PROGRAMMES that celebrated human resilience and the ability of community were recognised on the Sandford St Martin Awards on Monday evening.
The Awards, which were presented at a ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, have fun excellence in broadcasting about religion, ethics, and spirituality.
“In a yr when conflict and turmoil have featured heavily within the news and in our media, the winners of this yr’s Sandford St Martin Awards find reasons for hope,” a press release announcing the winners of the award said. “Whether it’s the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, the legacy of abuse, the climate crisis, or the continued debate around euthanasia, this yr’s judging panels independently selected to honour programmes which have celebrated human resilience and the ability of community and collective endeavours.”
The Holy Land and Us: Our untold stories (TV, 24 March 2023), made by Wall to Wall Media for BBC2, won the Radio Times Readers’ Award. In the programme, Rob Rinder and Sarah Agha explored how the histories of their families, and others’ families, were modified by the founding of the State of Israel.
In the Name of the Father, made by Beyond Creative Ltd and Renegade Stories for BBC4 (TV, 26 May 2023), won the Journalism Award. It investigated the dispute over the inheritance and legacy of Rabbi Schick, the leader of Breslov Hasidic Jews, based in Brooklyn. The runner-up was The Emerging Muslim Manosphere, broadcast on the World Service’s Heart and Soul strand.
A Time to Die, which examined the law on assisted dying, won the TV/Video Award. It was made by True Vision for ITV. The runner-up was the Al Jazeera documentary Witness — A Child of Gaza.
The Indestructibility of Hope: Wartime Christmas in Ukraine, broadcast as a part of Sunday Worship on Radio 4 (Radio, 13 January 2023), won the Radio/Audio Award, beating the runner-up: The Right Thing: Follow God, not the people (CTVC for the World Service).
The Young Audience Award was given to My Life: I won’t stand for it, made by Tigerlily for CBBC’s “My Life” series, which featured Miyawata, a 15-year-old climate and social activist. The runner-up was the documentary Climate Anxiety, broadcast on TrueTube.
At the ceremony on Monday evening, the historian Tom Holland was presented with the Trustees’ Award for his contribution to the general public understanding of faith (News, 14 June).
Dr Tony Stoller, who chairs the Trust, said on Monday: “Has there been a time in recent memory when there was a greater need for religious awareness and understanding? Traditionally, we now have trusted our broadcasters to supply us with religiously literate and unbiased coverage of those issues.
“Against this backdrop, the entries for this yr’s awards competition are a showcase for the excellence of UK content-makers working on this sector. Whether it is thru cutting-edge journalism, creative storytelling, or societal impact, they prove that the audience for good religiously literate content is more diverse and more engaged than ever before.”
