The North East & The Border Centre's Awards for 2011, were held at The Sage, Gateshead, on Saturday February 18th 2012.
ALED JONES HOSTS NORTH EAST AWARDS SHOWCASE
The presenter of the BBC’s Songs of Praise, Aled Jones, was the host our celebration of North East television and media.
More than 500 guests and celebrities saw the best of the region’s television and digital media production in one of the biggest awards shows outside London.
Introducing Aled, Chairman of the North East & The Border Centre, Graeme Thompson, said:
Good evening and welcome — particularly to those of you who suffered the turmoil of having to make the decision to come here instead of the Arsenal cup tie in Sunderland.
We'll do our best tonight to make you feel you made the right choice — with a familiar mix of goalmouth celebrations, swearing at the ref and..courtesy of the current fashion for figure-hugging trousers...the occasional crunching tackle!
Anyway, welcome to another magnificent showcase of the very best of television and digital media production from the North East and the Borders. It's a pleasure to see so many of you here tonight for this our 25th anniversary awards event.
I know I say this every year, but the last twelve months really have been a bit of a rollercoaster. We've experienced the ups of new network drama commissions such as Vera for ITV, great documentaries including the ratings-busting Junior Doctors for BBC3 and a well deserved BAFTA for the news team at ITV Tyne Tees and Border. But for every high there's a low.. and survival and success in our sector certainly isn't getting any easier. Not helped by the fact that government cuts and policy changes are making it so difficult for the excellent team at Northern Film & Media to continue to support the region's production and talent infrastructure.
Yet — plenty of reasons to be cheerful, as you will see in the impressive productions and portfolios shortlisted tonight. There's been a significant growth in the number of creative companies based in the region and it's not just the BBC who are committed to commissioning more from us. ITV, Channel 4 and Sky are all at various stages of deals involving quite a few of the people here tonight.
This year we have mourned the passing of Andy Allan and John Frost, and now we must also take a moment to remember the great George House who sadly left us earlier this month. Mike Neville and George House were the Vic and Bob of the BBC in the North East and Cumbria during my formative years...and anyone who saw their Larn Yersel Geordie concerts at the City Hall or marvelled at George's effortless newscasting on Look North will I'm sure bring to mind the memory of a great talent.
My thanks to tonight's sponsors. We couldn't even countenance staging the event at this wonderful venue without their support. And as ever, massive gratitude to the amazing team who put tonight's event together — Julie, Jill, Agnes, Lesley, Lucy, Sue, Garth, Olwyn, Richard, Josh, Joanna, Christine, Alan and Graeme.
And so to this evening's host. Star of musicals such as Joseph and Irving Berlin's White Christmas, presenter of BBC Radio 2's Good Morning Sunday breakfast show and host of the British television institution that is Songs of Praise.
Add to all that presenter duties on Cash in the Attic and Escape to the Country for the BBC, plus his other career as a concert performer and the fact he has sold more than six million albums. Incredible he has the time to do anything like hosting an awards show... and I haven't even mentioned The Snowman'!
Please welcome your host for this evening — Aled Jones.
The Results and Judges' Comments are available here, as well as a picture gallery from the evening.