National Television Awards: Bill Tarmey Tribute

The stars of Coronation Street remembered the late Bill Tarmey as they picked up two prizes at the National Television Awards.

The long-running ITV soap was named best serial drama and Alan Halsall, who played Tarmey's on-screen foster son Tyrone Dobbs, won the award for serial drama performance.

Accepting his award, Halsall paid tribute to Tarmey, who died last year after playing Jack Duckworth in the soap for decades, saying: "I love you pal."

Speaking backstage, he paid further tribute to Tarmey, saying the actor would be looking down on him.

He said: "I'm sure he is. He'll be having a pint of Guinness for me. His wife asked me to wear his watch tonight so I've got it on.

"This is for him, he guided me literally from the start of my career at Coronation Street, he was such a huge, huge influence on my life like a second dad on screen.

"He'd be laughing at this right now, he used to say, 'none of that bloody acting'."

The show's producer Phil Collinson also paid tribute to Tarmey, saying: "This year we lost a stalwart of Coronation Street who was just so much a part of everybody's life for a long time, Bill Tarmey, and so I think we'd love to dedicate this to Bill."

Among the stars at Wednesday night's event, at the O2 in Greenwich, south east London, were X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos, Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville and Olympian Sir Chris Hoy.

EastEnders stars Jacqueline Jossa and Shona McGarty and the cast of The Only Way Is Essex also posed for photographers as they arrived on the red carpet.

The first award, for entertainment programme went to I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

Two of the contestants who survived last year's stint in the jungle, Helen Flanagan and Ashley Roberts, picked up the award explaining the show's winner Charlie Brooks could not make it because she was with a friend who was giving birth.

The second award went to Sir David Attenborough's BBC natural history show Frozen Planet, which won best documentary series.

QI was named the best comedy panel show, beating competition including Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week.

One of the big surprises of the night saw Merlin star Colin Morgan win the award for the best male drama performance, beating much-fancied rivals in Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch and Doctor Who's Matt Smith.

Downton Abbey was named best drama, beating shows including Sherlock and Doctor Who.