RTS North West Awards 2010
RTS North West held their annual awards ceremony on November 22 in a glittering ceremony at the Hilton hotel in Manchester. Hosted by one of the brightest stars on the British comedy circuit, Justin Moorhouse, the eagerly anticipated event attracted some of the country’s biggest names. As the great and the good of the TV world gathered for what is widely considered as the high point of the industry’s regional calendar, it was Coronation Street that emerged as the night’s big winner.
The show’s creator Tony Warren and it’s only remaining original cast member, Bill Roach collected the coveted Judges Award, commemorating all those who have played a role in the soap’s success over the past 50 years. The show also picked up the award for Best Continuing Drama, beating stiff competition from Shameless and Hollyoaks and cementing its position as the country’s best loved soap.
But as always the wealth of creative talent in the North West was clear to see with a huge variety of nominees from Question of Sport to Jeremy Kyle and Mastermind to You’ve Been Framed all represented on the night. Across twenty one fiercely contested categories there were a number of stand out performances. Red Production Company took home three awards for its BBC Two Boy George drama ‘Worried About the Boy’, whist Nine Lives Media took home two accolades for ‘Small Teen Big World’ and ‘A History of the World: A Tale of Two Rival Cities’, focusing on the competition between Liverpool and Manchester.
Last year’s presenter, John Bishop, made a frantic dash from his latest gig to collect his award for Best Comedy Programme and revealed that a new series could be in the pipeline.
Other winners on the night included Dragon’s Den for BBC 2 which scooped the awards for Innovation in Multiplatform and Best Factual Entertainment Programme, Liverpool based Lime Pictures who took home the award for Best Children’s Programme and BBC 1’s Waterloo Road, made by Shed Productions as Ann McManus scooped the gong for Best Script Writer. The spoils were shared in the regional news battle as Granada Reports won Best Regional News and Best Regional Story whilst Ranvir Singh secured Best Regional On Screen Talent for BBC North West Tonight.
Collecting the award for Best Performance in a Continuing Drama, Shameless favourite Ciaran Griffiths made an emotional speech before warning the ladies in the room that his elderly grandfather, his companion for the evening, was on the prowl!
As winners celebrations got underway, this year’s awards were also perfectly timed to look forward at the opportunities 2011 will bring. An expanding BBC North will bring with it more jobs, more airtime and more opportunities for the regions indies to make a national impact. As Coronation Street gears up for its 50th anniversary celebrations, the North West can be proud that its production industry is as strong as ever.
The RTS North West Awards 2010 took place on Saturday 20th November 2010 at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester.
WINNERS