Lee Mack's The 1% Club wins National Television Awards

Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which stars East Lancashire actors, also came home with several awards.

The 1% Club, hosted by Lee Mack who lived in The Centurion pub in Blackburn while growing up, won Best Quiz Game Show, beating The Wheel, Beat The Chasers, Richard Osman’s House of Games, and Ant and Dec’s Limitless Win.

Lee was not there to accept the award and a producer delivered the speech.

He said: “Lee is not here tonight so us producers are here to accept the award on his behalf. Apologies that we can’t bring the laughs that Lee would bring.

“Huge thanks to Lee, our amazing contestants, our production team, to ITV who support us hugely but mostly to everybody who watches the show and voted for us. Thank you so much.”

Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the ITV drama that renewed attention on the subpostmasters who were wrongly prosecuted during the Horizon IT scandal, also came home victorious.

The cast and crew of Mr Bates vs The Post Office collected an award (Image: Ian West/PA)

It won Best New Drama and the Impact Award.

The show stars Accrington actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, who played Alan’s wife Suzanne.

Blackburn-born Amy Nuttall played Lisa Castleton, wife of Lee Castleton, played by Will Mellor.

Toby Jones also secured the best drama performance gong for his role as former subpostmaster Sir Alan Bates, one of more than 550 claimants who have brought legal action against the Post Office.

Collecting the award, actress Monica Dolan, who played Jo Hamilton in the series, said: “We were so grateful and proud (of) the audience response to this drama anyway, so to win this award is absolutely incredible.”

Dolan thanked the team behind the ITV drama, the actors and the subpostmasters for “trusting us to tell their story”, adding that it has been “the privilege of our lives”.

It was announced last week that the ITV drama had been awarded the NTA Impact Award for creating a “huge cultural shift”.

Former subpostmistress Ms Hamilton called out the Government for the lack of action on the scandal as she collected the award surrounded by fellow victims, saying: “I went to Westminster a couple of weeks back and saw the new minister and trust me, nothing has changed.

“Almost all of these people behind me haven’t been paid yet. And out of the group of 555, more than 300 haven’t been paid yet.”

Blackburn’s AJ Odudu hoped Big Brother, which she presents, would win the best reality competition but lost out to BBC’s The Traitors.

Alongside Vernon Kay, AJ presented a daytime television award, which was won by The Chase  - and the show was watched by her mum at home in Blackburn.

Posting to her Instagram followers she said: "I always love knowing that my mum's watching on the telly in Blackburn."

AJ Odudu (left) said: I always love knowing that my mum's watching [me at the National Television Awards] on the telly in Blackburn. (Image: Instagram/@ajodudu)

Elsewhere, Kate Garraway completed a hat-trick in the best-authored documentary category and dedicated the award to her late husband, Chorley-born Derek Draper.

She won the gong for Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story, which followed the final year of Draper’s life before he died in January aged 56 after a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.

It follows on from two other programmes about his battle with Covid and her struggles navigating the care system, which both picked up NTA gongs in the category in 2021 and 2022.

The star-studded ceremony also saw Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly cement their status as kings of TV presenting as they won the gong for a historic 23rd year in a row.

Collecting the gong, Dec said: “Thank you – it’s really hard to put into words just how this feels and what it means to us that you take the time to vote for us.”

Veteran broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough won the expert award, while Mrs Brown’s Boys landed the comedy prize.

Comedian Joel Dommett returned to host the star-studded ceremony at The O2 in London, which was broadcast live on ITV.