbying, just a list of the best TV and radio shows of 2018, voted for by people whose job it is to write about TV and radio for a living. In fact, this year, we had a record number of votes, which is testament to the enduring qualities of the BPG and the brilliance of the output.

“Drama’s hot streak continued. We had killer antiheroes, political subterfuge, and dangerous trysts.

Elsewhere, five kids from Derry created history in Northern Ireland, two jokers went fishing and hooked an unexpected hit, and the retelling of one unthinkable murder shocked the nation all over again.”

Channel Four has won the award for Best Comedy with Derry Girls and BBC Two’s Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing was named Best Entertainment programme. The Netflix drama Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, created by Charlie Brooker, won the BPG Award for Innovation. Brooker was there to accept his award, as were Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.

Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation (BBC One) was named Best Documentary Series and Grenfell (BBC Two) won the award for Best Single Documentary. Stephen Lawrence’s mother, Baroness Lawrence, and two members of Grenfell United, Karin Mussilhy and Kat Sladden collected their respective awards alongside the programme makers.

The Best of Multichannel Award, which goes to one of the non-PSB programmes shortlisted in the drama, documentaries, comedy and entertainment categories, went to the drama Patrick Melrose (Sky Atlantic).

Lauren Laverne was named Radio Broadcaster of the Year, for her work on BBC Radio 6 Music as well as Desert Island Discs and Late Night Woman’s Hour, both on BBC Radio 4.

The chair of the BPG radio jury, Julian Clover, said: “Our winner moves seamlessly between speech and music radio. She’s been tasked with presenting two of the big beasts of Radio 4… and, after presenting the mid morning show on BBC Radio 6 Music, her move to breakfast was described by one of our judges as a big step forward for the music content and a welcome step away from obligatory breakfast banter.”

The award for Radio Programme of the Year went to Tara and George, presented by Audrey Gillan (BBC Radio 4), which explores the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London. And the Podcast of the Year award went to Hip Hop Saved My Life with Romesh Ranganathan.

Among several special awards made by the BPG executive committee, sports presenter and football pundit Alex Scott won the Breakthrough Award for her work with BBC Sport and Sky Sports.

The BPG Chairman’s Award, chosen by this year’s BPG Chair Jake Kanter, recognised the impact of Big Brother on UK television. The citation said: “The reality TV behemoth gave rise to countless copycat formats and became a training ground for the industry’s top creatives, as well as making household names out of the likes of Dermot O’Leary & Davina McCall. It was a defining hit for Channel 4, gave a fresh lease of life to Channel 5 and proved its durability and value to producer EndemolShine Group.”

Nicholas Parsons CBE received the Harvey Lee Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, and attended the lunch with members of his family. As previously announced, the award recognises his seven decades of TV and radio entertainment, and in particular his contribution to one of the BBC’s longest-running programmes, Just A Minute on BBC Radio 4, which he has chaired for over 50 years.

 

Ends

 

All media and photography requests:

Olivia McKee, Virgin Media

T: 0333 000 2900

E: press@virginmedia.co.uk

@VirginMediaCorp

 

For social media, please follow:

www.twitter.com/BPGPressGuild

www.twitter.com/VirginMediaCorp

#BPGAwards

https://www.facebook.com/broadcastingpressguild/                                                                         

 

Notes to editors

  1. The Broadcasting Press Guild was founded in 1974 and has more than 150 members. They are journalists who specialise in covering television, radio and the media, and include critics, previewers, media correspondents and feature writers from national newspapers, broadcasters and leading trade journals and websites.
  2. The invitation-only event at the Banking Hall in the City of London was sponsored by Virgin Media and attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives. Details of the nominations, previous BPG awards and Virgin Media can be found at http://broadcastingpressguild.org, together with pictures, videos and a history of the Guild.
  3. Harvey Lee – in honour of whom our Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting Award is named – was a leading light of the BPG, who died at the tragically early age of 41. The award for outstanding achievement has been given in his memory every year since every year since 1992. Previous winners are named on our website: http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org/bpgawards/harvey-lee
  4. This year’s BPG Awards are sponsored by Virgin Media, which offers four multi award-winning services across the UK and Ireland: broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline. Its interactive TV service brings live programmes, thousands of hours of on-demand programming and the best apps and games in a set-top box, as well as on-the-go for tablets and smartphones. It launched the world’s first virtual mobile network and is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the UK and Ireland. Virgin Media is part of Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company, with operations in more than 30 countries. www.virginmedia.com/tv

For more information about the Broadcasting Press Guild, please contact:

Torin Douglas, BPG  torindouglas@aol.com or 07860 422992 

 

The full list of BPG TV and Radio Awards winners is:

Best Single Drama/Mini-series
A Very English Scandal
A Blueprint Pictures production for the BBC and Amazon Studios

Best Drama Series
Killing Eve
A Sid Gentle Films Ltd production for BBC America, internationally distributed by Endeavor Content      

Best Single Documentary
Grenfell
A Minnow Films production for BBC One

Best Documentary Series
Stephen: The Murder that Changed a Nation
An On the Corner production, in association with Rogan Productions, for BBC One

Best Entertainment
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
An Owl Power TV production for BBC Two

Best Online First/ Streaming
Killing Eve
A Sid Gentle Films Ltd production for BBC America, internationally distributed by Endeavor Content and first streamed in UK on BBC Three as a box set on BBC iPlayer

