National Television Awards 2011 - A night of expected winners

By JASON WRIGHT (Entertainment expert)

WEDNESDAY night saw a host of stars from British television descend on London’s O2 Arena for the National Television Awards.  Now in its 16th year, it promised to be the best staged yet.

BIG WINNERS: Another successful night for EastEnders

As it turned out, the successful shows and stars of the night were just as who everyone had predicted.  EastEnders were the big winners, with three gongs.  Ricky Norwood picked the ‘Best Newcomer’ for his role as troublemaker Fatboy, Lacey Turner retained her ‘Best Serial Drama Performance’ award for Stacey Branning and the BBC1 soap itself won through in the live vote-off for ‘Best Serial Drama.’  Many felt it should have gone to rivals Coronation Street, but the Walford drama came through and the crew looked surprised.  So, not even a tram coming down on top of Weatherfield was enough for it to receive any recognition which is certainly rough justice.  Hopefully it will get what it deserves come the British Soap Awards in May.

Popular ITV1 duo Ant and Dec were also among the successes again.  The Tyneside-born pair added yet another two NTA’s to their cabinet for ‘Best Entertainment Programme’ with I’m A Celebrity and scooping up the ‘Best Entertainment Presenter’ award for the tenth time in a row.  Speaking live in Cardiff, where they are filming auditions for Britain’s Got Talent, they understandably gave credit to everyone who helped them succeed not just this year but the ten years they have achieved the Entertainment accolade at the awards.

HONOURED: Sir David Jason added to his collection

Other shows and famous faces that were winners on the night were ITV1 comedy Benidorm, earning the ‘Best Comedy Programme’ award for the second time in three years.  Sir David Jason was honoured with the ‘Best Drama Performance’ award for his final case in A Touch of Frost.  The E4 mega-hit The Inbetweeners beat hot rivals Glee to the inaugural ‘Best Digital Choice’ award, which celebrated the best programme offering from digital channels and This Morning were the victors of the ‘Best Topical Magazine Programme’ award.  After years of struggle and turmoil for the daytime offering, the popular partnership of Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby is ensuring that it is finally returning to the glory days of the nineties.  As an added beneficiary, viewers were able to see resident chef Gino D’Acampo cook naked on the following day’s edition, as he pledged to do so if the show won.

With the football sexism scandal caused by the disgraced Richard Keys and Andy Gray fresh in the air, it was being talked about a lot by those in attendance.  Even host Dermot O’Leary referred to it many times during the ceremony but it was Top Gear who had the last laugh and when they picked up the award for ‘Best Factual Programme.’  James May made a rather funny though obviously crude remark about it and it led to Jeremy Clarkson jokingly sacking him on the spot.  That’s what they call comedy around here!

The X-Factor proved to be the dominant force in the award for ‘Best Talent Show’.  Despite the controversy surrounding the previous series and that there were fears that people would rebel and vote against it, the ITV1 competition held on to win for the third time in four years.  No doubt this made Simon Cowell one very happy chap again.

The biggest shock and disappointment of the night was no awards for Doctor Who.  Although its popularity was slightly reduced after Matt Smith’s timid debut last year in the title role, it was still expected to win ‘Best Drama Programme.’  However it lost out to popular school drama Waterloo Road.  To add insult, Smith lost the Drama Performance to David Jason.  This will without a doubt call the show’s viability into serious question.

FINALLY: Bruce Forsyth get a deserved recognition

The biggest cheers though of the night went to the legendary Bruce Forsyth.  After over 50 years in showbiz, the soon-to-be 83 year old was finally given credit with the ‘Special Recognition Award.’  He sent the crowd into dismay and then hysteria by seeming to announce his retirement but then quipping one of his famous one-liners, “but I’m not bloody going to.”   It proves there is still life in the veteran yet.

Overall it was another night of impressive celebrations and accolades, proving just how much Britain really does say about the nation’s TV.  Here is to what should be an amazing 2011 of television and who knows who will come out on top in 2012?  These next 12 months will tell all.

Some Say He Is Called The Stig....Others Say He Is Ben Collins!

Some say that he thought Star Wars was a documentary, and others will say that he is illegal in 17 US states.  All we know is that he is called Ben Collins.

Collins, a former NASCAR and Le Mans driver, now turned stuntman was revealed on Wednesday afternoon as the face of The Stig, the mystery driver on the BBC2 hit motoring show, Top Gear.  This was after the BBC failed to get a court injunction at the high court which prevented Collins from publishing his autobiography.  The reason for this is unclear, as the judge will give a private reason for the refusal of the injunction in a fortnight’s time. 

Collins was the stunt driver on the recent James Bond movie, ‘Quantum of Solace.’  The mystery of ‘The Stig’ has always been unclear to viewers, as he is dressed in white racing overalls, with a darkened visor and helmet.  His role is to test fast sports cars and new road models around the Top Gear testing track.  He also has appeared in some of Top Gear’s most famous challenges alongside regulars Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

There has been speculation that Damon Hill, president of the BRDC (British Racing Drivers Club) had been secretly holding the role in his spare time.  Last year, seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher appeared as ‘The Stig,’ in a publicity stunt for one episode, in an attempt to fool the intrigued viewers.  Ben Collins, who is from Bristol, has actually held the role as ‘The Stig,’ since 2003.  He is only the second ‘Stig’ on Top Gear, with the first being the ex-Grand Prix pre-qualifier Perry McCarthy.  McCarthy held down the role for two years, but was sacked after his identity was revealed.  You can only imagine that Collins will be heading in the same direction.

In response to the disappointing outcome, the BBC said this in a statement:

"The BBC brought this action as we believe it is vital to protect the character of the Stig which ultimately belongs to the licence fee payer.

"Today's judgement does not prevent the BBC from pursuing this matter to trial and the BBC will not be deterred from protecting such information from attack no matter when or by whom it should arise."

Whether a new ‘Stig’ will be around come the time of the new series in January 2011, alongside Clarkson, May and Hammond is unclear.  In the meantime, Ben Collins autobiography is to be released on September 16^th and will be published by Harper Collins.