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TALENT
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Olivia Colman
The man who has been at the forefront of BBC Sport at the European Championships and Olympics, and the anchor of the BBC’s Formula One coverage, also still had one foot in the BBC this year when his quiz show Beat The Pack aired in March.
Broadchurch; Run; Rev; Twenty Twelve; Peep Show
The most in-demand actress of the moment, it’s the diversity of Olivia Colman’s CV that sets her apart from the crowd. Her background in comedy hits Peep Show, Rev and Twenty Twelve is well documented, but this year she extended her range and TV profile even further. She brought a naturalness to the role of DS Ellie Miller in Broadchurch and her chemistry with co-star David Tennant encapsulated the success of the ITV hit, in which she will return for series two. In Channel 4’s Run, her portrayal of a single mother of feral boys on a London estate brought unexpected depth to a gritty story. All this plus more Rev, David Nicholls’ The 7.39 and Big Talk’s Mr Sloane means she’ll (happily) continue to be inescapable.
5 Olivia Coleman: Run
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Mel & Sue
The Great British Bake Off
When Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins reunited for a low-key BBC2 baking show, it didn’t feel like TV history in the making; it was more a fun chance to see if their pair’s cheeky banter was still intact. Three years on and much of The Great British Bake Off’s phenomenal success has been attributed to Mel and Sue’s humour, and their rapport with the amateur bakers. The show lives or dies by its warm, inclusive and supportive tone, and the pair almost invisibly will the contestants along before they face the judgement of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood – and lend their shoulders for departees to cry on. They are a dead cert for the BBC1 transfer and both continue to be in demand in their own right. www.broadcastnow.co.uk
Peter Capaldi
Doctor Who; The Thick Of It; The Musketeers
Forget everything Peter Capaldi (below) has done until now: acclaimed sitcom The Thick Of It, forget it; The Hour – his dour Scottish head of news was fantastic – forget that too. The Devil’s Whore, Skins – he played Sid’s dad, remember that sweet one with the glasses from series one? No, actually, don’t – forget it. Waking The Dead, Peep Show, Foyle’s War, The Vicar Of Dibley – forget them all. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor and, in the year of the cult series’ 50th anniversary, it doesn’t come more bad-ass than that. A mere glimpse of his eyebrows was enough to elicit shrieks among cinemagoers watching the 3D special. Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat even says Capaldi’s performance is the kind that makes you forget anyone else ever played the Doctor. Taxi for Matt… Who?
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Jake Humphrey
BT Sport; Beat The Pack
BT has invested a huge amount in football, paying £738m last year to air Premier League matches, and now it’s wrested the rights to the Champions’ League and Europa League matches away from Sky and ITV for a cool £897m. All it needed was a gold-plated presenter to bring this content together and it found that person in Jake Humphrey. Declaring he was on a mission to change the way football is broadcast, he described the past year as the “strangest, yet most exciting, year of my working life”.
Mishal Husain Today; BBC Olympics coverage
There have been others before her – Libby Purves, Sue MacGregor and Sarah Montague – but Mishal Husain’s arrival as a core member of Radio 4’s Today programme caused something of a stir. In the wake of accusations of the flagship show marginalising women’s voices, DG Tony Hall made it clear that having another woman in the line-up was extremely important. So was Husain’s a token appointment? Not a bit. The former presenter of Sunday’s BBC News At Ten soon silenced the skeptics with an impressive, authoritative style that means she more than holds her own. Husain was also part of the BBC’s Olympics coverage; maybe one unexpected legacy of the Games is how it helped the cream of BBC’s female presenters rise to the top.
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Paul O’Grady
For The Love Of Dogs; Paul O’Grady’s Working Britain
Paul O’Grady has a rare ability to move between channels and it’s testament to his combination of 6 December 2013 | Broadcast | 21