British Soap Award Winners 2013
If soap fans were left bemused by BAFTA, fear not, the Soap Awards have put the world back on the right track with soap success for the UK’s current top of the crop – Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.
Unlike BAFTA the soap awards are not, apart from the special episode, measured on one edition alone. Let’s face it any soap can make at least one good episode a year, but its the overall quality that matters and the Soap Awards have reflected that more accurately in these awards than the barmy BAFTA gongs.
Below the award winners soap-by-soap, viewer voted unless otherwise stated:
Coronation Street comes away with the most awards, a total of eight.
The first win for the Weatherfield soap came with Sexiest Female for delightful Michelle Keegan who plays Tina McIntyre. The gong was presented by Union J to the actress.
Villian of the Year and Best Dramatic Performance went to Natalie Gumede as the disturbed Kirsty Soames. Dramatic Performance was a panel vote.
From the same storyline the long serving Corrie actor Alan Halsall took Best Actor.
Corrie also continued to prove it is the soap that brings equal measures of humour as drama with Best Comedy Performance going to Patti Clare as Mary Taylor. This was a Panel Vote. The gong was given to the actress by funnymen Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball.
The Best Exit went to Mr Smooth himself Nigel Havers. This was a panel vote.
The Best Storyline gong went to Alan Halsall and Natalie Gumede for the abuse storyline between Kirsty and Tyrone. This was presented by newsreader Kate Silverton and is a panel vote.
The most important gong of the night Best British Soap went to ITV’s Coronation Street for a successful year of storytelling.
“Nice to see the British public are more savvy than the BAFTA lot. Rather than one good episode, out of hundreds of appalling ones, leading to a ‘soap gong’ – we rightly have Corrie top for many brilliant episodes of classic drama and comedy.” – says telly critic Queenie.
Proving to be the soap the teens are turning to Hollyoaks is this years’ second most successful soap, it took a total of five gongs.
Amanda Donohoe presented Danny Mac with the Sexiest Actor gong for his character of Dodger Savage.
It’s not all image, substance follows with Best Actress going to Claire Cooper as Jacqui McQueen. The award was given by former EastEnder, Larry Lamb.
Spectacular Scene of the Year went to the Channel 4 saga for their Bus Crash sequence. This was a panel vote.
Next up came a gong for actors Emmett J Scanlan and Kieron Richardson for their roles as Brendan Brady and Ste Hay. The pair took away Best On-Screen Partnership. The award was presented by Pudsey the dog and Ashley.
Finally for the North West based saga came their fifth award with Best Newcomer which was bestowed on Joseph Thompson as Dr. Paul Browning.
“Congratulations to Hollyoaks, a programme which doesn’t take its viewers for granted and works continuously hard to keep the standard of storytelling high, and clothing to a minimum. Just how we like it!” says our telly critic Queenie.
Emmerdale, which has gone from a daytime saga that didn’t even crack into the ITV Top Ten ratings to a top rating primetime saga that is vying with EastEnders for 2’nd most watched soap, took away two awards this year.
The first of the two gongs this year went to Eden Taylor-Draper as Belle Dingle, a popular young actress with the soap award viewers however this was a panel vote for Best Young Performance.
Best Single Episode was given to the Yorkshire dales series for the 40th anniversary live episode.
EastEnders came away with nothing from the main awards. Instead it was left to the Special Lifetime Achievement Award to give the BBC One saga a single gong.
Adam Woodyatt, who has appeared as Ian Beale since the first episode in 1985 was given the award by former on-screen mother Gillian Taylforth. It was a panel vote.
“He’s been in it so long, he’ll remember when it used to be worth watching” said Queenie.
The British Soap Awards airs tomorrow on ITV at 8pm hosted by Phillip Schofield.
I thorougly enjoyed the British Soap Awards. Well done to Natalie Gumede, Patti Clare, Alan Halsall, Nigel Havers and Corrie! Well deserved! … On the other hand EastEnders didn’t win a thing – apart from a special award for Adam Woodyatt – I think this goes to prove that viewers are waking up and realising what a joke Eastenders has become.
‘Gone’ are the real characters like Pat, Pauline, Peggy, Rose and Heather and now we’re subjected to dull as ditch water plots and young ‘characters’ like Tyler, Lexie, Dexter, Joey, Alice, Fat Boy and the utterly appalling Lucy! There are still some good characters in that show; Tanya, Dot, Jean etc. but sadly they all seem overshadowed by the new wave of young, bland characters. The makers/writers need to wake up and smell the coffee.