BBC One dramas Happy Valley and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell returned home well rewarded from the RTS Yorkshire Centre Awards, which were held in Leeds at the end of June
Red Production Company's Happy Valley won the Filmed in Yorkshire Award, while Sally Wainwright took home the Writer Award. Sarah Lancashire was named Best Actor for her performance as a no-nonsense police sergeant in the second series of the hard-hitting drama.
"This was pure unadulterated Yorkshire, warts and all," said the judges. "The budget was used to great effect and the series showed exceptional storytelling."
Historical fantasy drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, made by Cuba Pictures and Feel Films and supported by Screen Yorkshire, also won three prizes: Toby Haynes, Director: Fiction Award; production designer David Roger, Professional Excellence: Production; and Milk VFX for Animation and/or Visual Effects.
Praising Haynes' direction as "a tour de force", the judges said he "made sense of [Susanna Clarke¹s] challenging novel and transformed it into a visual spectacle with beautiful, intimate moments."
The Drama Award went to This Is England '90, the latest instalment of Shane Meadows' Channel 4 series. The Warp Films/Big Arty production had "stories and characters that stayed with the judges [with] never an inauthentic moment."
Photography by Paul Harness Photography
The Yorkshire Centre Award was made to sound engineer Terry Ricketts, whose credits include Whicker's World and Emmerdale. "For more than half a century Terry Ricketts has brightened the broadcast business with his personality and his professionalism," said the judges.
The awards took place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds and were presented by Mark Charnock (Marlon Dingle) and Laura Norton (Kerry Wyatt) from the ITV soap Emmerdale.
RTS Yorkshire also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Emley Moor transmitting station. In 1956 a tower was erected to provide ITV broadcasts to the Yorkshire area.
"I think we did Yorkshire proud and celebrated our incredibly diverse and successful TV industry, which has a great future. But we also celebrated our proud past by honouring two national treasures, Emley Moor and Terry Ricketts," said Lisa Holdsworth, RTS Yorkshire Secretary and Chair of the Awards Committee.
The factual prizes went to: Peter Kay: 20 Years of Funny, Best Programme (Shiver for BBC One); Body Donors, Best Series (Daisybeck Studios/GroupM Entertainment for Channel 5); and Tarun Bhartiyam who travelled from India to Yorkshire to pick up the Best Director Factual award for India¹s Frontier Railways: The Last Train in Nepal (3Di-TV for BBC Four).
The Last Train in Nepal also won the Professional Excellence: Post-Production award, while Daisybeck Studios collected the Independent Spirit Award for its contribution to the production industry in Yorkshire.
James Martin picked up the Presenter Award for Home Comforts at Christmas (BBC Bristol for BBC One) and Christine Talbot was named Best Reporter for her work on Calendar. The ITV regional news programme also won the Best News Programme Award for 'The Closure of Kellingley Colliery'.
Mark O¹Brien from Made in Leeds was named the One to Watch. The local TV channel also won the News Report Award for 'Christmas Flooding: On The Aire'.
The other winners on the night were: Forced Marriage Cops (True Vision Aire for Channel 4), which took the Made in Yorkshire Award; E Stings 2016 (Rocket/4creative/Spredfast for E4), the Second Screen Award; and Welcome to the Northern Powerhouse (Motiv Productions), Best Promotion or Commercial Production.
For a full list of awards nominees and winners click here.
