Yesterday saw the announcement of the winners of the 2017 Sandford St Martin Awards, which celebrate excellence in religious programming. The winners included Christian actress Sally Phillips' provocative documentary A World Without Down's Syndrome?
The awards were given out on June 7 at a gala at Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Sandford St Martin Trust, which organises the awards, describes itself as promoting 'thought-provoking, distinctive programming that engages with religion of all faiths, ethics or morality'.
The awards are the UKs most prestigious accolade in the field of religious programming.
The Sally Phillips BBC documentary A World Without Down's Syndrome? won two awards, both the TV Award and the Radio Times Readers' Award. The programme generated significant publicity, praise and heated debate when it aired in October last year.
The citation read: 'Sally explores a very serious subject and asks what impact a new screening test could have on our society and its potential to eradicate the next generation of Down's syndrome kids. In a world where pre-natal genetic screening is predicted to become routine, what future do people with disabilities have in our society?'
Phillips attended the ceremony and posted pictures of celebration with her son Olly and the documentary's director Clare Richards on Twitter.
BBC Radio's ethical discussion programme The Moral Maze won the 2017 Trustee's Award. Announcing the award, Rt Rev Nick Baines, Lord Bishop of Leeds and the Trust's Chair said: 'We live in a complex world, and this programme takes these complexities seriously. It also refuses to collude with the notion that all arguments must be reduced to the simplistic or the slogan. Sometimes annoying, usually riveting, always worth the listen.'
The Radio Award went to All Things Considered: Aberfan, a BBC Radio Wales programme that explored the impact on religious faith of the 1966 landslide in Aberfan that killed 144 people.
The Interview of the Year was awarded to the BBC interview An Extremist in the Family. The programme centred on Nicola Benyahia, whose teenage son was groomed and radicalised into joining ISIS and later killed.
The trust granted its Children's Award to the short film Refugee, a BAFTA award-winning drama which explores the life of a young girl and her family and their journey on the run from violence.
The complete list of the Sandford St Martin Award winners and runners-up can be found here.
