After a record-breaking year for votes, this year's big winners are Bodyguard, Doctor Who, This Morning and brothers Paul and Barry Chuckle.
This year's I Talk Telly Awards were the biggest yet, with 84 million Twitter impressions and a total of 266,400 votes registered, up considerably from last year's 70,000.
In the comedy categories, Paul and Barry Chuckle were voted Best Comedy Partnership for their appearance in the last series of Benidorm and Diane Morgan won Best Comedy Performance for Cunk on Britain.
Speaking about his win, Paul Chuckle said “A big thank you to everyone for voting for me and Barry in the I Talk Telly Awards. Totally unexpected with the competition we had. Some great great people there. All I can say is a big cheers to you all. Thank you very much.”
Derry Girls won Best New Comedy with 46% of the vote and Peter Kay's Car Share won Best Returning Comedy for the second year in a row.
On receiving news of their win Peter Kay and Sian Gibson said “We are so delighted to win the Award for best returning comedy, and also slightly bereft, as you may or may not know Car Share has finally come to an end.
We’ve all worked so hard on it over the last seven years (can’t believe it’s been that long) and to receive support and adoration from the people who enjoyed watching both series and the finale makes it all worthwhile. Really sincerely, thank you.”
It's been a tough year for television drama but the public has spoken and Bodyguard picks up two wins, Best New Drama and Best Dramatic Partnership for Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden.
Speaking about the double win for Bodyguard, Keeley said “Absolutely thrilled to hear that not only has Bodyguard won Best New Drama, but that Richard and I have been voted Best Dramatic Partnership. It means so much that it’s been voted for by the viewers. Thank you!”
Jenna Coleman won Best Dramatic Performance for her performance in The Cry and Doctor Who picked up two award wins; Best Returning Drama and Best Newcomer for Mandip Gill.
On winning her first ever award, Mandip said “I want to say a massive thank you to everyone that has voted for me as Best Newcomer at I Talk Telly Awards. I’ve never won anything before, apart from some pea pods in French, which is really random. So I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone that actually took the time out to vote for me. I really really appreciate it.”
Elsewhere, Mother's Day was voted Best Single Drama and speaking about the win, actor Daniel Mays said “On behalf of everyone who worked on Mother’s Day I’d love to take this opportunity to thank you all for voting us Best Single Drama for this year’s I Talk Telly Awards. What wonderful news.
25 years on from Warrington, the drama was made to honour the life of Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball and indeed all the children who died during The Troubles. It was a deeply moving and important film to work on and we’re incredibly appreciative and humbled you have chosen us.
With thanks to Colin and Wendy Parry and Sue and Arthur McHugh for allowing us to tell such a personal story and for their continued fight against terrorism and their tireless quest for everlasting peace.”
This Morning won Best Daytime Show for the fourth year in a row with a landslide 63% victory. And for the first time ever, presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby fought off stiff competition to win Best TV Presenting Partnership.
Speaking on behalf of himself and Holly Willoughby, Phillip said “To everyone who voted for me and Holly at the I Talk Telly Awards, I’d just like to say thank you very very much indeed. That is massively appreciated and we are surprised and very honoured. Holly of course is in Australia so I’m doing this on her behalf. Thank you very very much indeed.”
It's also four years in a row for The Late Late Show with James Corden which once again received the most votes in the Best International Series category. Speaking about the win, James said “We want to say a huge thank you to the I Talk Telly Awards for honouring The Late Late Show with Best International Series. This is the fourth year in a row that we’ve won this award and we can’t believe it. Thank you so much to everyone that voted. We’ll keep trying to make a show that you like.”
Despite the most number of nominations, Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother failed to pick up any wins in its final year on air, with I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! once again winning Best Reality TV Show and Declan Donnelly beating Emma Willis and Rylan Clark-Neal to Best TV Presenter, his first solo award.
Elsewhere, The Great British Bake Off beat off Strictly to win Best Talent Show, The Graham Norton Show won Best Entertainment Show, Best Factual went to Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip and Stacey Solomon walked away with the award for Best TV Personality, a new category for 2018.
Another new category for this year was Best Live Comedian, which the public decided should be awarded to Ricky Gervais. Speaking about the win, Ricky said “Thank you for my I Talk Telly Award. Best stand-up of the year for Humanity on Netflix. And it was voted for by the public which is lovely, so thank you to everyone who voted for me. It means a lot.”
When it came to the soaps, Coronation Street came out on top with two wins; Best Soap and Best Soap Performance for Shayne Ward, thanks largely to his character's male suicide storyline. When told about his win, Shayne said “I’ve just been told that I have won Best Soap Performance at the I Talk Telly Awards. I just wanna say thank you so much for everyone who took the time to vote. Truly honoured. Truly humbled. Love you all. And thank you Elliot.”
Accepting the award on behalf of the cast, Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts), Sally Dynevor (Sally Webster) and Mikey North (Gary Windass) said “Thank you everybody who voted. We are really glad that you’re enjoying the show at the moment. So thank you very much. Have a wonderful Christmas.”
Ash Palmisciano's Emmerdale debut saw him voted Best Soap Newcomer and perhaps the toughest category of all, Best Soap Partnership was won by Hollyoaks' Kieron Richardson and Parry Glasspool.
Wishing to thank his fans for voting, Ash said “I just wanted to say a massive massive thank you for voting for me for Best (Soap) Newcomer for the I Talk Telly Awards. Didn’t expect it at all. The fact that you guys took the time to vote and support me is amazing. I am chuffed to bits with all your support. Thank you to I Talk Telly Awards. Thank you so much Elliot. Thank you so much Emmerdale. Have an amazing Christmas and hopefully you’re going to enjoy all the amazing stuff we’ve got coming up over Christmas and New Year as well.”
The only award not decided for by the public, is Special Recognition which is new for 2018 and the winner is solely decided by I Talk Telly Founder Elliot Gonzalez. The inaugural award goes to ChuckleVision, which ran for 22 years, 21 series and 292 episodes.
The series starring brothers Paul and Barry Elliott (also known as the Chuckle Brothers) made a huge impact on children’s television from 1987 to 2009. Following Barry’s sad passing at the age of 73 earlier this year, it was clear how much love, admiration and fondness there is for the series.
Speaking about why ChuckleVision was chosen, I Talk Telly Founder Elliot Gonzalez said “This award was always going to go to ChuckleVision. How could it not? Paul and Barry have always been great supporters of the site and earlier this year I conducted what is believed to be Barry’s final interview before his sad passing. The outpouring of love and emotion back in August proved just how many people’s lives ChuckleVision touched.
Speaking to Paul about this award, I was shocked to discover that this is the first award ChuckleVision has ever received. They received a BAFTA in 2008, not specifically for the series but for their contribution to children’s television. I’m also very surprised that the BBC ended the series when they did and choose not to repeat it.”
Talking about the success of this year’s awards, Elliot said “I have been blown away by the response to this year’s awards. To have received over a quarter of a million votes is mind-blowing. I want to take this opportunity to thank every single person who got behind the awards. Be that by voting yourself, encouraging others to vote, sharing the link across social media and/or really championing your favourites.
It was great to see the hashtag being used so much and the support from fans and talent alike has definitely helped the huge increase in votes. The awards would not be the success they are if it wasn’t for you. So thank you. I’m already looking forward to the 2019 awards.”