Stacey Solomon and Hannah Waddingham win TV awards

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Stacey SolomonImage source, Getty Images

Stacey Solomon, Hannah Waddingham and Bella Ramsey are among the Royal Television Society Awards winners.

BBC drama Time won two, at the London event, and true-crime drama The Sixth Commandment three, including Supporting Actor – Male for Éanna Hardwicke.

Kane Robinson won Leading Actor – Male for Top Boy, the September finale of which received five-star reviews from the Guardian, Telegraph and NME, which called it “the best show on Netflix”.

But Happy Valley won RTS Drama Series.

Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley

The BBC crime thriller’s final season was 2023’s second most watched programme, with 10.6 million views.

And Sarah Lancashire was nominated for Leading Actor – Female, for her role as police sergeant Catherine Cawood, but lost out to Tamara Lawrence, for Time, which tracks the lives of three women arriving at a prison on the same day.

On the red carpet, Lawrence told BBC News: “Time is about understanding the context of how those women came to commit the crimes they did.

“Often criminality is framed as an issue of morality rather than the implications of the society we live in.”

Also for Time, Bella Ramsey won Supporting Actor – Female.

Hannah Waddingham

Image source, Getty Images

Eurovision host Hannah Waddingham, who won Entertainment Performance, told BBC News: “The aftermath of Eurovision has been so fun and unexpected and I am so jealous of the people doing it this year – what I would give to be doing it again.”

She has high hopes for the “fabulous” Olly Alexander and said the UK was “lucky to have him representing us” and “absolutely stand a chance of winning”.

Entertainment was won by Squid Game: The Challenge, a spin-off inspired by the eponymous Korean dystopian drama, which saw 465 people compete for $4.56m (£3.66m), thought to be reality TV’s biggest cash prize.

And Stephen Lambert, the chief executive of the studio that produced the programme, won the Outstanding Achievement Award.

Studio Lambert is also behind The Traitors, Race Across the World and Gogglebox.

Gbemisola Ikumelo and Hammed Animashaun won Comedy Performance – Female and Male, for Black Ops, in which they play hapless community-support officers recruited to work on a Met Police undercover operation.

Black Ops

On the red carpet, they said it was a “delicate balance trying to make a show that had comedy, a hint of drama and a bit of social commentary”.

The series’ overall message was “the underdogs can win”, Ikumelo said.

“This is the story of the people that you think aren’t important, that you overlook because of the way they look, the colour of their skin or the work they do,” she said.

“Sometimes you might under-estimate these people – but they are actually really important.”

In total, the BBC won 21 awards across 30 categories, at Tuesday’s ceremony, hosted by comedian Tom Allen.

BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore said: “The wins speak to our unwavering commitment to backing the very best British storytelling and recognised our ability to bring people together, which will be so important to us going into the future.”

Founded in 1927, as the Television Society,the RTS is an educational charity with more than 4,800 members, open to “anyone with an interest in the medium” not just those with links to the industry.

Full list of RTS Awards

  • Arts: Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World
  • Breakthrough Award: Lucy Edwards – Japan – The Way I See It – The Travel Show
  • Children’s Program: A Kind of Spark
  • Comedy Drama: Juice
  • Comedy Entertainment: Rob & Romesh Vs.
  • Comedy Performance – Female: Gbemisola Ikumelo – Black Ops
  • Comedy Performance – Male: Hammed Animashaun – Black Ops
  • Daytime Programme: Scam Interceptors
  • Documentary Series: Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland
  • Drama Series: Happy Valley
  • Entertainment: Squid Game: The Challenge
  • Entertainment Performance: Hannah Waddingham – Eurovision Song Contest 2023
  • Formatted Popular Factual: Sort Your Life Out
  • History: White Nanny, Black Child
  • Leading Actor – Female: Tamara Lawrance – Time
  • Leading Actor – Male: Kane Robinson – Top Boy
  • Limited Series: The Sixth Commandment
  • Live Event: Eurovision Song Contest 2023
  • Presenter: Chris Packham – Inside Our Autistic Minds
  • Science & The Natural World: Chimp Empire
  • Scripted Comedy: Extraordinary
  • Single Documentary: Otto Baxter: Not A F***ing Horror Story
  • Single Drama: Partygate
  • Soap and Continuing Drama: EastEnders
  • Sports Presenter, Commentator or Pundit: Alex Scott – FIFA Women’s World Cup
  • Sports Programme: All Ireland Senior Football Championship Final
  • Supporting Actor – Female: Bella Ramsey – Time
  • Supporting Actor – Male: Éanna Hardwicke – The Sixth Commandment
  • Writer – Comedy: Jack Rooke – Big Boys
  • Writer – Drama: Sarah Phelps – The Sixth Commandment
  • Royal Television Society Gold Medal: Dame Esther Rantzen
  • Judges’ Award: Mr Bates vs The Post Office