Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for 2025: how the audio winners seized their moment

When Melvyn Bragg, Sara Cox, Stewart Lee and Bill Nighy lit up a great night at the Barbican

Melvyn Bragg had some advice for us when he spoke at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards last night — “Don’t turn down the death slot!”.

Melvyn was talking about the origins of In Our Time, back in 1998. He recalled that he’d just been relieved of his duties on Start the Week, and that Radio 4 were looking for something to air at 9am on Thursdays.

“The death slot” was how that time and day was regarded, with listeners switching off in their droves at the end of the Today programme. Perhaps Melvyn Bragg could take it on?

He didn’t relish the prospect, but he knew better than to say No. Thus, In Our Time was born, radio history was made, and a lesson learnt that no slot is insurmountable.

It was last year, having presented all 1,000-plus editions — a stint spanning an astonishing 27 years — that Melvyn Bragg decided to step down from the programme. And at the Broadcasting Press Guild, where I’m chair of the audio awards committee, we decided that we wanted to honour his achievement.

The Special Award we presented him with was one of the highlights of the evening, the audience at the Barbican in London giving Melvyn a standing ovation as he took the stage.

Most of the BPG’s awards are for achievements in television, but there are also three audio awards — for Best Radio Programme, Best Presenter, and Best Podcast.

Best Radio Programme went to the superb slice of recent history that was Radio 4’s What Happened to Counter-Culture?, with presenter Stewart Lee and the programme’s producer Simon Hollis stepping up to receive their award.

Then it was Bill Nighy’s turn, as the winner of Best Podcast for the brilliant Ill-Advised by Bill Nighy. He was accompanied by the podcast’s producers, Alice Williams and Ciara Gregory. Bill made a joke about the difficulty of having Stewart Lee as the act to follow, but of course he was effortlessly funny in his own right, recounting how a friend of his had remarked that listening to Ill-Advised was no different to listening to Bill round his kitchen table, except that there wasn’t the bother of having to nod along with him.

Then there was Best Presenter, which went to Sara Cox of Radio 2, who had a momentous year in 2025 with her marathon-running epic in aid of Children in Need. With her show finishing at 7pm, she hot-foot it to the Barbican as only an athlete could and made a lovely speech about the generosity she encountered on the roads of northern England last November, her efforts raising an incredible £11.5m.

These were the shortlists in the three audio categories:

BEST RADIO PROGRAMME
Anatomy of a Cancellation (BBC Radio 4)
Live Aid 40 Years On (Greatest Hits Radio)
Nick Ferrari (LBC)
Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (BBC Radio 4)
WINNER: What Happened to Counter-Culture? (BBC Radio 4)

BEST RADIO PRESENTER
Anna Foster (BBC Radio 4)
Jamie Theakston (Heart)
Sue Mitchell (BBC Radio 4)
Trevor Nelson (BBC Radio 2)
WINNER Sara Cox (Radio 2)

BEST PODCAST
Dish (Cold Glass Productions)
Pride and Prejudice (Audible)
The History Podcast (BBC Sounds) for Half-Life
The Mishal Husain Show (Bloomberg)
WINNER Ill-Advised by Bill Nighy (Eyepod Studios)