Toby Jones has secured the best drama performance gong at the National Television Awards for his role in Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
The ITV drama helped renew attention to the subpostmasters who were wrongly prosecuted during the Horizon IT scandal.
Jones portrayed former subpostmaster Sir Alan Bates, one of more than 550 claimants who have brought legal action against the Post Office.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The Impact, 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX
Find out what happened next to the sub-postmasters, in their ongoing struggle for justice.#ITV #MrBatesVsThePostOffice @ITVX pic.twitter.com/kshGCZnsEX
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Collecting his gong during the annual awards ceremony at The O2 in London on Wednesday evening, the actor said: “This means an awful lot, not just to me but to the extraordinary people who inspired our show.”
He also used the opportunity to congratulate the real Sir Alan on his recent marriage to his partner Suzanne Sercombe and hailed the drama as an “extraordinary project” to work on.
The four-part miniseries, which shone a light on the issue, is also nominated for the new drama prize alongside Netflix hit Baby Reindeer, romantic drama One Day and thrillers Fool Me Once and Red Eye.
Stacey Solomon picked up the first prize of the night for her reality show Sort Your Life Out.
It beat Clarkson’s Farm, Gogglebox, The Martin Lewis Money Show Live and The Yorkshire Vet in the factual entertainment category.
TV presenter Solomon thanked the families who opened up their homes and hearts to her for the show as she collected the prize.
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly kicked off what could be another successful night by picking up the Bruce Forsyth entertainment award for reality series I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!.
Coronation Street actor Peter Ash collected the serial drama performance prize, saying it is an “amazing way” to end his time on the soap opera.
The storyline for his character Paul Foreman saw him deteriorate as he battled with motor neurone disease (MND), with the character recently dying.
Collecting the prize, he said: “This is honestly incredible – what an amazing way to end my six years on Coronation Street.”
He also thanked the Corrie team and the charities which supported him, paying special tribute to Daniel Brocklebank, who played his on-screen husband Billy Mayhew.
Ash said he “couldn’t have wished for anyone better to have done this storyline with”.
The Traitors also landed the reality competition gong, seeing off tough competition from Celebrity Big Brother, Love Island, Race Across The World and The Apprentice.
Later in the show, Good Morning Britain star Kate Garraway will be hoping to secure a hat-trick in the best authored documentary category as she has been nominated for the prize again, this time for Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story.
Ahead of the ceremony, Garraway said it is “sad” her late husband Derek Draper could not see her nominated for another NTA for a documentary about his health issues.
Speaking from the red carpet, she told the PA news agency: “The comments I’ve had and the emails and the letters have been so wonderful, and so obviously it’s been very sad in a way, because you’d love him to be here, or even if he wasn’t well enough to be actually here then to be going home to tell him all about it.
“But on the other hand, he will be so happy, I think that the issues that he wanted raised are being raised and so hopefully that’s good.”
Garraway said he would have been “very proud of these two”, referring to their children Darcey and Billy, who “get very shy at these things but wanted to come”.
She added that it is “wonderful” to have the “Draper gang”.
The programme followed the final year of Draper’s life, before he died in January aged 56, after a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.
It follows on from two other programmes about his battle with Covid and her struggles navigating the care system, which both picked up NTA gongs in the category in 2021 and 2022.
Garraway thought it was “very unlikely” she would win against also shortlisted former England captain David Beckham and pop star Robbie Williams, who both made Netflix documentaries.
Contestants from the most recent season of The Traitors were hopeful for a win in their reality competition category, with disability model Mollie Pearce telling PA: “My mum’s a hairdresser. She’s been getting all her customers to vote.”
Asked what it was about the show that drew such an avid audience, Pearce said: “I think it’s just because everyone’s very normal and it’s all kinds of people, from walks of life, different places and you’re just thrown into this situation together.
“It’s like fighting to the death.”
Fellow contestant Diane Carson added: “It was so obviously not scripted.
“It was just human interaction.”
The National Television Awards continue on ITV.
