50 Years of the Broadcasting Press Guild
The team behind ITV’s ‘Mr Bates vs the Post Office’ were presented with the BPG Jury Prize by BPF chair Manori Ravindran (left), including Toby Jones (3rd from left), Monica Dolan and Jo Hamilton (4th and 5th left) and writer Gwyneth Hughes (2nd from right).
- Click here to see lots more Awards photographs in our Photo Galleries
- Mr Bates vs the Post Office wins one of two top Jury Prizes at 50th BPG Awards ceremony
- Happy Valley picks up Best Drama Series, Best Actress and Best Writer awards as Ken Bruce takes Best Audio Presenter trophy
- Happy Birthday BPG! by veteran members Graham Keal and Rosalie Horner
- Leading TV producer Andy Harries honoured by TV and audio journalists.
+ UK television at risk of becoming ‘service industry’ to the US – read Andy’s Awards speech. - Broadcasting Press Guild members create unique Top 50 Landmark TV Programme List
+ In headlines, from the Guardian, Daily Mail + Radio Times to Radio 4’s PM
The Broadcasting Press Guild began in 1974 as a breakaway body from the Critics’ Circle with a membership of 27 (see History of the BPG), and we now number well over 100 journalists, who write and broadcast about television, radio, streaming and the media. This year we are celebrating our 50th anniversary with a very special awards lunch in the Gladstone Library at One Whitehall Place.
The first annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards lunch took place in 1974 in the Cheshire Cheese pub in Fleet Street. The first winners included Thames Television’s ground-breaking documentary series The World At War.
Over the years, our BPG Best Actress winners have included Dame Peggy Ashcroft (left), Glenda Jackson, Dame Eileen Atkins, Dame Helen Mirren, Gillian Anderson, Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Diana Rigg, Cheryl Campbell, Zoe Wanamaker, Dame Julie Walters, Olivia Colman, Keeley Hawes, Sheridan Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Claire Foy, Michaela Coel, Jodie Comer and Ambika Mod.
Best Actor winners include Sir Mark Rylance, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Sir Alec Guinness (below right), Albert Finney, Charles Dance, Robert Hardy, Christopher Eccleston, Jim Broadbent, Ian Richardson, Toby Jones, Peter Capaldi, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Dominic West and Ben Whishaw.
Between 1980 and 1992 we had our own 50-minute Awards programme on BBC One, broadcast live from the BBC’s Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham. Winners who accepted their awards on screen included Diana Rigg and Kate Adie (below).
Other winners have included Sir Lenny Henry, Sir Robin Day, Dame Prue Leith (all in the top row), Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sir Terry Wogan, Dame Mary Berry, Sir David Frost, Sir David Attenborough and Sir Tom Stoppard.
Our Awards venues have ranged from the homely Cheshire Cheese to the ornate Glaziers’ Hall overlooking the Thames at London Bridge; Shakespeare’s Tavern, a cheap ‘n’ cheerful series of caverns underneath the arches at Blackfriars (now demolished), and the Crush Bar of the Royal Opera House. Following 10 years there in the 1990s, our annual Awards lunches have been held at either at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, One Whitehall Place, The Banking Hall or The Brewery.
David Tennant collects our Best Actor award in 2021
Jodie Comer collects our Best Actress award in 2019
Mary Berry collects the Best Factual Entertainment Award for The Great British Bake Off in 2016
Bruce Forsyth is waltzed off the stage by BPG awards chair Kate Bulkley in 2014
