Friday 14 October 2022 01:49 AM National Television Awards 2022: Anton Du Beke triumphs as Strictly wins amid ... trends now

Anton Du Beke thanked his wife for her support as he took to the stage to collect his prize at the National Television Awards in London on Thursday.

The professional dancer, 56, triumphed in the Talent Show Judge category while his show, Strictly Come Dancing, took home the prize for the best Talent Show.

Taking to the stage to collect his gong, Anton paid tribute to his wife Hannah Summers and executive producer Sarah James for his win: 'Thank you to everyone who voted, who’s watching the show. Thank you to my wife.

'Sarah James... let me tell you about Sarah James. I love this woman, she’s the great thing to happen to television, thank you for giving me the job. That’s why I love her, I won’t deny. Thank you so much.'

He added: 'I can’t tell you how delighted I am. I’m overwhelmed, really, because everybody knows how much I love the show… and I’m so proud to have been on the show since the very beginning.

'Everybody on the show is the best of the best and I'm eternally grateful to everybody at home who voted for me, of course, and all the viewers. They’re such an integral part of the show and without them – the viewers voting – it doesn’t work. I’m eternally grateful, and I’m very lucky.'

Anton beat David Walliams for his appearance on Britain's Got Talent, Mo Gilligan who is a judge on The Masked Singer and The Masked Dancer, and RuPaul for his role as head judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Strictly came out on top in the Talent Show category over RuPaul's Drag Race UK, The Masked Singer and Britain's Got Talent.

Anton was joined on stage with many of the former stars of Strictly, including last year's winner Rose Ayling-Ellis and her professional partner Giovanni Pernice.  

It comes after Strictly head judge Shirley Ballas got tearful as she slammed members of the public who branded her 'sexist' on Wednesday.

Shirley, who landed the head judge role in 2017, is at the centre of a new row as some Twitter trolls demand she is sacked over her critique of this series' celebrity contestants.

Appearing on Wednesday's episode of Loose Women, Shirley insisted 'I don't have a mean bone in my body' as she called out the 'hurtful' and 'explicit' comments online.

'The backlash and trolling has been a lot,' Shirley told the Loose Women panel.

'I appreciate the audience has been there for 20 years,' she continued, 'but when you watch a screen you can only see half of what I see, the feet and everything. I love that they have an opinion but then it goes overboard and its not nice.'

'It's a tough industry and has been a tough industry all my life,' she said before her voice cracked and she admitted 'I'm getting emotional already.'

Shirley was asked about the latest episode of Strictly, which saw the public vote singer Fleur East into the the dance off alongside Radio 2 star Richie Anderson.

While Shirley's three co-judges Motsi Mabuse, Craig Revel-Horwood and Anton Du Beke voted to save Fleur, sending Richie home, Shirley admitted she would have saved Richie.

Alongside claims she favours male contestants on the show, Shirley has been accused of having 'favourites whether they have ability or not', with many arguing that Fleur had been the superior dancer to Richie.

Explaining her decision, Shirley pointed out it was the public vote that sent Fleur into the dance off.  

'Why were they in the bottom two if they're your favourite?' she said. 'I have to choose what I like, I judge from the top to the bottom.'

'I chose Richie to save as the Samba is hard to dance and I look at the footwork and I loved Fleur too!'  

Fans have rushed to defend Shirley after the show's head judge was accused of sexism in the furious social media pile on.

Shirley is a three time Latin American Champion, 10-time US Latin American Champion, and multiple-times British National Champion, with many fans pointing out her extensive experience in defence of the star.  

Strictly has also been rocked with fresh race row as fans slammed the show's public voting result which sent Fleur and Richie into the dance off as 'outrageous'.

One viewer wrote on Twitter: 'Neither of those couples should have been anywhere NEAR the bottom two, but of course the British public are racist.'

Another posted: 'Good dancers voted out early every season due to racist voting,' another chimed in while a third said: 'Racism 100%, there's no other explanation. It's obvious.'

'Motsi knows that the British public are racist, and got as close as she could to saying it outright,' a third stated.  

This year's NTAs were broadcasted live from a brand new venue of Wembley's OVO Arena with Joel Dommett hosting. 

Sir Lenny Henry was presented with the coveted gold Special Recognition Award at the annual ceremony on Thursday night.

This year's National Television Awards honoured the 64-year-old and his trailblazing career in UK television, which has endured for nearly 50 years.

Celebrity fans paid tribute to the comedian and fundraising Comic Relief frontman when the awards were broadcasted live on ITV from the OVO Arena, Wembley.