BPG Awards sees eight BBC Local Radio presenters honoured

The annual BPG Awards lunch took place yesterday in London, where for the first time, one category was awarded to multiple winners.

The BPG Jury Prize was awarded to eight BBC local radio presenters in recognition of their tough questioning of Liz Truss during her short time as Prime Minister.

The winners are:

• Rima Ahmed, from BBC Radio Leeds
• James Hanson, from BBC Radio Bristol
• Graham Liver, from BBC Radio Lancashire
• Anna Cookson, from BBC Radio Kent
• John Acres from BBC Radio Stoke
• Chris Goreham, from BBC Radio Norfolk
• Sarah Julian, from BBC Radio Nottingham
• Amy Oakden, from BBC Radio Tees

Chair of the British Press Guild said that the interviews were “game-changing for Liz Truss and her doomed government”.

In the Audio Awards, the Radio Programme of the Year award went to BBC Radio 4’s In Dark Corners  which saw Alex Renton investigate abuse at some of the nation’s most exclusive public schools; Best Podcast was The Coming Storm (BBC Long Form Audio) where Gabriel Gatehouse journeys into the American right and modern conspiracy theories in the US; and Marianna Spring won Audio Presenter of the Year after receiving rave notices for her journalism on podcasts War on Truth and Disaster Trolls on both BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Simon O’Hagan, chair of the audio jury, said: “Three great winners this year that have tackled some very serious subjects and that shows that radio and podcasts are especially important when it comes to investigative journalism.”

Elsewhere, the Harvey Lee Award, for an outstanding contribution to broadcasting, went to Jeremy Paxman for his 50 years on TV and radio as a broadcaster, journalist and author.