National Comedy Awards 2021 winners
- The National Comedy Awards 2021 have been recorded, ahead of Channel 4's Saturday broadcast
- Sean Lock was posthumously honoured, whilst Sharon Horgan and Billy Connolly both got special prizes
- Netflix comedy drama Sex Education was the big winner of the night, with trophies in four categories
The results of the National Comedy Awards 2021 have been revealed, as the show was recorded at the Camden Roundhouse in London ahead of a TV broadcast at the weekend.
The new awards, run by Channel 4 in aid of Stand Up To Cancer, are based on a public vote and "honour both emerging and established British comedy talent".
The two hour programme, hosted by Tom Allen, will be broadcast in full on Channel 4 this Saturday night (5th March), from 9pm to 11:05pm.
The ceremony opened with Allen paying tribute to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the former comedy actor who is now President of Ukraine and tasked with overseeing his country's defence against the current Russian military invasion. The audience of comedy stars, industry figures and fans in attendance at the Roundhouse gave a standing ovation to Zelenskyy and "the courageous people of Ukraine".
Channel 4 will be showing the first episode of Zelenskyy's 2015 comedy series, Servant of The People, on Sunday at 10:35pm, with other episodes then available on its streaming platform, All4.
The awards ceremony saw the late Sean Lock honoured, and special prizes going to Sharon Horgan and Billy Connolly in recognition for their respective careers to date.
Netflix comedy drama Sex Education was the big winner of the night, collecting trophies in all four of the categories in which it was nominated.
The full results are below:
Special Tribute
The awards looked back on the career of writer, actor and stand-up Sean Lock in a special segment. The 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown regular, who died in August, was remembered via a special tribute film. His friend Harry Hill took to the stage to give a funny but heartfelt tribute to the much missed star. Lock was given a long standing ovation by the ceremony's guests.
Victoria Wood Lifetime Achievement Award
The crowd also gave a standing ovation as Micky Flanagan, standing in at the last minute for Eddie Izzard who was supposed to be presenting the category, announced that Scottish stand-up star Billy Connolly was the recipient of this new award.
Connolly now lives in Florida so couldn't attend the ceremony, however he did provide his thanks by video message. In his video he paid tribute to those comedians in variety theatre who inspired him, and to the new comedians today. He half-joked he thinks today's crop of comics are better than him, and is glad he retired when he did.
Caroline Aherne Outstanding Achievement in Writing Award
Horgan was honoured for her writing CV, which includes hits such as Motherland, Catastrophe and Pulling. She was not in attendance at the ceremony, but provided a thank you video, which was played to those at the ceremony, and recognised that much of her work has been co-written with others.
Best Scripted Comedy
As well as winning in the acting categories, the Netflix comedy picked up one of the main awards of the night, the Best Scripted Comedy trophy. This Is Going To Hurt creator Adam Kay presented the award to the show's team.
The other nominees were Ghosts, This Way Up and Motherland.
Best Comedy Entertainment Show
Katy Wix and Jamie Demetriou announced that the Channel 4 challenge show, hosted by Greg Davies and Alex Horne, had won in this category. The win comes off the back of Taskmaster being voted Comedy Of The Year in the Comedy.co.uk Awards.
Greg Davies thanked voters and added "the person who is undeniably at the heart of it is little Alex Horne", the format's creator and writer.
8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Rob And Romesh Vs and Would I Lie To You? were the other nominees.
Outstanding Comedy Actress
The Sex Education actor was not present at the ceremony and accepted her award by pre-recorded video. Alistair Petrie - who plays former Headmaster Groff in the show - picked up the trophy, presented by Rosie Jones and Joel Dommett.
The other nominees were Aisling Bea (This Way Up), Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts) and Anjana Vasan (We Are Lady Parts).
Outstanding Comedy Actor
The actor, who plays Otis Milburn in Netflix comedy drama Sex Education, was announced as the winner by Matt Lucas. On accepting the trophy, Butterfield quipped: "I put [the voting link] on Twitter and then saw that thousands of Brazilian teenage girls had voted for me so it doesn't feel entirely fair."
The other nominees were Greg Davies (The Cleaner), Lee Mack (Not Going Out) and Matthew Baynton (Ghosts).
Outstanding Supporting Role
The stars of We Are Lady Parts took to the stage to announce Gatwa as the winner in this category. The actor, who plays Eric Effiong in the Netflix comedy drama Sex Education, was also unable to attend the ceremony, but did provide a video message.
The trophy was collected by his co-star and fellow nominee Aimee Lou Wood. Motherland's Diane Morgan and Ghosts actor Lolly Adefope were also nominated in this category.
Outstanding Female Comedy Entertainment Performance
Ryan was nominated for her appearances on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, with the trophy presented by the pairing of Rob Rinder and Al Murray. On collecting her trophy, she referenced Jimmy Carr's roast jokes, remarking "that's a genre of comedy he happens to be the best at, and I think it's really important that we all protect that genre, even if people get offended by it."
The other nominees were Daisy May Cooper (Taskmaster), Rosie Jones (Trip Hazard) and Sandi Toksvig (QI).
Outstanding Male Comedy Entertainment Performance
Meera Syal and Judi Love announced that the public had voted for the late Sean Lock, for his role on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, resulting in the second standing ovation of the night for the much-missed comic.
Mo Gilligan (The Lateish Show), Mike Wozniak (Taskmaster) and James Acaster (Hypothetical) were also nominated in this category.
Comedy Breakthrough Performer
W1A actors Jessica Hynes and Rufus Jones presented the award to social media and TV star Chawawa, with Hynes using her time on stage to reference Noel Clarke's sex assault scandal.
After a meteoric year on little and large screens, Chawawa joked: "There was a time that I really did believe that my future would be touring small northern towns as a JLS tribute act; thanks to this award, that will not happen for at least another five years."
Judi Love, Joanne McNally, Rosie Jones and Rose Matafeo were also nominated in this category.
Best Stand-Up Show
Gervais wasn't in attendance as he is writing his next show. The trophy was presented by Taskmaster star Alex Horne, who - implying the audience should be busy preparing projects too - joked "that's what it takes". Gervais did however say thank you in a video message.
Sarah Millican, Katherine Ryan, Mo Gilligan and Jason Manford were also nominated in this category.
Best Comedy Podcast
Shagged Married Annoyed
Chris Ramsey and Rosie Ramsey's arena-filling format won in this category, with Aisling Bea and Kadiff Kirwan presenting the award to them.
Rosie told her husband: "I love you! There's nobody else I'd rather win this award with... in this room."
The other nominees were Off Menu with James Acaster and Ed Gamble, My Therapist Ghosted Me and Rob Beckett & Josh Widdecombe's Parenting Hell.