180 people attended a lively Southern Centre RTS Awards evening at Winchester Guildhall on Friday 18th February. It was hosted by ITV’s Fred Dinenage and the BBC’s Sally Taylor and amongst those presenting the awards was Daybreak Editor Ian Rumsey, Claire Lewis (Seven Up), BBC News Correspondent Robert Hall and Arqiva MD, Steve Holebrook
Photo: Howard Lucas
Both ITV and the BBC were well represented amongst the award winners, the highlights being Meridian’s Reshmar Rumsey winning Best Regional TV Journalist and BBC South Today winning best Regional News Magazine Programme.
Regional Indies demonstrated their ability to diversify their programme making as well as staying alive in a cold climate. Best Non-Broadcast Programme went to ITV Fixers for Suffer in Silence and Drink, Can’t Handle It and Best Online Production went to The Behaviour Challenge from Brighton based Lambent Productions. Electric Sky Productions won Best Single Documentary with Britain’s Fattest Man and Southampton’s Topical TV won awards for a range of entertaining features for BBC 1’s The One Show.
Student entries showed variety and innovation. The winners, ahead of being entered for the RTS National Student Awards, came from Bournemouth University, University for the Creative Arts in Farnham and The Arts University, Bournemouth.
A special Judges Award was presented to BBC South to celebrate 50 years of regional broadcasting. To receive the award, the current South Today team was joined by Peter Marshall, the editor of South at Six, BBC South’s first regional programme in 1961.
Strong support from ITV Meridian and BBC South supplemented by sponsorship from Arqiva and Southampton Solent University meant that the event was planned with confidence. Special thanks are due to committee members Alison Martin and Jenni Day for playing a major role in organising the judging and the event.
Gordon Cooper - Chair Southern Centre