1st February 2009

Beeching's Tracks with Simon Calder has been voted Best Regional Documentary of the Year, at the Royal Television Society's annual West of England area awards, in Bristol (Friday 30 January)

Click PDF for winners list and judges' comments.

GRACE's winning film was shown as part of a Beeching season on BBC ONE (West) and on BBC FOUR, in Autumn 2008. The documentary picked up the prize, against stiff competition, as the area’s television professionals gathered in the city's Watershed media centre.

In Beeching's Tracks,  travel journalist Simon Calder took a journey from Portishead to Minehead in a BBC West documentary exploring the legacy of the Beeching railway cuts. Simon examined the arguments for reopening some of the branch lines axed by Dr Richard Beeching in the 1960s.

The film’s director Ray Tostevin and producer Margaret Vrublevskis received the award from RTS chair of judges, Charles Wace. Ray said: “I’m absolutely delighted. This is a great honour for the entire GRACE Production team, who worked so hard to produce a wonderful film – and against such strong competition, too.”