BBC, C4 dominate Edinburgh TV Awards

The BBC and Channel 4 dominated the programme categories at at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival awards.

Jury President, Mobeen Azhar, handed out the Channel of the Year award to BBC CCO, Charlotte Moore. Other BBC wins included the Best Entertainment Category which went to The Traitors, Breakthrough Presenter to Ellie Simmonds (Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism?), and Best Entertainment TV Presenter for Graham Norton (The Graham Norton Show).

In the acting categories, Kate Winslet took home the Best TV Actor in a Drama award for her performance in the critically acclaimed Channel 4 drama I Am Ruth, while Jamie Demetriou won Best TV Actor in a Comedy for his performance in Netflix series A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou. The Breakthrough Actor award went to Lewis Gribben for his performance in Channel 4 hit Somewhere Boy.

In the programme categories Channel 4 picked up awards for Best Documentary for Children of the Taliban and Best Popular Factual went to Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard. Final seasons were big winners in the drama and comedy categories with Best Drama awarded to Sally Wainwright’s critically acclaimed police drama Happy Valley, Best International Drama awarded to Jesse Armstrong’s hit Succession and Best Comedy series awarded to Channel 4’s Derry Girls.

Production Company of the Year went to Dancing Ledge who are behind recent critically acclaimed drama hits such as The Responder, The New Pope and The Salisbury Poisonings. STV Studios, behind hard-hitting dramas Screw and Blue Lights, was awarded Production Group of the Year, whilst Belfast-based Afro-Mic Productions,responsible for a range of factual entertainment including Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland and Letters In Lockdown, received the Small Indie of the Year Award.

Best On Demand Service was bestowed to ITV’s streaming service ITVX, while Guy Martin’s Great British Power Trip was the winner of the Climate Impact Award, which was first launched at last year’s Festival.

This Year’s Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to Claudia Winkleman who collected the award in person, in recognition of her contribution to some of TV’s most popular shows which, most recently, include two of the biggest non-scripted hits of the last 12 months; Channel 4’s much talked about The Piano and BBC’s breakout hit of 2022, The Traitors, and the BBC’s Saturday night juggernaut, Strictly Come Dancing.

In the only award voted for by the public, ‘Dr Who Regenerates’ was crowned TV Moment of the Year.

The Edinburgh TV Festival’s Head of Awards Bianca Newby said: “What a year it has been for TV but once again, the creative talent on show tonight has demonstrated just how strong and resilient our industry is. A special thanks to our juries, jury president Mobeen, and the incredible Jordan Gray.”