It’s A Sin triumphs at Sky Arts Awards

Channel 4’s drama of gay life in 1980’s London It’s A Sin was among the winners at this year’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The ceremony, at The Savoy Hotel in London, was hosted by Melvyn Bragg with other winners including north London rapper Little Simz who won the pop award for her fourth studio album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

It’s A Sin – which follows a group of gay friends as the HIV/Aids crisis hits the capital – won the award for TV drama, triumphing over Time starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham and This Is Going To Hurt, based on Adam Kay’s bestselling memoir.

Monica Ali scooped the literature prize for her novel Love Marriage, a story of a young couple and their families from two different cultures trying to understand each other.

Nida Manzoor’s TV series We Are Lady Parts won for comedy, and The Dante Project, choreographed by Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet, picked up the accolade for dance.

This year’s recipient of the coveted outstanding achievement award was Tamara Rojo.

Rojo, 48, served as artistic director of the English National Ballet from 2012 to 2022 and was recently appointed to serve as the San Francisco Ballet’s first female artistic director.

Passing, written, produced and directed by Rebecca Hall, won for film.

Other winners included Michael Armitage: Paradise Edict at the Royal Academy of Arts London in the visual art category, and The Young Vic and Headlong’s co-production Best Of Enemies by James Graham, which won the theatre award.

Opera North’s Rigoletto topped the opera category, while the classical music accolade went to Huw Watkins’ Symphony No. 2, performed by The Halle orchestra.

The ceremony also saw performances from singer-songwriter Tom Odell, opera star Freddie de Tommaso, and an orchestral performance from Chineke! – Europe’s first majority-black and ethnically diverse orchestra.

Speaking about the awards, author and broadcaster Bragg, 82, said: “While so much around us seems to be getting worse, the arts in this country continue to go from strength to strength.

“The South Bank Sky Arts Awards once again picked out a range of brilliant artists from across the landscape of the British arts, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy joining us to see them all in action.”