BBC Wins Big at RTS Programme Awards

The Royal Television Society (RTS) unveiled the winners for the RTS Programme Awards 2023, in partnership with Audio Network, led by the BBC with 17 wins.

Across the 30 categories, the BBC scored 17 wins (three of which were for the hit comedy series Am I Being Unreasonable?) and Channel 4 followed with six wins (with Derry Girls winning for scripted comedy and writer—comedy).

The leading actor (female) winner was Kate Winslet for I Am Ruth (Me+You Productions in association with Juggle Productions for Channel 4), while the leading actor (male) winner was Kit Connor for Heartstopper (A See-Saw Films Production for Netflix).

New for 2023, the supporting actor female award was presented to Ambika Mod for This is Going to Hurt (Sister in association with Terrible Productions for BBC One and AMC), and the inaugural comedy drama award was given to Brassic (Calamity Films for Sky Max).

Sherwood (House Productions for BBC) won for drama series.

Lucy Prebble was recognized for I Hate Suzie Too (Bad Wolf for Sky Atlantic) for writer—drama.

Mood (Bonafide Films for BBC) won for limited series.

For comedy performance, Daisy May Cooper won for actress for Am I Being Unreasonable? (Boffola Pictures and Lookout Point for BBC) and Lenny Rush won for actor for Am I Being Unreasonable?

The winner for single drama was Life and Death in the Warehouse (BBC Studios Drama Productions for BBC), while Casualty (BBC Studios Continuing Drama for BBC) won for soap and continuing drama.

Friday Night Live (Phil McIntyre Television & Boffola Pictures for Channel 4) took the win for comedy entertainment.

The entertainment win went to The Traitors (Studio Lambert Scotland for BBC), with a performance nod in the category to Claudia Winkleman for The Traitors.

Formatted popular factual went to Gogglebox (Studio Lambert for Channel 4).

The Breakthrough Award went to Lenny Rush for Am I Being Unreasonable? The Judges’ Award went to Charlotte Moore, chief content officer at the BBC. Sarah Lancashire was presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award.

For children’s program, Dodger (Universal International Studios for CBBC) took home the award.

Gazza (A Haviland Digital, Mark Stewart Productions & Western Edge Pictures production for BBC) won in the documentary category. In history, the win went to Our Falklands War: A Frontline Story (The Garden Productions for BBC). In the category for science and the natural world, the award went to The Green Planet (BBC Studios Natural History Unit with PBS, bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group, CCTV9, France Télévisions & The Open University for BBC and iPlayer). The win for single doc went to The Tinder Swindler (A Raw Production with Gaspin Media and AGC Studios in association with VG for Netflix).

In daytime, Loose Men (ITV Studios Daytime for ITV1) was recognized.

Chair of the awards, Kenton Allen, said: “2022 was a phenomenal year on- and offscreen. We introduced new categories for comedy drama and supporting actors to further reflect the incredible range and diversity in the scripted world, and I’m thrilled to say that we saw a sensational response, with all of the nominees and winners reflecting an incredible range of creative excellence. As we come together to honor the genre-defining programming from the past year, I am also delighted to celebrate the outstanding achievements of the sensational Sarah Lancashire and reveal that the Judges’ Award goes to Charlotte Moore for the incredible leadership she has provided the BBC in a remarkable year for innovation, creativity and seismic current affairs. Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners this evening, you are the best of the best, and we salute you.”