Miriam Margolyes wins lifetime achievement prize at BBC Audio Drama Awards 2022

Bridget Christie and Juliet Aubrey are among the winners of the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2022, which also saw Miriam Margolyes collect a lifetime achievement prize.

The annual event, which celebrates audio drama produced over the past year, was presented live for the first time in two years at the BBC Radio Theatre in London.

Margolyes was honoured with this year’s lifetime achievement award. Her first radio role with the BBC was in 1965, and she has acted in audio dramas in the almost 60 years since, most recently appearing in Holly Walsh and Kat Sommers’ Charlotte and Lillian in 2021.

Accepting the award via video link, Margolyes said: "I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be given this award. I’ve done my best work in radio, I shall love it ‘til I die."

Other winners included Christie, whose Radio 4 series Mortal won the best scripted comedy (long form) prize.

Edmund Davies was named best actor for The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, triumphing in a shortlist that also included Giles Terera and Simon Russell Beale, while Aubrey was given best actress for Dead Weather.

The best actress category also included Jasmine Hyde and Amanda Lawrence.

Claire Price won best supporting performance, also for Hattie Naylor’s Dead Weather, which picked up a third prize in the best original single drama category.

The acting categories were completed by Saran Morgan, who won best debut performance for Release.

Playwright Al Smith picked up best original series for Life Lines, while the comedy podcast Sound Heap won best scripted comedy (sketch show) and Ayeesha Menon’s version of the Jungle Book won best adaptation.

Elsewhere, sound designer Jon Nicholls was awarded best use of sound for his work on Terera’s The Meaning of Zong.

Sonya Hale’s Blis-ta won the 2022 Tinniswood Award, which is presented by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and the Society of Authors for the best audio drama script of the year, and The Lemonade Lads by Faebian Averies won this year’s Imison Award celebrating new audio-drama writing.