It was the biggest night in soap as The British Soap Awards returned for 2022 on ITV. After a two-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual event saw the UK’s biggest soaps compete against each other to bag a variety of awards.
Live on ITV and ITV Hub, host Phillip Schofield returned to roll out the red carpet for actors and actresses representing Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Doctors. But disappointed Coronation Street fans took to Twitter to complain that the world's longest-running soap was 'robbed' at the event at The Hackney Empire in London.
Rising star Millie Gibson from Broadbottom, who plays the soap's troubled teen Kelly Neelan, took home the prize for Best Young Performer following the harrowing hate crime storyline which saw her character framed for the murder of Seb Franklin by thug Corey Brent. And Maximus Evans won Villain of the Year for his chilling portrayal of Corey who repeatedly stamped on Seb after he and his vile gang set upon the builder and his goth girlfriend Nina Lucas over her appearance.
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The hate crime storyline, inspired by the brutal murder of goth Sophie Lancaster in 2007, was also up for Best Storyline, which was won by Misbah Maalik's historic rape story in Hollyoaks, and it was nominated for Best Single Episode for the flashback scenes when Nina regained her memory of the sickening attack.
The top gong for Best British Soap went to Emmerdale. And The British Soap Awards' first gender neutral Best Leading Performer award, to replace Best Actress and Best Actor, was scooped by Emmerdale's Paige Sandhu for her terrifying role as serial killer Meena Jutla.
From Corrie Sally Carman, who plays Abi Webster, was nominated in this category after the heartbreaking death of her character's son Seb and her revenge mission. Johnny Connor's death by drowning in a storm drain during the show's spectacular spooky 'Stunt Week' in October missed out on Scene of the Year to the awareness-raising Misbah consent story on Hollyoaks.
@ackleybridgefa1 asked: "Sally didn't win that? What? Corrie getting robbed this year what is this?" And @ncutigatwas messaged: "Corrie were well and truly robbed with that one, Johnny's death and that whole week actually was amazing and blew every other soap out of the water."
@clazzy70 fumed: "#soapawards2022 Corrie was robbed. So many awards should have been theirs." And @fpl_pie tweeted: "#Corrie robbed."
@jordgray21 said with a stunned-face emoji: "Corrie are getting robbed tonight like." And @JackMulhall92 said: "Tell you what, a friend of mine (definitely not me) is fuming Corrie didn’t win best soap. Fuming."
Meanwhile Kel Allen, who played Kelly's mum late Laura Neelan, was cheering on Corrie and her on-screen daughter. She enthused: "WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!! Well bloody done @MillieGibson01 Proud mamma alert!!" And she added: "You deserve every award going babba. So bloody proud of you. Go team."
