Street party asCorrie hailed best soap on night of triumph and tears
Weatherfield stars celebrate after hailing lost legend
Coronation Street was last night hailed Britain’s Best Soap.
And Britain’s best- loved soap cleaned up in the prize stakes.
Corrie’s Lucy Fallon took best actress award at last night’s Soap Awards, for her portrayal of Bethany Platt.
Ross Adams of Hollyoaks took best male for his role as Scott Drinkwell.
Emmerdale actress Isobel Steele won best young actor for playing Liv Flaherty.
The best villain prize went to Coronation Street’s Connor McIntyre for his portrayal of Pat Phelan.
Hollyoaks Malique Thompson Dwyer and Theo Graham took the best partnership prize.
The biggest names in UK soaps faced off at the Hackney Empire in east London when Coronation Street, Doctors, EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks battled it out for the top awards.
The cast of Doctors were the first to arrive at the venue, where EastEnders’ actor Jake Wood lead the field with the most nominations.
Celtic star Scott Sinclair, 29, was on the red carpet at last night’s event with his fiancée former Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan, 27, who is heavily pregnant.
Wood, who port rays Max Branning, was up for six awards including villain of the year where he went up against Coronation Street’ s Con nor McIntyre, nominated for his portrayal of Pat Phelan.
Doctors’ actress Laura Rollins, nominated in the best female dramatic performance, said the event was always “one of the funnest nights of the year”.
The actress, who plays Ayesha Lee, also revealed she was a big fan of EastEnders’ actress Lacey Turner.
Talking on the red carpet, Rollins said: “I’m a huge fan of Lacey Turner and I’m pretty sure she wins most years but I really wouldn’t mind losing out to her because I think she’ s phenomenal.”
Asked about the gender pay gap and if it was a conversation being had in relation to soaps, she said: “I don’t actually know, I would like to think I get paid just as much as my male co-stars, I’m not sure if that does happen but it should, it definitely should.”
The dramatic Christmas Day episode of EastEnders in which Lauren and Abi Branning fell from the roof of the Old Vic in EastEnders was up for scene of the year, alongside Corrie’s grooming of Bethany Platt.
In the fan- voted best actress categor y, Lucy Fa l lon , who plays Bethany, went go up against her cast mate Catherine Tyldesley as well as EastEnders Lacey Turner, Emmerdale’s Emma
Atkins, and Hollyoaks’ Anna Passey.
In a celebration of the awards’ 20th anniversary, a special greatest soap moment of all time was introduced with a number of acclaimed scenes included.
EastEnders’ 2001 You Ain’t My Mother scene – in which Kat Slater revealed she was Zoe’s real mother – was nominated as well as hit historical moments from Corrie, Em me rd ale, Holly oak sand Doctors.
Richard Hillman driving his family in 2003 in Corrie and the 2016 Hotten bypass crash from Emmerdale were up for the prize.