RTS WEST OF ENGLAND ANNOUNCE NOMINATIONS FOR ANNUAL AWARDS

(for the full list of nominations, press release and list of judges, please find PDFs at the bottom of the page)

Actor and writer Susan Wokoma will present this year’s RTS West of England Awards at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre in March. Susan is a previous winner in On Screen Performance for E4/Netflix’s Crazyhead and other credits include Year of the Rabbit, Dark Mon£y, Susan Wokoma’s Love the Sinner and Porters.

It’s not hard to understand Channel Four’s decision to build one of its UK creative hubs in Bristol, from the extraordinary range of nominated programmes, which illustrate the rich diversity of talent and creativity in the city region.

The shortlist of nominations for the annual awards, in association with Evolutions Bristol, are in the fields of on screen talent, craft, scripted, animation, regional television news and across a range of factual programming including natural history and documentary.

The RTS West of England Awards is the only annual celebration of the region’s creative community and this year the region has welcomed the work from the RTS Devon and Cornwall centre.

BBC Studios Natural History Unit leads the way with 19 nominations for a wide range of programmes it has made and in associated craft categories. Notable shows include landmark series Dynasties and Natural World: Pangolins, The World’s Most Wanted Animal. BBC Studios Unscripted Productions has four nominations including Antiques Roadshow: World War One Special, DIY SOS - a special in which the team construct a brand new boxing club for the Grenfell community plus a current affairs report for Countryfile exposing how farmers have been caught up in a banking scandal.

In scripted, The Interrogation of Tony Martin, shot and produced in the region, receives five nominations - the script for this factual drama about the police's interrogation of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who shot a fleeing burglar dead in 1999 is taken verbatim from the police interview recordings. The mockumentary This Country, Eric Ernie and Me (which was based at The Bottle Yard Studios) and Sky One’s Delicious starring Dawn French and Emilia Fox complete the scripted nominations line-up.

There is an array of talent represented in the on screen talent category, from Patrick Aryee (Big Beasts: Last of the Giants) and Tom Kerridge (Lose Weight for Good) to Dr Yasmin Khan (A Passage to Britain) and Miles Chambers (Civilisations Stories: The Remains of Slavery)

Local independent production company Offspring Films has three nominations including two for Natural World, Red Ape: Saving the Orangutan and a host of new indies in the region receive nominations for the first time - One Tribe TV has three, Bone Soup Productions has two and Wall to Wall West has two.

In News, ITV News West Country score four nominations across the Flying Futures, News/Current Affairs Reporter and News/Current Affairs Story categories, with the exclusive interview with Charlie Rowley, the Novichok poisoning victim, from ITV National News also shortlisted. BBC Points West and Inside Out West are in the running too, with two nominations each.

Centre chair and RTS board trustee, Lynn Barlow said: “It’s another rich year of creativity from the West of England– our programmes reach global audiences, our talent breaks new ground and demonstrates innovation and originality. From more than 200 submissions our judges have nominated the best of the very best in factual entertainment, documentary, on screen talent and natural history. It promises to be a great evening, where the broadcast community comes together to celebrate our place as a world leader in television, film and animation.”

The RTS West of England Awards will take place on Sunday March 24th at the newly refurbished Bristol Old Vic.

NOTES
General tickets are on sale FROM WEDNESDAY 20TH FEBRUARY from the Bristol Old Vic box office for £50.00 including VAT (£40 for RTS Members). Please call 0117 987 7877 to book the best available seats.

Sponsors of the RTS West of England Awards include Evolutions Bristol, The Bottle Yard Studios and Bristol Film Office, Doghouse Post Production, Evans Audio, ITV News West Country, Icon Films, BBC Studios Unscripted Productions, BBC Studios Natural History Unit, Plimsoll Productions, Wounded Buffalo Sound Studios, Films at 59, The Farm Group, Wall to Wall West, UWE and The Bristol, a Doyle Collection Hotel.

For more information on the RTS go to rts.org.uk/region/west-england
For more information on the awards, please contact Suzy Lambert, Awards producer on: suzy.lambert@rts.org.uk

EVOLUTIONS
Evolutions Bristol are delighted to return to the 2019 West of England RTS Awards as the headline sponsor. Offering an end to end post production service including production offices, workflow consultancy, offline and final post with some of the best talent in the country, we are proud to be an integral part of the South West
post production community.
With a growing team in Bristol as well as our three Soho facilities, VFX team, as well as bespoke Rig and Location services, Evolutions provide an integrated post production service to enable our clients to work across the region with great flexibility, and deliver high quality programmes across all genres from Natural History, Documentary, Animation, through to Commercial short form.

Once again we congratulate all of this year’s nominees for the hard work that has brought them this far!