Heartbreaking ITV factual drama Little Boy Blue enjoyed a triumphant night at the RTS North West Awards in early November, taking home three top prizes
The drama about the murder of 11 year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool in 2007 was named the region’s Best Drama, Jeff Pope was awarded the Best Script Writer award and Sinead Keenan won the prize for Best Performance in a drama.
More than 450 industry professionals and guests attended the awards ceremony, which was held at the Hilton Deansgate in Manchester and hosted by Robert Rinder from ITV court show, Judge Rinder.
Sean Bean won the male acting award for his role as a troubled priest in Jimmy McGovern’s BBC One drama, Broken. The series’ director of photography, Joel Devlin, also received a craft award.
Peter Kay’s Car Share won both comedy categories. The hit BBC comedy took home the Best Comedy award and its co-star, Sian Gibson, received the Best Performance prize.
Manchester indie Blakeway North also won two awards: Best Current Affairs for BBC One’s Kicked Out: From Care to Chaos and Best Children’s (School Age)
For CBBC’s My Life: Born to Vlog.
Nina Warhurst was named Best Regional News Journalist for BBC North West Tonight and Sunday Politics North West, while BBC North West Tonight: Manchester Bomb Compilation was judged Best Regional News Programme.
The high number and standard of entries, said RTS North West Chair Cat Lewis, was a “reflection of the fact our region now not only hosts the second largest creative industries sector in the country, but also the second largest in the whole of Europe”.
The CEO of Manchester-based indie Nine Lives Media added: “Television drama is also continuing to enjoy a golden age, led by the amazingly talented writers and producers based in Liverpool and Manchester, and the number of programmes made in all the other TV genres continues to grow.”