Best Comedy
Derry Girls
A Hat Trick Productions production for Channel 4

Best of Multichannel
Patrick Melrose
A Two Cities production in association with Sunnymarch and Little Island for Sky Atlantic and Showtime

Radio Broadcaster of the Year
Lauren Laverne
BBC Radio 6 Music, Late Night Woman’s Hour and Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4

Radio Programme of the Year
Tara and George
A Falling Tree Productions production for BBC Radio 4

Podcast of the Year
Hip Hop Saved My Life – Romesh Ranganathan
Ranga Bee Productions

Best Actor
Hugh Grant for A Very English Scandal (BBC One)

Best Actress
Jodie Comer for Killing Eve (BBC America)

Best Writer
Russell T Davies for A Very English Scandal (BBC One)

Innovation Award
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, for a ground-breaking form of storytelling.
A House of Tomorrow production for Netflix

Breakthrough Award
Alex Scott
Sports broadcaster for BBC and Sky

BPG Chairman’s Prize
Big Brother
EndemolShine Group for Channel 4 and Channel 5

Harvey Lee Award
Nicholas Parsons CBE
Actor, presenter & game show host, in particular, recognition of more than 50 years of presenting Radio 4’s Just A Minute.

Nicholas Parsons to be honoured by TV and radio writers at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards

Radio and TV presenter, Nicholas Parsons CBE, who has entertained audiences for more than 70 years, is to be honoured later this week at the 45th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, sponsored by Virgin Media. The actor and gameshow host has presented Radio 4’s Just A Minute for over 50 years and hosted ITV’s Sale of the Century for 12 years.

On Friday 15 March, Parsons will receive the Harvey Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting.

Nicholas Parsons began his career on radio in the 1940s, as an impersonator on the Carroll Levis Discoveries talent show. As an actor, he appeared on the West End stage, in repertory and in films. One of his first television appearances was in an episode of ITV’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, playing Sir Walter of the Glen. In the 1960s, he became known to millions of viewers as the straight man to comedian Arthur Haynes, a partnership which ran for ten years, including appearances at the London Palladium and on The Ed Sullivan Show. He later appeared regularly on The Benny Hill Show.

On December 22nd 1967, Nicholas Parsons hosted the first edition of Just A Minute on BBC Radio 4, a role he has carried out ever since, missing just one recording (when he had flu). In 1971, he also became host of the ITV gameshow Sale of the Century, which he presented for 12 years. Other broadcasting highlights have included appearances in The Comic Strip Presents (Channel 4), Doctor Who (BBC One) and hosting Have I Got News For You (BBC One).

The BPG’s chairman, Jake Kanter, said: “Our Harvey Lee award winner is being recognised for seven decades of TV and radio entertainment, and in particular his contribution to one of the BBC’s longest-running programmes. Panelists have come and gone, the gamesmanship and gags have evolved, but Nicholas Parsons remains in the hot seat at the centre of it all. His warmth, sharp wit, and clear-headed determinations in rooms full of fast-talking show offs have kept him at the top of his game.”

The BPG Awards are highly prized by programme-makers because they are selected independently by journalists who write about TV and radio – correspondents, critics and previewers. The awards lunch, at Banking Hall in the City of London on Friday, will be attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives. www.broadcastingpressguild.org

For more information about the Broadcasting Press Guild, including a full list of winners over the past 45 years, and see pictures and videos from previous BPG awards ceremonies at:

http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org/2014/03/25/history-of-the-broadcasting-press-guild

 

Notes to editors:

  1. The other award winners will be announced at the 45th BPG Awards lunch at Banking Hall in the City on Friday March 15th 2019. Winners have been informed in advance and places at the lunch are by invitation only. A full news release about the winners, embargoed till 12 noon on Friday, will be available.
  2. The Broadcasting Press Guild was founded in 1974 and has more than a hundred members. They are journalists who specialise in covering television, radio and the media, and include critics, previewers, media correspondents and feature writers from national newspapers, broadcasters and leading trade journals and websites.
  3. Harvey Lee (1950-1991) was the media correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and a leading light in the BPG throughout the 1980s. Previous winners of the BPG’s Harvey Lee Award, for an outstanding contribution to broadcasting, include Sir Lenny Henry, John Humphrys, John Lloyd, Sir Terry Wogan, Cilla Black, Melvyn Bragg, Andrew Davies, Sir David Frost, Michael Grade, Norma Percy, Biddy Baxter & Edward Barnes, Phil Redmond, Beryl Vertue, Tony Warren, Anne Wood and Charles Wheeler. See more details at http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org/bpgawards/harvey-lee/.
  4. The 2019 BPG Awards are sponsored by Virgin Media, which offers four multi award-winning services across the UK and Ireland: broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline. Its interactive TV service brings live programmes, thousands of hours of on-demand programming and the best apps and games in a set-top box, as well as on-the-go for tablets and smartphones. It launched the world’s first virtual mobile network and is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the UK and Ireland. Virgin Media is part of Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company, with operations in more than 30 countries. www.virginmedia.com/tv

 

Further information from Torin Douglas, BPG: torindouglas@aol.com or 07860 422992

BPG Awards TV Nominations

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BPG Awards 2018 on Twitter

https://twitter.com/Emmabarnett/status/974688975024730112