Coronation Street has paid a special tribute as they picked up a BAFTA TV award on Sunday night (May 8). A few of the ITV soap's cast and crew swapped Weatherfield for the capital city to pick up the award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama at the ceremony held at London's Royal Festival Hall.
The long-running soap fought off competition from Casualty, Emmerdale and Holby City for the gong and Sally Dynevor, who plays the show's Sally Metcalfe, and Imran Habeeb actor Charlie De Melo were the cast members who represented the programme on the special night.
"We've won a BAFTA," the show's official Instagram announced with a video of Team Corrie raising a toast with the famous BAFTA mask award.
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There were a few complaints from fans as the soap appeared to announce their win before the awards had been aired on BBC One, however, Corrie's acceptance speech wasn't aired in full.
In what viewers didn't get to see Sally, who competed in Dancing On Ice last year, dedicated the ITV series' TV Bafta win to Sophie Lancaster and her mother Sylvia. Sylvia founded the Sophie Lancaster Foundation in memory of her daughter, who was kicked to death in 2007 because she was dressed as a goth.
Sylvia died in April 2022, with her death described as “sudden and unexpected” in an announcement on the Foundation’s Facebook page. The soap had the help and support of Sylvia when they portrayed a shocking hate crime on-screen last year with goth Nina Lucas and boyfriend Seb Franklin, played by Mollie Gallagher and Harry Visinoni.
The heartbreaking scenes saw the pair set upon and attacked before Seb died from his injuries in hospital. On stage after accepting the award, Sally, 58, said: "We weren’t expecting this tonight, we really weren’t, so thank you so much Bafta for this award. Working on this show is just a privilege – and the drama and the comedy go so well on Corrie.
"And one of the most important stories we have told this year was the hate crime story. So we would like to dedicate this to Sophie Lancaster and her mother Sylvia Lancaster."
Sylvia’s daughter was 20 when she was set upon by drunk teenagers in a park in Bacup, Lancashire. The gang turned on her and her boyfriend, Rob Maltby, who survived the attack, because of their alternative appearance. Sophie was kicked and stamped on as she cradled the injured Mr Maltby.
Both fell into comas but Sophie, a gap-year student, never regained consciousness and died in hospital 13 days later. Sylvia was awarded an OBE in 2014 for her work to tackle hate crime. She is set to be laid to rest with her daughter later this week.
