The BBC Two drama series Parade’s End has won four prizes at the 39th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, voted for by journalists who write about TV and radio. BBC Two also won four of the other awards, which are being presented today (Thursday) at a lunch in the Gladstone Library at One Whitehall Place in central London. (Full list of winners below.)

Benedict Cumberbatch was named best actor, for his roles as Christopher Tietjens in Parade’s End and Sherlock Holmes in BBC One’s Sherlock. Rebecca Hall was voted best actress for her role as Tietjens’ wife Sylvia, in the First World War drama.

Parade’s End also won the award for best drama series and the BPG writer’s award, which went to Sir Tom Stoppard, who adapted the novels by Ford Madox Ford. Cumberbatch, Hall and Stoppard are all due to attend the awards lunch, with executives from the BBC and Mammoth Screen, which produced the series.

The ITV documentary which exposed Jimmy Savile and helped plunge the BBC into crisis, won the award for best single documentary. Exposure: the Other Side of Jimmy Savile led to a national inquiry into child abuse and a chain of events that resulted in the departure of the BBC director-general George Entwistle.

John Humphrys, whose interview with Mr Entwistle on Radio 4’s Today was instrumental in the director-general’s resignation that evening, won the Harvey Lee Award for an outstanding contribution to broadcasting. John has been a BBC reporter, presenter and interviewer for more than 40 years, and the citation says “his tenacious interviewing of politicians and others in the news has made his name a byword for fearless inquisition.”

John’s colleague Charlotte Green, who has stepped down after 25 years as a Radio 4 newsreader and announcer, was named radio broadcaster of the year. The award for best radio programme also went to Radio 4, for the series Soul Music which explores music with a powerful emotional impact.

Three awards marked the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012. The BBC won the innovation award for its live and catch-up coverage of all 304 events at the Olympics, across multiple platforms and devices. Presenters Huw Edwards and Gabby Logan are due to attend the lunch and receive the award with senior BBC executives responsible for the output.

The BBC Two comedy series Twenty Twelve – showing how preparations for the Olympics could go horribly wrong, with what the judges called “an uncanny ability to predict real-life events” – won the best comedy/entertainment award.

And Channel 4’s Adam Hills won the breakthrough award for his nightly Paralympics show, The Last Leg, which gave an alternative view of the day’s events.

BBC Two also won the awards for best single drama (The Hollow Crown: Richard II), best documentary series (Inside Claridge’s) and best factual entertainment (Great British Bake Off).

The multichannel award went to Dynamo: Magician Impossible, featuring Steve Frayne, on UKTV’s Watch channel.

The awards are sponsored by Discovery Channel which is part of Discovery Networks. Discovery Networks has 12 channel brands in the UK reaching 11.8 million people every week covering factual, lifestyle and entertainment programming. www.discoveryuk.com.

The invitation-only ceremony at One Whitehall Place is attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives.

For more information, please contact:
Torin Douglas, Broadcasting Press Guild, 07860 422992
Twitter: #bpgawards

For exclusive video clips and photographs, or to send a photographer, reporter or crew, please contact:
Caroline Watt, Senior Publicity Manager, Discovery Networks
caroline_watt@discovery.com

020 8811 3584, m: 07879 474223

Editor’s notes:
1. The Broadcasting Press Guild was founded in 1974 and has more than 120 members – all journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media in general. They include media correspondents, reviewers, previewers and feature writers from the major national newspapers, broadcasters and leading trade journals.
2. Harvey Lee was a leading light of the BPG, who died at the tragically early age of 41, and the award for outstanding achievement has been given in his memory every year since 1992.
3. Details of the nominations, previous BPG Awards and the event sponsor, Discovery Channel, can be found at: http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org, together with pictures and video of previous awards ceremonies and more on the history of the Harvey Lee Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting Award.

