The two women behind TV’s favourite North East detective were honoured by the Royal Television Society at the weekend.
Brenda Blethyn, who has played Vera Stanhope on ITV for 14 years and Ann Cleeves, who created the character, were presented with Outstanding Contribution awards at a ceremony in Gateshead on Saturday.
The Oscar-nominated actor and best-selling crime writer have become firm friends and are often seen together at book festivals. And even though Blethyn has stepped away from the role after more than 50 episodes, Cleeves says the character will feature in at least one more book to add to the eleven already published.
The audience at the RTS North East and the Border Awards heard how the Vera phenomenon on tv and in publishing had sustained drama production in the North East for more than a decade and brought in thousands of visitors to see Vera’s iconic locations. The feature-length episodes and the books are also popular around the world.
Blethyn ended the night with two awards, also winning for Drama Performance.
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Elsewhere, Peter Darrant and the team from Pride Media Centre in Gateshead celebrated winning the prestigious Centre Award in recognition for their work as a hub for studios and more than 16 businesses. Chief executive of the RTS Theresa Wise, who presented the award praised the team’s work with start-ups, schools and colleges to encourage interest and access to the screen sector. She added that their commitment to equity and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community was impressive.
Other winners on the night included Fulwell 73’s Netflix documentary series Sunderland Til I Die (Broadcast Factual) and the BBC’s Smoggie Queens, which won the Comedy Award for Hat Trick Productions. The writer and star of the Teesside-based series about drag queens, Phil Dunning, won Best Newcomer at the ceremony hosted by the comedian and writer Jason Cook.
Gateshead production company Twenty Six O3 won the Factual Entertainment prize for their series Joanna Page’s Wild Life, Film Nova received the Sports award for the Great North Run and The Red King (Quay Street Productions) won Best Drama.
There were also awards for behind the scenes talent. The Red King’s assistant director La’Toyah McDonald received the Crew Award, editor David Fisher won the Post Production prize for his work on feature film Jackdaw and the Amazon drama The Devil’s Hour while James Cook won Best Cinematography for his work on Just ‘Cause I’m Dead.
TV and film production spend in the North East is increasing year-on-year, with an 89% increase since 2022 according to figures from North East Screen.
The annual event is the region’s biggest creative industries gathering of the year and attracted a host of famous faces including actors Jill Halfpenny, David Leon and Riley Jones, comedy stars Danny Adams and Mick Potts, Dragon’s Den and The Big Idea Works star Sara Davies, boxer and commentator Glenn McCrory, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and cast members from The Dumping Ground and Smoggie Queens. Also on the red carpet for the event were news presenters Amy Lea and Simon O’Rourke (ITV Tyne Tees), Dawn Thewlis (Look North), Pam Royle and Jeff Brown.
BBC North East won best News Programme for Look North and one of their best-known journalists Sharuna Sagar picked up the Presenter award. Gregg Easteal of ITV Tyne Tees won the On Screen Journalism prize and his colleague Paul Kingston scooped the Broadcast Short Form award for his feature about a 98 year old horse riding botanist.
University and college students also had their work recognised at the ceremony. Students from the University of Sunderland picked up the Entertainment award for One Foot Out The Door and the Factual Long Form prize for Fleece to Fabric. Wildlife Media student Megan Richards of Cumbria University won the Saving the Planet award for her documentary Saving the Iberian Lynx. Gateshead College students won the Factual Short Form prize for The Independent Cinema Crisis, Husk won the Student Drama prize for Northumbria University, while the award for Student Animation went to Teesside University for Juicy Cat.
Joanna Makepeace-Woods, the chair of the RTS in the North East and the Border said: “We are delighted our awards can provide a showcase for the talents of programme makers across our region. There were more than 400 people at the ceremony who work in or support creative industries in the area and they’re all optimistic this year’s increase in production will continue to grow.”
David Parfitt, chair of North East Screen, which backed nine of the evening’s winners, added: “It’s been a brilliant year for production in the North East, which is now the fastest growing region in the UK, despite the commissioning downturn. Whilst we’ve waved goodbye to the legendary Vera, we’ve welcomed the excellent Smoggie Queens and The Red King – who we can now say are RTS North East and Border Award winners! The series have delivered ratings success for their channels, and we hope that both will return to the region at some point.
“50% of winners have been supported by the initiatives North East Screen run, including the North East Production Fund, Reach and Open Horizons.
“The success of this year’s Awards further demonstrates how the North East Production Fund is already delivering inward investment, creating jobs and increasing visibility of our region as a place for global production.”
