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 47^th 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 25^th
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)

Glenda Jackson has been named best actress at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, for her first screen appearance in 27 years. The award, voted for by journalists who write about television and radio, was for her role as Maud, a dementia sufferer, in BBC One’s adaptation of Emma Healey’s best-selling novel, Elizabeth Is Missing. [Read more…]

The radio and TV presenter, Moira Stuart, is to be honoured later this week at the 46th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, chosen by journalists who write about television and radio and sponsored by Virgin Media. [Read more…]

The former Labour leader Ed Miliband has been recognised in a new role at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, voted for by journalists who write about TV and radio. His podcast with Geoff Lloyd, Reasons to be Cheerful, has been named as the BPG Podcast of the Year, a new award marking the growing influence of the latest audio formats.

A headline-grabbing interview with the current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during last year’s election campaign helped Emma Barnett win the prize for BPG Radio Broadcaster of the Year. Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Mr Corbyn forgot details of a major policy announcement.

And in a year when women featured strongly in the BPG awards, Dame Hilary Mantel’s series of BBC Reith Lectures became Radio Programme of the Year.

This year’s BPG television winners also included Sir David Attenborough, Claire Foy, Prue Leith, Mark Bonnar, Steve Coogan, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones, Chris Packham and Jed Mercurio.

The 44th BPG awards lunch, sponsored by Virgin TV, is taking place today at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives. (Full list of winners below). The BPG Awards – given only for work commissioned in the UK – are highly prized by programme-makers because they are selected independently by TV and radio correspondents, critics and previewers.

Caroline Frost, BPG Chair, said: “These Awards are unique because they are the only ones voted for by people whose job it is to write about TV and radio for a living. After 44 years, our Guild continues to evolve in line with the ever-changing broadcasting landscape and this year we’ll be recognising for the first time our Podcast of the Year. In choosing our winners, we argue fiercely about what’s popular and what’s ambitious, what’s progressive and what’s truly original and we’ve honoured these requirements in our list of very worthy winners.

“It’s been an extraordinary year in entertainment, not just in the quality on-screen but in some of the controversies and scandals that have been uncovered away from it – and the British broadcasting industry has not gone un-marked. One thing we have to do today is give recognition to the BBC women, and all those who have put their heads above the parapet in pursuit of fair treatment, not just for themselves but for all women across the business.”

Claire Foy was named Best Actress for her role in the second series of The Crown (Netflix), which also won the award for Best Online First /Streaming production. It was revealed this week that she had been paid less for the series than her co-star Matt Smith.

Mark Bonnar was named Best Actor for a string of high-profile roles, including Unforgotten, Eric, Ernie and Me, Catastrophe and Apple Tree Yard. He can currently be seen in the latest series of Shetland on BBC One.

The edge-of-the-seat police series Line of Duty (BBC One) was named Best Drama Series, and its creator Jed Mercurio won the award for Best Writer. Three Girls, the three-part BBC One drama based on the true stories of victims of grooming and sexual abuse in Rochdale, was named Best Single Drama/Mini-series.

Blue Planet II (BBC One) was named Best Documentary Series and Chris Packham: Aspergers and Me (BBC Two) won the award for Best Single Documentary. Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham will both be attending the lunch to receive their awards.

The annual Harvey Lee Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting was given to the children’s television producers Biddy Baxter and Edward Barnes, in special recognition of Blue Peter, which celebrates its 60^th anniversary this year.  The citation says: “For creating the ‘new’ Blue Peter in the early 1960s alongside the late Rosemary Gill. The involvement of its audience was ground-breaking, giving every child the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to the programme, to become involved in charity fund-raising and win a coveted Blue Peter badge. Blue Peter unleashed the power and potential of children’s television and 60 years on has created some of its most memorable moments.”

The BPG Award for Innovation went to Channel 4 for its latest advances in championing diversity both on and off screen. These include initiatives such as Spotlight on Directors and diversity throughout its commissioning – in programmes such as Ackley Bridge, The Last Leg and its 50 Shades of Gay season – and in its advertising. The citation says: “Channel 4 has built on its pioneering Paralympics coverage to embrace the wider community and has demonstrated a first-in-class commitment to its public service broadcasting remit”. The award will be accepted by Channel Four’s chief executive Alex Mahon.

Channel Four also won the award for Best Entertainment/Factual Entertainment category, with its first series of The Great British Bake Off, which it controversially lured from BBC One. Judge Prue Leith will attend the lunch to receive the award. Detectorists (BBC Four) was named Best Comedy and its writer-performer Mackenzie Crook will pick up the award with his co-star Toby Jones.

The Trip to Spain (Sky Atlantic), featuring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on the latest stage of their culinary travels, won the award for Best Multichannel (non-PSB) programme. Its writer-director, the renowned British film maker Michael Winterbottom, will receive the award.

The BBC Reith Lectures 2017, given by the double Booker Prize winner Dame Hilary Mantel, exploring the challenges and legitimacy of historical fiction, won the award for BPG Radio Programme of the Year. The award will be collected by Sue Lawley, who presents the series.

The other two audio awards, for Radio Broadcaster of the Year and Podcast of the Year, celebrated the discussion of politics, and will be received at the lunch by Emma Barnett, Ed Miliband and his co-presenter Geoff Lloyd.

Torin Douglas, chair of the radio jury, said: “Emma Barnett, our Radio Broadcaster of the Year, hit the headlines during and after the general election campaign, when she interviewed Jeremy Corbyn and Teresa May and coaxed memorable reactions from both of them. The Labour leader’s inability to answer her questions on a major policy announcement was widely labelled a ‘car crash’ and the Prime Minister’s admission that ‘she shed a little tear’ after she heard the exit poll result was also picked up by every newspaper.

