RTS NI PROGRAMME AWARDS 2016

Belfast indie Erica Starling Productions was the big winner on the night, taking home two prizes from the Northern Ireland Programme Awards 2016.

Find Me a Family, a BBC One NI series that followed the lives of children through the care system,scooped the Factual Award, while Kids in Crisis for Channel 4’s Dispatches took the Current Affairs Award.

Hat Trick Productions’ The Secret – a true-life drama series for ITV about double murderers Colin Howell and Hazel Buchanan, starring James Nesbitt and Genevieve O’Reilly – was named Best Drama.

The RTS Northern Ireland Judges Award went to Green Inc Film and Television Managing Director Stephen Stewart in recognition of his outstanding contribution to local production.

The County Down-based indie also won the Factual Single Award for Patrick Kielty’s Mulholland Drive (BBC One).

The Comedy and Entertainment Award went to Waddell Media’s The Commute, a BBC One NI documentary series looking at the journey to work.

The other winners on the night were UTV Live at 6: EU Referendum Result (News Coverage) and Sixteen South’s Lily’s Driftwood Bay for RTÉ and Channel 5 (Children’s/Animation).

Broadcaster Adrian Chiles hosted the ceremony, which attracted some 200 people from across the creative industries to the Metropolitan Arts Centre in Belfast in mid-November.

Coleraine-born actor Bronagh Waugh who played Sally Ann Spector in BBC Two’s The Fall presented the International Production award to BBC Sport for Sports Personality of the Year.

Northern Ireland Chair and Head of BBC Northern Ireland Productions Steve Carson said: “This year’s programme awards have been an outstanding success and we’re extremely heartened to see the quality being produced in Northern Ireland.” 

The RTS Northern Ireland Programme Awards 2016 were sponsored by Performance Film and Media Insurance, and supported by BBC Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen and Channel 4.