South Bank Sky Arts Award: The Dorchester Outstanding Achievement

An almost reverential silence greeted Oscar winning actress Dame Judi Dench in the press room, after she was honoured with The Dorchester Outstanding Achievement award, for a 50 year career that sees her remain at the top of her field.

Sir Peter Hall, who first worked with Dame Judi in a 1962 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, presented her with the award.

Dame Judi gave an emotional acceptance speech, in which she said she was overwhelmed to receive the award - and hoped it didn't mean she had to finish now!

South Bank Sky Arts Award: Best Comedy

BBC Two's Rev won the award and it was presented by Sir David Frost. They were a rowdy lot, lining them up was a nightmare ... but I got that lovely shot, with Tom Hollander looking straight into my camera, whoop!

Steve Coogan's on-line only offering Mid Morning Matters With Alan Partridge had also been nominated, along with the BBC 4 offering, Getting On, starring Jo Brand.

South Bank Sky Arts Award: TV Drama

A hotly contested category, with the BBC's Sherlock competing against E4's Misfits but both succumbing to Channel 4's This is England '86.

Victoria Wood presented the prize to Shane Meadows for the series, which has been praised as 'funny' 'moving' and 'astonishingly good'. Victoria herself was extremely moved, commenting: "I don't normally cry in the morning ... not since I've been single ..." whilst Shane confirmed sequels for Christmas '88 and This is .. '90, although expressing concerns re sequels eg. Grease 2!

For aspiring female comedy writers out there, Victoria's advice was: Cross it out and do it again!

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards

Thanks to the lovely people at Spreading Jam, I was backstage at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards yesterday, predominantly taking photos but also managing to nab a few words here and there.

One of the world's most coveted arts awards, celebrating the best of British culture and achievement, this is the 15th year of the awards and was hosted, as ever, by Melvyn Bragg. The glittering ceremony was attended by some of the most illustrious patrons, practitioners and performers of the creative arts and the winners were presented with an award designed by Turner prize winning sculptor Anish Kapoor.

Award recipients were Dame Judi Dench (Outstanding Achievement); Plan B (Best Pop); This is England 86 (TV Drama); Monsters (Best Film); Rev (Best Comedy); Clybourne Park (Theatre); BBC Philharmonic and The Halle (Classical Music); Everything Everything (The Times Breakthrough); Akram Khan (Dance); Candia McWilliam (Literature); Welsh National Opera (Opera) and Tacita Dean (Visual Arts).

Melvyn Bragg said: "The phenomenal shortlist and truly inspirational list of winners is further proof, if it were ever needed, that the arts in this country are vibrant and thriving. With such a wide array of winners, from Plan B to Die Meistersingers, This is England '86 to Clybourne Park, this is a much needed opportunity to thank and honour the dedication and breadth of talent at work in this country."

I'm not even going to attempt to put all the photos and details into one blog post - that would be madness, so you'll have to be patient! I shall post a dedicated piece to each winner for you instead, in nice easy, bitesize chunks - I may even have them all done by the end of the day!