“Ed Miliband, who with Geoff Lloyd won the BPG’s first Podcast of the Year award, has found a new role since stepping down as Labour leader. After standing in for Jeremy Vine on Radio 2, where he segued brilliantly from flushing toilets to the universal basic income, he now presents a ‘podcast about ideas’ which one of our judges said was like listening to the Today programme without the egos running rampant over the interviewees”.

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 120 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 in the Grand Saloon of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane is sponsored by Virgin TV and attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives. Details of the nominations, previous BPG awards and Virgin TV 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 TV. Virgin TV is part of 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

Three Girls
A BBC Studios in association with Studio Lambert production for BBC One

Best Drama Series

Line of Duty

Produced by World Productions for BBC One                                                                                 

Best Single Documentary

Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me
A Raw TV production for BBC Two

Best Documentary Series

Blue Planet II

A co-production of BBC Worldwide, WDR, BBC America, Tencent, The Open University, France Televisions & CCTV9 made by BBC Studios, Natural History Unit for BBC One

Best Entertainment

The Great British Bake Off
A Love Productions production for Channel 4

Best Digital First Streaming

The Crown
A Left Bank Pictures, Sony Pictures TV Company production for Netflix                                                                                                                                           

Best Comedy

Detectorists

A Channel X North, Treasure Trove Productions & Lola Entertainment production for BBC Four

Best Multichannel Programme

The Trip to Spain
A Revolution Films, Baby Cow, Small Man Production for Sky Atlantic

Radio Broadcaster of the Year

Emma Barnett

The Emma Barnett Show, BBC Radio 5 Live, and Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4

Radio Programme of the Year

BBC Reith Lectures 2017: Hilary Mantel
A BBC Radio Current Affairs production for BBC Radio 4

Podcast of the Year

Reasons to be Cheerful
A Cheerful Thinking production

Best Actor

Mark Bonnar for Eric, Ernie and Me (BBC Four), Apple Tree Yard (BBC One), Catastrophe (Channel 4), Unforgotten (ITV)

Best Actress

Claire Foy for The Crown (Netflix)                                                                                                         

Best Writer

Jed Mercurio for Line of Duty (BBC One)

Innovation Award

Channel 4 for new advances in championing diversity, including initiatives such as Spotlight on Directors and diversity throughout its commissioning and in its advertising.

Harvey Lee Award

Biddy Baxter & Edward Barnes, children’s television producers, in special recognition of Blue Peter.

Twice winner of the Booker Prize Hilary Mantel and Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, have been shortlisted for their widely-acclaimed radio series in this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) Awards, chosen by journalists who write about TV and radio.

The BPG Awards – given only for work commissioned in the UK – are highly prized by programme-makers because they are selected independently by TV and radio correspondents, critics and previewers.The 44th annual BPG awards, sponsored by Virgin TV, will be held at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Friday March 16th 2018.

Former Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is among the nominees for the BPG’s first ever award for Podcast of the Year, acknowledging the growth and quality of downloadable audio.

Hilary Mantel’s series of The Reith Lectures on BBC Radio 4 is nominated as BPG Radio Programme of the Year, alongside Neil MacGregor’s Living with the Gods (BBC Radio 4), the Steve Lamacq show (BBC 6 Music) and Classic FM’s Saturday Night at the Movies with Andrew Collins.

Comics Andy Hamilton (BBC Radio 4) and Frank Skinner (Absolute Radio) have been shortlisted as BPG Radio Broadcaster of the Year. The other nominees include A. Dot (aka Dotty), who presents the 1Xtra Breakfast Show, and Emma Barnett, for BBC Radio 5 Live’s The Emma Barnett Show and BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour.

The nominations for BPG Radio Programme of the Year are:

• Hilary Mantel’s The Reith Lectures, BBC Radio 4
• Living with the Gods with Neil MacGregor, BBC Radio 4
• Saturday Night At The Movies with Andrew Collins, Classic FM
• Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 6 Music

The nominations for BPG Radio Broadcaster of the Year are:

• A. Dot aka Dotty, rapper & broadcaster – BBC 1Xtra Breakfast Show
• Andy Hamilton – Andy Hamilton Sort of Remembers – BBC Radio 4
• Emma Barnett – BBC Radio 5 Live The Emma Barnett Show, Radio 4 Woman’s Hour
• Frank Skinner – The Frank Skinner Show – Absolute Radio

Recognising the growth in popularity and quality of online audio productions, the BPG is introducing an award for Podcast of the Year.

The nominees for the first BPG Podcast of the Year award are:

• Hip Hop Saved My Life with Romesh Ranganathan (Audioboom, Mr Box Productions)
• Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd (Cheerful Podcast)
• Remainiacs (Podmasters)
• The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson (Audible)

Previous winners of the BPG Radio Broadcaster award include Alistair Cook, Sir Terry Wogan, Jane Garvey, Nick Ferrari, James O’Brien, Brian Redhead, Sandi Toksvig and Sir Mark Tully.

The 44th annual BPG Awards lunch, sponsored by Virgin TV, will be attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives on 16th March 2018.

Further information from Torin Douglas, BPG, 07860 422992

Notes to editors:

1. The winners will be announced at the 44th BPG Awards lunch in the beautifully restored Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Friday March 16th 2018, sponsored by Virgin TV. The Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting, which is in the gift of the BPG Executive Committee, will also be presented. Winners will be informed in advance and places at the lunch are by invitation only.
2. Virgin TV is part of 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, connecting over 22 million customers through operations in 12 countries across Europe. www.virginmedia.com/tv
3. The television nominations for this year’s BPG Awards were announced on February 15th 2018. www.broadcastingpressguild.org/2018/02/broadcasting-press-guild-awards-2018-television-nominations.
4. 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.