Grenfell: Uncovered director Olaide Sadiq and Just Act Normal writer Janice Okoh were named as the industry’s brightest emerging talents at this year’s Bafta Television Craft Awards.
Sadiq dedicated her award for emerging talent: factual to the 72 victims of the Grenfell tragedy, documented in her dirctorial debut [main picture], which was made by Rogan Productions for Netflix.
She previously worked with Rogan as senior producer on its 2023 Netflix doc The Final: Attack on Wembley and with Mindhouse Productions as a producer on Boybands Forever and two episodes of Louis Theroux Interviews, both for the BBC.
Okoh’s award for emerging talent: fiction recognised the journey of her comedy-drama Just Act Normal, which started as a play called Three Birds 14 years ago before it was developed by The Forge for BBC3.
The playwright, who receives the 'emerging' award in her 50s, has written for TV for 17 years with previous crediting include BBC1's Doctors, CBBC's Hetty Feather and ITV2's Sanditon as well as several plays for Radio 4.
Meanwhile, Simone Pennant dedicated her special award to the “Global Majority creatives contributing to this industry every single day against the odds”.
Pennant, who founded Black and Global Majoriy showcase and support network The TV Collective 18 years ago, walked out to her late son’s favourite song, Dizzie Rascal’s Fix Up, Look Sharp, which she described as “a reminder not just to rest on our laurels but to be less impressed and more involved”.
She told the audience: “As much as I am loving this moment, we are living through one of the toughest and challenging times I’ve ever seen, both in the industry and globally. Our industry is having increasingly more difficult conversations about who gets to thrive and who doesn’t - and this recognition means nothing to me without action.
“So this award is a reminder of what is possible when people are properly supported, when community shows up and when we – and what we can create, when we choose to act, no matter what.
“Whatever’s in your gift, make sure you do something. Talking about the challenges without doing anything makes you complicit. If you don’t know what to do and you want to do something, you just holler.”
Other winners
Netflix’s Adolescence and BBC1’s The Celebrity Traitors took home two awards apiece.
Warp Films’ four-part drama was recognised for its director Philip Barantini and the sound team of James Drake, Jules Woods, Rob Entwistle, Kiff McManus, Kyle Pickford and Adam Méndez.
Studio Lambert’s entertainment smash won in the entertainment craft team Ben Archard, Siggi Rosen-Rawlings, James Tinsley, Stuart Frossell, Martin Adams and Nathan Lindley and for its sound team.
There was a surprise win in the writer: drama category for Slow Horses showrunner Will Smith, who beat Adolescence’s Jack Thorne to the prize.
First-time BAFTA winners included A Thousand Blows’ costume designer Maja Meschede; Ryan Kernaghan (Trespasses) for photography & lighting: fiction; Juice production designer Philippa Mumford; factual director Rob Coldstream (Vietnam: The War That Changed America); Jessica Dannheisser (The Last Musician of Auschwitz) for original music: factual; and Tom Rowlands, one half of dance music duo the Chemical Brothers, who picked up an original music: fiction award for Mussolini: Son of the Century.
For a full list of winners, click here
The Bafta Television Awards will follow on 10 May.
