2024 Winner

Best Interests

AC Chapter One, BBC One, Fifth Season

UK

- Limited Series

The pairing of Jack Thorne’s truthful scripts with Michael Keillor’s elegant direction created a series that achieved all our ambitions. Jack’s work needs directors to direct what is not said - the emotional underpinning of a scene – and that’s what Michael did, leading a team that delivered their very best work with a cohesion and delicacy that gained the project such critical acclaim. Two principles guided the production. The first acknowledged that this story is profoundly sad. We wanted viewers to trust it would be worth that sadness, and watch anyway. Every choice focussed on the honest detail of the human experience at the heart of the story, not the more ‘headline’ elements. The second was to make it not just a drama about whether Marnie would live, but also about a family trying to survive. We wanted the audience to be asking – will Nikki and Andrew be able to hold on to the love that has clearly bound the family?