There was a solid turn out for the North and Scotland at this year’s Location Excellence Awards, which have been handed out following the BAFTA TV Awards on Sunday night.
The BAFTAs currently don’t recognise location professionals, and the wards were established in 2023 by the Leeds-based boss of UK Locations to address this apparent oversight while she continues to campaign for recognition at the glitzy main event.
The North West and Scotland were the big winners this year, with only David Mitchell’s Cambridge-set detective comedy-drama Ludwig preventing a clean sweep of nominations in the Scripted Comedy category. The other three nomination spots were taken up by the Greater Manchester shot Alma’s Not Normal and Brassic and Liverpool comedy G’wed, with Bolton comic Sophie Willan’s Alma, and a location team led by Mike Higson, taking the prize at both the main ceremony and the semi-official LEA’s.
There was strong representation in the Limited Drama category too, with the Netflix smash hit Baby Reindeer, partially filmed in creator Richard Gadd’s native Scotland (mostly Edinburgh) nominated alongside the influential ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. Mr Bates was, of course, a national story, and this was reflected in its choice of locations. The main protaganist, however was a Liverpool native who ran a Post Office in North Wales, and locations included Llandudno and Conwy.
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Finally, the BBC’s second season of Sherwood, a Best Drama nominee, is probably a show that you’d understandably associate with Nottingham, and much of it was indeed shot in and around the East Midlands city. Several scenes were also shot in Manchester and the Greater Manchester town of Rivington, however, under the watchful eye of location manager Joseph Cairns. Skegness also featured, but we’d probably need a poll to conclude whether that squeezes into the North or not.
Awards founder York said: “Congratulations to all the location professionals who played a huge part in the winning and nominated productions at the BAFTA TV awards last night.
As BAFTA won’t (yet!) recognise us, I’ve highlighted each and every creative, hardworking and dedicated person on the location team – you’re all amazing!”
Looking ahead, York told us that she has recently been appointed joint regional executive, alongside Tom Howard, for the Location Manager Guild International (LMGI’s) UKEA (UK, Europe and Africa) branch. She added: “Our work revolves around establishing a strong UK membership who can collectively lobby BAFTA as a ‘guild’, as advised by BAFTA’s chair, Sara Putt.”