39th Broadcasting Press Guild TV and Radio Awards – The winners

Best Single Drama
The Hollow Crown: Richard II
(A Neal Street Productions co-production with NBC Universal and WNET Thirteen for BBC Two)

Best Drama Series
Parade’s End
(A Mammoth Screen production for the BBC, in association with HBO Miniseries & Trademark Films, BBC Worldwide and Lookout Point /more

Best Single Documentary
Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile
(An ITV Studios production for ITV1)

Best Documentary Series
Inside Claridge’s
(Produced by The Garden for BBC Two)

Best Entertainment/Comedy
Twenty Twelve
(A BBC Comedy production for BBC Two)

Best Factual Entertainment
The Great British Bake Off
(A Love West production for BBC Two)

Best Multichannel Programme
Dynamo: Magician Impossible
(Phil McIntyre Productions for UKTV’s Watch)

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch
(Christopher Tietjens in Parade’s End for BBC Two, and Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock for BBC One)

Best Actress
Rebecca Hall
(Sylvia Tietjens in Parade’s End for BBC Two)

Breakthrough Award
Adam Hills
(The Last Leg, during the 2012 Paralympics on Channel 4)

Writer’s Award
Sir Tom Stoppard
(Parade’s End, from the novels by Ford Madox Ford, for BBC Two)

Radio Broadcaster of the Year
Charlotte Green
(Newsreader and announcer for BBC Radio 4)

Radio Programme of the Year
Soul Music
(A BBC A&M Bristol production for BBC Radio 4)

Innovation Award
BBC Olympics 2012
(In recognition of the first truly multi-platform, multi-device, digital Olympics)

Harvey Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting
John Humphrys
(BBC reporter, interviewer and presenter, in special recognition of his work for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme)

John Humphrys, of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, will receive one of broadcasting’s most prestigious awards today at a lunch in central London. He has won the Broadcasting Press Guild’s annual Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting.

The BPG awards are voted for by journalists who write about TV and radio, and will be presented today (Thursday) at a lunch in the Gladstone Library at One Whitehall Place in central London. Names of the other winners will be revealed at the lunch (see separate release embargoed till 12 Noon Thursday March 14th).

The TV nominations were announced last month, here:

and the radio nominations here:

John Humphrys has been a BBC reporter, presenter and interviewer for more than 40 years. He joined Today as a presenter in January 1987 and has also worked as a BBC foreign correspondent in America and Africa, a diplomatic correspondent and presenter of the Nine O’Clock News. The award citation says “his tenacious interviewing of politicians and others in the news has made his name a byword for fearless inquisition.”

The award comes at the end of a year in which his Today interview with his boss, the BBC director-general George Entwistle, about the handling of the Jimmy Savile scandal led directly to Mr Entwistle’s resignation that evening.
The award is given in memory of Harvey Lee, a leading light of the BPG, who died at the tragically early age of 41, and will be presented by his widow Marilyn. Previous recipients include Sir David Frost, Sir Terry Wogan, Melvyn Bragg, Charles Wheeler, Beryl Vertue and Michael Grade.

The awards are sponsored by Discovery Channel which is part of Discovery Networks. Discovery Networks has 12 channel brands in the UK reaching 11.8 million people every week covering factual, lifestyle and entertainment programming.

The invitation-only ceremony at One Whitehall Place is attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives.

For more information, please contact:

Torin Douglas, Broadcasting Press Guild, 07860 422992
Twitter: @bpgpressguild #bpgawards

For exclusive video clips and photographs, or to send a photographer, reporter or crew, please contact:
Caroline Watt, Senior Publicity Manager, Discovery Networks

Discovery Networks
caroline_watt@discovery.com
020 8811 3584, m: 07879 474223
Editor’s notes:

1. The Broadcasting Press Guild was founded in 1974 and has more than 120 members – all journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media in general. They include media correspondents, reviewers, previewers and feature writers from the major national newspapers, broadcasters and leading trade journals.

2. Details of the nominations, previous BPG Awards and the event sponsor, Discovery Channel, can be found at: http://www.broadcastingpressguild.org, together with pictures and video of previous awards ceremonies and more on the history of the Harvey Lee Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting Award.

Charlotte Green, who read her final news bulletin on BBC Radio 4 last month, has been shortlisted in the radio section of this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. The former newsreader and announcer is famous for her occasional giggles, as well as reading the Shipping Forecast and taking part in the News Quiz. She has been nominated as Radio Broadcaster of the Year, in recognition of her 25-year career at Radio 4. The judges said she would be much missed. [Read more…]

Sir Tom Stoppard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall, Sienna Miller, Ben Whishaw, Clare Balding and Grayson Perry are among those shortlisted for top honours in the 39th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, to be presented next month at a lunch in central London. [Read more…]