BBC One’s A Very British Scandal and Channel 4’s It’s A Sin have taken top honours at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, chosen by critics and journalists who write about TV and radio.

It’s a Sin was named Best Drama Series and its creator, Russell T Davies, won the BPG award for Best Writer, in the teeth of competition from Jimmy McGovern (Time), Sarah Phelps (A Very British Scandal), Chris Lang (Unforgotten) and Neil Forsyth (Guilt).

A Very British Scandal was voted Best Drama Mini-Series and its star Claire Foy was named Best Actress. Stephen Graham won the award for Best Actor for his performances in Channel 4’s Help and BBC One’s Time .

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse won the BPG Best Entertainment award for the third time with BBC Two’s Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. The Best Comedy award went to BBC Two’s Alma’s Not Normal.

The BBC Two series Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution was named Best Documentary Series, while Peter Jackson’s Disney+ series The Beatles: Get Back was voted Best Documentary Mini-Series.

The BPG Breakthrough Award went to the actor and writer of BBC Three’s Starstruck, Rose Matafeo. She was up against the creator of Channel 4’s We Are Lady Parts, Nida Manzoor, and the ‘Pink Palace’ cast members of C4’s It’s A Sin – Omari Douglas, Olly Alexander, Callum Scott Howells, Lydia West and Nathaniel Curtis.

A new award, the BPG Emerging Creators Award for video creativity on social media platforms, was given to Chunkz (YouTube), in competition with Francis Bourgeois (TikTok), Lucy Edwards (TikTok), Michael Dappah (YouTube) and Rosie Holt (Twitter).

The BPG Innovation in Broadcasting award went to Channel 4 for its Black to Front project and ongoing inclusion initiatives. Also on the shortlist were Albert, BAFTA’s sustainable production certificate, and Lights Up, the virtual theatre festival in lockdown (BBC Four).

As announced earlier this week, Jon Snow of Channel 4 News won the Harvey Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting.

Grant Tucker, the chair of the BPG, said: “2021 was a fantastic year for British television. The industry bounced back from the worst days of the pandemic with record levels of investment and programming, and our winners announced today are testimony to that creative explosion. It is also evident that, despite reports of their death, our public service broadcasters are very much alive and thriving. ”

The 48th BPG Awards has been sponsored for the first time by YouTube.

The full list of BPG TV and Radio Awards winners:

Best Documentary Series
Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution
A BBC Studios Documentary Unit Production for BBC Two

Best Documentary Mini-Series
The Beatles: Get Back
Apple Corps Ltd. & WingNut Films Productions Ltd. for Disney+

Best Drama Mini-Series
A Very British Scandal
A Blueprint Television production for BBC One

Best Drama Series
It’s a Sin
A RED Production Company production for Channel 4 and HBO Max in association with All3Media International

Best Entertainment
Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Series 4 An Owl Power Television production for BBC Two

Best Comedy
Alma’s Not Normal
An Expectation production for BBC Two

Best Actor Stephen Graham For his roles as:
Tony in Help
The Forge Entertainment and One Shoe Films for Channel 4 and as
Eric McNally in Time
BBC Studios Drama Productions for BBC One

Best Actress Claire Foy
For her role as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, in A Very British Scandal A Blueprint Television production for BBC One

Best Writer
Russell T Davies
It’s a Sin
A RED Production Company production for Channel 4 and HBO Max in association with All3Media International

Audio Presenter of the Year
Aasmah Mir
Times Radio Breakfast, a Times Radio production

Radio Programme of the Year
Jamz Supernova on 6
A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 6 Music

Podcast of the Year
Things Fell Apart – written and presented by Jon Ronson A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

BPG Innovation in Broadcasting Award
Channel 4’s Black to Front Project and ongoing inclusion initiatives

BPG Breakthrough Award
Rose Matafeo
Writer and Actor, Starstruck
An Avalon production for BBC Three and HBO Max

BPG Emerging Creators Award Amin Mohamed aka Chunkz for YouTube

Harvey Lee Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting Award Jon Snow
Channel 4 News

Pippa Considine

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