The South Bank Show Awards celebrate the best of talent

One to Watch: The South Bank Show Sky Arts Awards 2019, Sky Arts at 8pm

Hosted by Melvin Bragg, the gong-show will air on Wednesday 10th July at 8pm on Sky Arts. 

Sir Lenny Henry was awarded with the coveted Outstanding Achievement Award presented by Richard Curtis, and following an incredible year rising star Jessie Buckley was named winner of The Times Breakthrough Award, presented by Charles Dance.

This year’s ceremony also saw Lily Allen take home the Pop award for her album No Shame, while The Favourite triumphed in the Film category. English National Ballet was victorious with Playlist in the Dance category while Derry Girls took the comedy gong home. Acclaimed author Diana Evans scooped the prize for Literature for her stunning novel Ordinary People.

Other winners included Stephen Daldry’s production of The Inheritance in the Theatre category, A Very English Scandal for TV Drama and in Classical Music The City of Birmingham Sympony Orchestra picked up a gong for their Debussy Festival.

Guests were treated to performances by Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the 2017 Times Breakthrough Award winner who performed Hallelujah with Isata Kanneh-Mason, and Freya Ridings sang her first charting single Lost Without You. There were operatic performances from Angela Gheorghiu with O Mio Babbino Caro and Joseph Calleja with La Vie En Rose, both accompanied by Paul Wynne Griffiths, and a reading by Naomie Harris.

Presenters this year included a wealth of talent from the arts world: Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith (TV Drama), Jamael Westman (Theatre), Himesh Patel (Film), Polly Morgan (Visual Art) Russell Maliphant (Dance), Benjamin Zephaniah (Literature), Jess Gillam (Classical Music), Joseph Calleja (Opera), Katherine Ryan (Comedy) and Mica Paris (Pop).

The South Bank Show was launched by LWT in 1978, the series broadcast on ITV until 2009 when a streak of cost-cutting saw the network drop any artistic or creative programming from its schedules. The awards have been part of the Sky Arts line-up since 2010, the regular South Bank Show format followed shortly afterwards along with a ‘revisited’ series which sees updates on classic ITV episodes.

Melvyn Bragg has hosted the South Bank Show since 1978.