Newly engaged Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan has led the glamorous arrivals at the British Soap Awards.
Flanagan and footballer Scott Sinclair became engaged this week while on a family holiday to Disneyland.
The actress, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, wore a fitted, floor-length white dress as she joined other celebrities on the red carpet at the event being held in east London.
Coronation Street, Doctors, EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks will battle it out for the top prize of best soap at the ceremony at the Hackney Empire.
EastEnders star Jake Wood, who portrays Max Branning, is up for six awards including villain of the year, where he will go up against Coronation Street’s Connor McIntyre, nominated for his portrayal of Pat Phelan.
The dramatic Christmas Day episode in which Lauren and Abi Branning fell from the roof of the Old Vic in EastEnders is up for scene of the year, alongside Corrie’s grooming of Bethany Platt.
Doctors actress Elisabeth Dermot Walsh sported a Time’s Up badge as she walked the red carpet.
She told the Press Association it was “very important” for her to support the movement and called Doctors a “truly feminist show”.
She said: “It’s a truly feminist show, the protagonists are very often females, the stories are driven by females, there are some very funny boys on the show too, but we are very lucky, we get to be centre of the story very often, which is not how it is across the world of drama.”
Her co-star, actress Laura Rollins, nominated in the best female dramatic performance, praised the diversity of the Doctors cast.
“We’ve got a really, really good balance on the show, with gender, with race, we’re a really, really diverse cast,” she said.
Asked about the gender pay gap and if it was a conversation being had in relation to soaps, she said: “I don’t actually know, I would like to think I get paid just as much as my male co-stars, I’m not sure if that does happen but it should, it definitely should.”
In a celebration of the awards’ 20th anniversary, a special greatest soap moment of all time has been introduced, with a number of acclaimed scenes included.
EastEnders’ 2001 You Ain’t My Mother scene, in which Kat Slater revealed she was Zoe’s real mother, is nominated, as well as hit historical moments from Corrie, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Doctors.
Richard Hillman driving his family into a canal in 2003 in Corrie and the 2016 Hotten bypass crash from Emmerdale are both up for the prize.
Hosted by Phillip Schofield, the awards show will air live on ITV1 from 8pm.
