Other Broadcast Awards for Joe Lycett, the Russell Brand investigation, and The 1% Club

Black Ops has been named best comedy at this year’s Broadcast Awards.

The BBC One comedy revolves around two hapless new recruits to the Met police who soon find themselves deep undercover in drugs gangs.

One judge praised the show for the way it ‘combines big laughs with a genuinely engaging plot’, adding: ‘The two central performers have real funny bones. Black Ops was totally addictive to watch.’

Broadcast – the TV trade website that hands out the awards – also noted that producers at BBC Studios  had a challenge to ‘capture the improvisational energy of the two young leads [Gbemisola Ikumelo and Hammed Animashaun], while also hitting big emotional story beats and keeping the comedy culturally accurate and consistently funny’.

Mawaan Rizwan’s Juice was also highly commended by judges who especially liked  the ‘imaginative in-camera techniques such as edible props, shape-shifting sets, whimsical puppets, spinning wigs and costumes that grow on screen’

Also shortlisted were Alan Carr’s Changing Ends, Bridget Christie’s The Change, Channel 4 sitcom Everyone Else Burns and Adjani Salmon’s Dreaming Whilst Black (whose production company Big Deal Films won a gong for international programme sales for the show).

Joe Lycett Vs Beckham: Got Your Back at Xmas won best popular factual programme. 

The stand-up was was praised by one judge for covering a serious topic ‘with a skilled balance of comedy’, and for ‘cleverly crafting a brave viral moment to show what it truly means to support the LGBTQ+ community rather than just say you do’ – when he appeared to shred his own money in protest at Beckham’s involvement with the Qatar World Cup.

Broadcast also praised the booking of Jordan Gray on to the show, saying: ‘Members of the transgender community are hugely under-represented on British television, and when they do appear, their contributions often revolve around their trans identity. 

‘But on this show, Gray was allowed to appear as simply a brilliant comedian, singer and songwriter, with her trans identity mentioned only in passing.

The investigation into Russell Brand’s sexual history for Channel 4’s Dispatches strand was named best current affairs programme. 

Broadcast noted the challenges faced by the programme-makers at Hardcash Productions, including ‘reluctance from the TV and comedy industries to speak out against such a powerful figure, and an extremely high legal bar for the publication of criminal allegations.’

Lee Mack-fronted game show The 1% Club managed to retain its title as best entertainment programme for a second year running.

For all the results from the night – where   BBC1 scooped channel of the year for a third consecutive year – visit Broadcast.

Published: 8 Feb 2024