Ore’s Bafta Blog
When you work in telly, it doesn’t get much bigger than winning a Bafta. You dream of getting up on that stage, delivering a speech and walking away with that golden-faced trophy… So not surprisingly, Sunday 29th of November 2011 was a very, very proud day.
I found out Newsround was being presented with the Special Award at the Children’s Baftas a few months beforehand, but had no idea what was in store. I’d never been to the awards before so I was just mainly thinking about what I was going to wear!
The night of the awards came and I arrived at the Park Lane Hotel in London with my good friend Sonali (who you used to present with me on Newsround – she’s going to be fronting some of the BBC’s Olympics coverage in 2012 so watch out for her!).
There were cameras everywhere, all asking for a photo. I genuinely didn’t know what to do… I basically stood there in a bit of a trance as all of these flashes went off in my face. Sonali is much more glamorous and soaked it up brilliantly.
It was like a ‘Who’s Who?’ of children’s TV. There was Dick n Dom, Helen Skelton, Justin Fletcher who plays Mr Tumble on Cbeebies, so many more recognisable faces… And I was soon to meet the legendary John Craven, who helped come up with Newsround in the first place 40 years ago.
We were sitting on the same table and it was great talking about Newsround old and new with him and also Edward Barnes, the creator of the programme back in 1972. But pretty soon it was our moment of truth. Nick Robinson, the Political Editor for BBC News (who once upon a time worked on Newsround) was giving out the award.
It was such an honour to go up with them and the Newsround team. We were even given a standing ovation! Edward, John and I said a few words on the stage and then I got to walk off with that golden face in my hand…it was like a dream had come true!
