People Just Do Nothing win at RTS Awards
- People Just Do Nothing has won Best Scripted Comedy in the Royal Television Society Awards 2017
- Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge got two trophies: Comedy Writing and the Breakthrough award
- Julie Walters was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. Other winners included The Last Leg
The results of the Royal Television Society Awards 2017 have been announced, with BBC Three sitcom People Just Do Nothing winning in the Scripted Comedy category. Additionally, Asim Chaudhry, who plays Chabuddy G in the sitcom, won the Comedy Performance award.
Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge won two awards too, and The Last Leg presenting team picked up a prize. The evening ended with Julie Walters being presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Here are the comedy-related winners in full:
Scripted Comedy
People Just Do Nothing won in this category. The Royal Television Society described the show as "extremely funny - honest, contemporary and unlike anything else."
Also shortlisted: Catastrophe and The Windsors.
Comedy Performance
Asim Chaudhry won in this category, for playing hapless entrepreneur and Kurupt FM manager Chabuddy G in People Just Do Nothing. The judges said his performance was "contemporary and relevant, with beautiful layers of detail."
Also shortlisted: Steve Coogan for Alan Partridge's Scissored Isle and Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney for Catastrophe.
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Comedy Writing Award & Breakthrough Award - Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Phoebe Waller-Bridge won the Comedy Writing award for Fleabag, and was selected by the jury in the Breakthrough category too.
The RTS judges described her as "A creative risk-taker who succeeds at being both compelling and truly distinctive; genuinely moving their genre forward and clearly destined to be one of the great stars of the future."
Waller-Bridge recently confirmed she would work on a second series of Fleabag for 2018, however first she is starring in the next installment of the Star Wars franchise. Speaking to RTS recently, she said of joining the famous sci-fi brand: "Imagining yourself as a Star Wars actor is something that people dream of; well I certainly did. I was secretly like, 'That'd be great but it will never happen.' It's literally galaxies away!" Filming is currently underway on the movie. She reports back: "The other day was literally the coolest day of my life."
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Entertainment Performance - The Last Leg team
Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe won in this category for their work on The Last Leg. RTS described the programme as "witty, highly engaging and never less than extraordinary."
The Last Leg has been particularly praised for its coverage of the Paralympic Games in Brazil. Speaking in a recent RTS interview, Adam Hills explained "Being live from a foreign country, you've got all the stresses of trying to make a live TV show with a language barrier. You've got all those things where you go: why don't we just serve a tennis ball from a wheelchair... That's a lot harder to pull together in Rio than it is in The London Studios".
Also shortlisted for Entertainment Performance: Ant & Dec for I'm A Celebrity and Romesh Ranganathan for Asian Provocateur.
RTS Lifetime Achievement Award - Julie Walters
Julie Walters, who has starred in a number of comedy programmes across her long and varied TV acting career, said in her acceptance speech: "I simply can't thank all the amazing people I have elbowed out of the way to get where I am."
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The Royal Television Society has been running since 1927. The society's programme awards recognise shows "which have made a positive contribution to their genre through their originality, innovation or supremely high standard, and from which other programme makers can learn and develop."
The results were announced at a ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, hosted by Sandi Toksvig.
Other winners included Ant & Dec, picking up Best Entertainment Show for Saturday Night Takeaway. Notably given its been through a year of transition, BBC Three was named Channel of the Year. A full list of winners can be seen at rts.org.uk