Mathew Baynton on Ghosts, clowning and his inner Regency era poet

If only the director could see their Narrator Three now. The snub marked the beginning of Baynton’s steady rise to Brit-com stardom, from comic turns like the innocent but inane Deano in Gavin and Stacey (2008-2010), to creating and starring in several dearly beloved sitcoms, the most recent being BBC One’s Ghosts (2019-).

Winners of the RTS Television Journalism Awards 2021 announced

The virtual celebrations were hosted by Mishal Husain, Presenter, BBC Radio 4 and BBC News at Ten.

This year, the ‘Judges’ Award’ was given to all the technical teams in recognition of the ingenuity, innovation and speed they demonstrated this year to keep journalism on the air.

Omari Douglas on It’s A Sin, working with Russell T Davies and discovering Britain’s historic queer trailblazers

Omari Douglas (credit: Phil Sharp)

At drama school, Douglas and his friends would make a big event of watching Cucumber, Russell T Davies’ exploration of 21st cenutry gay life. Now, the theatre actor has landed his first ever TV role as one of the lead characters in Davies’ explosive new drama, It’s A Sin, and he couldn’t be more excited.

“It’s Russell T Davies, he has such an iconic body of work,” he effuses. “And, of course, we're representing a very important community at a very important time. So, it's a huge, huge honour to have been a part of it.”

Lenny Abrahamson on how Normal People inadvertently became a year-defining show for 2020

Lenny Abrahamson on the set of Normal People (credit: Element Pictures/ Enda Bowe)

While we all tuned into Normal People to escape the news, executive producer and co-director Lenny Abrahamson tuned into the news to escape Normal People. Or, at least, he tried to.

"I remember thinking, ‘I'm just going to listen to something really depressing that has nothing to do with arts and culture," he says. "So I switched on Brexitcast, and the first few words were them talking about watching Normal People over the weekend. I just thought, ‘Oh, Jesus!’”

"I didn’t think we’d have a mass audience at all, none of us did."