Staged and Gone Fishing win Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
- Best Comedy: Staged
- Best Entertainment: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
- Podcast Of The Year: Elis James & John Robins
Staged and Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing have won prizes in the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards 2021.
It is the 47th year of the BPG Awards, which are run by the guild whose members are journalists who specialise in covering television, streaming, radio, podcasts and the media. Normally the winners would be revealed at a lunch, however this year the results were announced via the @BPGPressGuild Twitter account.
Staged - the BBC One sitcom starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen - was nominated alongside Friday Night Dinner, Inside No. 9, This Country and The Trip in the Best Comedy category.
The sitcom's co-creators Simon Evans and Phin Glynn accepted the award via a video:
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Meanwhile Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing was picked by the judges in the Best Entertainment category, which also featured Big Zuu's Big Eats and Taskmaster in the shortlist.
Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer accepted the trophies via a Zoom call that also featured Ted the dog:
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Comedians Elis James and John Robins were awarded the Podcast Of The Year title for their BBC Radio 5 Live show How Do You Cope?.
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David Tennant also won Best Actor, jointly for his roles in Staged and ITV drama Des. He said: "I'm very aware that I'm piggybacking on the back of the brilliant people I work with... working with great people makes you look better. I'm very aware of that."
Michaela Coel was the big winner in the awards, picking up the Best Actress and Best Writer prizes for her work on her show I May Destroy You, which also won the Drama trophy.
The full list of winners across all categories can be seen via broadcastingpressguild.org
Jake Kanter, the chair of the BPG, says: "2020 was a challenging year for British television. Coronavirus shuttered production for months, ripped a near-fatal hole in the ad market, and ravaged a brilliant freelance community that actually makes the stuff we love to watch. But amid the rubble, industry ingenuity prospered and what crumbled was quickly rebuilt. It was a year when television and radio provided comfort, distraction and a friendly embrace in an ugly world. Our winners are testament to that."