Mainstream Success!
In a demonstration of the mainstream success of the latest Doctor Who series the show has won big at the National Television Awards. The show was up for three different awards and won all three. Doctor Who won Most Popular Drama Series, Christopher Eccleston won Most Popular Actor and Billie Piper won Most Popular Actress. Piper and Eccleston beat out competition from stars from a number of series but from Eastenders and Coronation Street in particular.
Winning against such heavyweight competition from top rated shows is further evidence of the total and mainstream success of the new Doctor Who series.
The Nominees were:
Most Popular Drama: Bad Girls, Desperate Housewives, Doctor Who, The Bill
Most Popular Actor: Bradley Walsh, Christopher Eccleston, Martin Clunes, Nigel Harman, Shane Richie
Most Popular Actress: Billie Piper, Caroline Quentin, Jessie Wallace, June Brown, Sally Lindsay
Top: Billie Piper with award presenters and Conservative Party leadership candidates David Davis and David Cameron.
Bottom: Noel Clarke, Billie Piper & Camille Coduri
Posted by John on Thursday, October 27 at 6:52 pm
6 Comments...
Awards are nice and all but not to be taken all that seriously because the first time you don’t win them does that mean it’s time to go? I don’t think so. So welcome to another fan-voted award to go with show most wanted back and that BBC TV award that Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison picked up a few years ago on the show’s behalf.
Next the BAFTA’s. I would think that the prestige factor for WHO is very high so it should do well there too.
Posted by Ryan on 10/27 at 10:15 PM
One important distinction - as the awards are decided by a public vote, the winners aren’t given the title “Best”, but rather “Most Popular”.
Posted by Paul Hayes on 10/28 at 12:53 AM
I’m not understanding why you’re sneering at Doctor Who winning the Auntie for best drama back in ‘96 Ryan. The award was, I think, won honestly without a fan ‘bloc’ jerrymandering anything. I lived in Britain in ‘96 and I can tell you there was no organized effort and at the time, from where I sat, fandom simply wasn’t organized enough to pull it off. I’m not denying there were fan votes, but I think it won the award for the same reason the Beachcombers won the Canadian equivalent back in 2002 (in spite of opposition from ‘classier’ dramas): because it’s a popular drama that was fondly remembered by not only its fanbase but people in the general public as well.
Posted by Graeme on 10/28 at 03:27 AM
It didn’t win altogether “Best Drama” ever at the TV60 Awards (thank goodness, that *would* have been embarrassing!). It on “Best Popular Drama”. The “Best Drama” category had all the heavyweight, ‘proper’ stuff such as Boys from the Blackstuff, Our Friends in the North, etc. (Although I have a horrible, horrible feeling it may have been won by the 1995 Pride & Prejudice adaptation).
And yes, there was so little time between the announcement of the nominees and the close of voting that the DWAS and DWM, with their lead-in times, had no opportunity to report it before the final result was known. And in the UK in 1996, online fandom would have been pretty minimal.
Posted by Paul Hayes on 10/28 at 09:52 AM
Paul, thanks for the info I have updated the entry.
Posted by Mike on 10/28 at 08:25 PM
Ms. Piper’s cute, all right, but posing w/ the 2 Davids? What a turn-off!
Posted by Jimmy on 10/29 at 04:28 AM
Post a comment