Peep Show, Cabin Pressure, Victoria Wood win writing awards
The winners of The Writers' Guild Of Great Britain Awards 2011 have been announced tonight at a ceremony hosted by David Quantick at Notting Hill's Tabernacle.
Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain (pictured) and Simon Blackwell were named best TV comedy writers for their work on Series 7 of hit Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show. The trio's comedy beat BBC Two sitcoms Lead Balloon (written by Jack Dee and Pete Sinclair) and Rev (James Wood) to the award.
This appeared to come as somewhat of a surprise to the writers, as Sam Bain had earlier tweeted that they wouldn't be watching Fresh Meat on TV (the new Channel 4 comedy drama they have created) because they would instead be at the WGGB awards and "applauding as Rev beats Peep Show".
Meanwhile in the Radio Comedy category, John Finnemore (pictured, far left) picked up an award for the hugely popular Cabin Pressure. The airline sitcom was nominated against fellow Radio 4 comedies Fags, Mags And Bags (by Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary) and Sarah Millican's Support Group (written by Millican).
Simon Blackwell tweeted Finnnemore saying: "Huge congratulations. Couldn't have happened to a nicer or more talented man. Enjoy your piece of sharpened glass", whilst David Mitchell tweeted his congratulations to all the writers, saying: "Congrats, clever hilarious men!"
Peter Bowker also picked up an award on the night, as Eric & Ernie - his biopic about the early days of double-act Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise - won in the Best Television Short-Form Drama category; and stand-up Howard Read with writing partner Chris Chantler won in the children's category for their hit show Little Howard's Big Question.
The night ended with Victoria Wood being honoured with a special Writers' Guild Award recognising her "outstanding contribution to writing." A compilation of her work, including dinnerladies, Acorn Antiques and drama Housewife 49, was shown to huge applause.