Daly: award for broadcasting of ‘highest order’
The Secret Policeman, the BBC documentary into racism in the Greater Manchester police force, collected further plaudits when it won the single documentary award at the RTS 2003 Programme Awards held on Tuesday.
Judges called undercover reporter Mark Daly’s film “a masterclass in investigative documentary… public service broadcasting of the highest order, and a film that will continue to have reverberations for a long time to come”. Daly also won the RTS young journalist award last month.
Channel 4’s The Last Peasants, by October Films, won the general documentary series award.
The daytime programme award went to the BBC One current affairs series Britain’s Secret Shame, which looked at the subject of the treatment of the elderly “with sensitivity and skill”, according to the judges.
And in a gesture of solidarity from the television industry, former BBC director general Greg Dyke was given a lifetime achievement award – ostensibly for his 27 years in broadcasting, but also a nod to his defiance of the Government as the BBC came under pressure over the past 12 months.
“At the BBC, he fought like a tiger for its interests and the people in it, and brought it the unaccustomed smell of competitive success,” said former Channel 4 director of programmes Tim Gardam.
“As tough as he was friendly, as open as he was implacable in his views, he is liked even by many of those he has fought with tooth and claw.
“The manner of his parting from the BBC, after the judgement of Lord Hutton, was in keeping with his leadership – battling the establishment, noisily his own man, and the man that his staff, and even some of his rivals, were bitterly sorry to see go.”
By Wale Azeez
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