Charlene White and the Loose Women all-Black line-up celebrate wins at the Royal Television Awards (RTS Awards).
Charlene White, Judi Love, Brenda Edwards, Kelle Bryan
In a virtual ceremony earlier this week, the Royal Television Awards, celebrated Loose Women’s all Black line-up, Charlene White’s IRL with Team Charlene and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You, along with a number of other quality Black-led programmes.
For the first time in its 21-year history, Loose Women hosted an all-Black panel last October, making history. The panel included ITV News anchor and Loose Women regular Charlene White, radio presenter and comedian Judi Love and singers and actresses Brenda Edward and Kelle Bryan. It was truly a special moment for Black British women who love the show.
“makes a real connection with its audience, making them laugh, making them think.”
The Loose Women episode was packed full of laughs, emotion, fun and friendship. The women shared their own lifestyle experiences, giving us relatable content and an episode to remember.
Their episode won Best Daytime Television Show, nominated alongside tough competition, including BBC’s The Bidding Room and Channel 4’s Junior Bake Off. The four women gasped with excitement as Loose Women was called as the winner of the award via Zoom.
The judges said the show, “makes a real connection with its audience, making them laugh, making them think.”
Image credit ITV
Charlene White delivered an emotional speech after the initial shock of winning: “To the loose women, we love you loads. For everyone who doesn’t know, this was a special episode with all the Black loose ladies which hadn’t been done before. One thing I want everyone in the industry to know, when you nurture, when you grow and when you trust your diversity panel anything is possible.”
The Best Daytime Television Award was swiftly followed by Best Children’s Programme. The nominations were JoJo and Gran Gran, FYI Investigates and IRL with Team Charlene. Moments after receiving the award for Best Daytime Television Show, Charlene was celebrating a double win for winning the Best Children’s Programme.
“I’m hugely, hugely proud of it. It was important to me, in order to change the way people think about race in this country…”
Charlene White said: “This is an idea I came up with whilst on maternity leave last year and it’s the first show idea I ever came up with. I’m hugely, hugely proud of it. It was important to me, in order to change the way people think about race in this country, we have to start with the new generation. Teach them what race is and what racism is.”
It’s great to see RTS celebrating Black talent this year, and there has been a lot. Some of the other nominations included one of our 10 women who #choosetochallenge, Michaela Coel, who won all three categories she was nominated in for her I May Destroy You mini-series, a brilliant silver lining to the recent Golden Globes snub.
Damilola: The Boy Next Door presented by DJ and radio presenter Yinka Bokinni, won Best History category. Yinka presented this documentary in memory of her childhood friend, Damilola who was murdered in Peckham.
Other winners included actress and writer Gbemisola Ikumelo who won Best Female Comedy Performance, rapper Big Nartsie and comedian Mo Gilligan celebrated winning Best Entertainment Performance for The Big Narstie Show; as well as British actor Shaun Parks who achieved Best Male Actor.
Watch our interview with Mangrove star, Shaun Parkes
Congratulations to all the winners!
