Alan Carr's profile shifted further into mainstream television after he accepted a surprise Special Recognition prize at the 31st National Television Awards, a ceremony that also confirmed The Celebrity Traitors as the night's reality winner.
The Story in Pictures
The award followed a Traitors-themed stage tribute in London that included Paloma Faith emerging during a musical number, and left Carr holding back tears as he collected the only prize not decided by the public. On the red carpet he had played down his awards hopes with the quip, "Comedy is so subjective... Mrs Brown's Boys wins every year, why am I even here?" Mrs Brown's Boys did go on to win the Comedy category.
Carr told reporters that the attention he received from appearing on The Celebrity Traitors was unlike anything he'd experienced before, calling the show a "phenomenon." The programme beat its original iteration to take the Reality Competition prize. Co-star Charlotte Church praised the final and highlighted the series' reach, noting it attracted 15 million viewers within seven days and calling moments from the show "a beautiful vignette of male tenderness and emotional expression."
Other headline winners included Sir David Attenborough, who was named Best Presenter in his 100th year. Longtime collaborator Mark Brownlow accepted the award on Attenborough's behalf and read a message urging people to protect the planet, quoting, "Humanity has always needed the natural world for all the practicalities of life and for our mental wellbeing," and adding, "Now the natural world needs us too: surely we must not ignore that simple fact."
Jeremy Clarkson's Clarkson's Farm won again, taking the inaugural Celebrity-Led Reality Docuseries award. The new category had featured entries from Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash, Tyson Fury, Kelvin Fletcher, and the comedy duo Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse. The public-selected winner Our Girls: The Southport Families, a BBC film following the families of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe, was recognised in the ceremony; Elsie's mother Jenni Stancombe told the audience, "We never expected to be stood up here, so I don't know what to say. We know you didn't vote for us, you voted for our three girls."
In drama, Vicky McClure took Best Drama Performance for Trigger Point, speaking afterwards about the category's female-dominated shortlist and saying, "Over the years it has not been our space, and here we are dominating that category. I feel honoured to be amongst those wonderful women." Sheridan Smith missed out on the individual prize, while I Fought The Law won New Drama.
The red carpet also produced lighter moments: nominee Graham Norton revealed he had worn the same suit earlier in the year to Taylor Swift's wedding, adding that guests had agreed not to disclose details. Norton reflected on working with Swift, saying it demonstrated "what leadership is like at that level" and that "it was such a happy set. Everyone was working as hard as they could for her." A full list of winners and nominees accompanied coverage of the event.
