Awards all Round at The Sage

Producer and comedy writer Judith Holder and veteran sports producer
Peter Brown have been honoured at the North East and Borders Royal
Television Society Awards.

The creator of television reunion hits such as After They Were Famous;
Children of the Sound of Music and the Grumpy Old Women stage and
screen franchise picked up the prestigious Centre Award in a ceremony
at the Sage, Gateshead on Saturday night.

Judith, whose new production company Northern Upstarts, has been
working on The Token Wheelchair, a documentary about comedy and the
disabled for the BBC, received the award from Margaret Fay, chair of
One North East.

Margaret told the audience of 500 media professionals and
guests: “Judith is variously described by her colleagues as a force of
nature and a master of multi-tasking. And she has a real understanding
of the television and entertainment industry. This award recognises
her outstanding contribution to television and the region.”

The other big winner of the night was producer Peter Brown who founded
Film Nova in Newcastle with Brendan Foster in 1988. Peter, who has
worked in television for nearly half a century received the RTS
Lifetime Achievement Award from Olympian and presenter Jonathan
Edwards.

Jonathan said: “Under Peter’s guidance, Film Nova has been firmly
established as one our most respected independent production
companies. Producing programmes for the BBC, Channel 4, Five, Sky, RTE
and Network 10 in Australia. It’s an extraordinary achievement.”

The ceremony – hosted by Anna Botting of Sky News – also heard from
the director of BBC Childrens’ Programmes Joe Godwin that the BBC had
agreed to commission a second series of Tracy Beaker from Newcastle.
Filming will start in the summer.

And there were three awards for ITV Tyne Tees and Border. North East
Tonight received the Best News Event coverage for its reporting of the
passing of football legend Sir Bobby Robson. The team received the
award from Sir Bobby’s widow Lady Elsie. Teesside-based Gregg Easteal –
 who also reports for ITN – won Best Journalist whilst Philippa Tomson
won Best Presenter.

BBC North East won the award for Best Current Affairs for Inside Out.

RTS chairman Graeme Thompson described 2009 as “a roller coaster year”
which saw real successes such as the launch of the Northern Film and
Media £3.5m Content Fund but also low points including the closure of
Border Television studios in Carlisle and the demolition of the iconic
former Tyne Tees studios  in Newcastle. But he predicted that 2010
would be a bumper year for the region’s creative industries sector.

Students from the University of Cumbria celebrated success in the
Students Awards. They picked up the student awards for best
Entertainment and Factual. The University of Teesside won Best
Animation. Students from the University of Sunderland received three
commendations.