‘SLAM XXL’ RECEIVES TOP RTS AWARD

TYNE Tees Television’s sports department took time out from reporting success stories to come up with one of their own.
The TV team won the ‘Best Regional Sports Programme - Actuality Award’ at the prestigious Royal Television Society Sports Awards for their imaginative basketball show ‘Slam XXL’.
The programme presented by Simon O’Rourke and Katie Lampert was a joint production with their sister station Yorkshire Television and concentrated on coverage of Newcastle Eagles and Sheffield Sharks.
Roger Tames and Nick Beaumont, Tyne Tees and Yorkshire’s Heads of Sport received the award from former football manager turned pundit Ron Atkinson at London’s Hilton Hotel. The RTS Sports Awards are the highest accolades in television sport.
The judges praised the programme which won the actuality category, for squeezing every last ounce of value out of a supposedly minority sport. They said it was well paced, sharply shot, simply but extremely well explained and both entertaining and credible.
Tames, who was also shortlisted for Regional Sports Presenter, said: ‘This was extremely rewarding recognition for an awful lot of hard and creative work by a whole team of people. There’s something extra satisfying about praise from one’s fellow professionals.” (CD)