A DOCUMENTARY about young anti-abortion activists was among the programmes recognised at the Sandford St Martin Awards on Tuesday evening.
The awards, which were presented at a ceremony in Lambeth Palace, celebrate excellence in broadcasting about religion, ethics, and spirituality. The Trust said that this year’s accolades featured people “finding their voice, connection and identity even while surrounded by political, economic or social turbulence”.
Young, British and Anti-Abortion, in which the film-maker Poppy Jay meets members of Gen Z campaigning against abortion, won the TV/Video Award. It was made by Firecrest Films for BBC1. The runner-up was Defiance: Fighting the Far Right (Rogan Productions, Group M, and Left Handed Films for Channel 4)
Carmen Valino/Sandford St Martin TrustThe television director Peter Kosminsky (right) receives the Trustees’ Award
Praying for Armageddon (TV, 24 May 2024), made by Up North Films for BBC 4’s Storyville strand, won the Journalism Award. The “political thriller meets documentary” examines how American Evangelicals have pursued fulfillment of the Armageddon prophecy. The runner-up was Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets (RTÉ One), from Ireland.
The Young Audience Award was given to Sunday Worship (Radio 4) for the episode “True Identity”, in which the rapper Still Shadey discusses social justice and knife crime with young people. The runner-up was Refugee Stories (CTVC for TrueTube).
Staggering in the Dark, made by Falling Tree Productions for Radio 3, won the Radio/Audio Award. It was described by the Trust as “an experimental sonic exploration of what it is to grieve and remember and a tribute to the power of community”. The runner-up was the podcast The Quilt, an Aunt Nell Production.
Ramadan: A journey across Britain (ITV) won the Radio Times Readers’ Award. In the programme, the ITV journalist Shehab Khan discovers how Muslims manage the challenges of fasting, and come together to express their identity and spirituality.
Horrible Histories (Lion TV for CBBC) won the Sandford St Martin Special Award. The programme “has been formative in how more than a generation of young (and not so young) people have learned about worlds of the past, what people have believed and what they valued”, the Trust said, “including why there are pineapples in St Paul’s Cathedral”.
The 2025 Sandford St Martin Trustees’ Award was presented to the television director Peter Kosminsky, “in recognition of a remarkable body of work which has held up a mirror to society and spoken to the specific concerns of our nation”. He had “shown a fearless commitment to addressing the issues of the day and giving a voice to the marginalised”. Mr Kosminsky’s credits include directing the 2015 BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall about Henry VIII.
Dr Tony Stoller, who chairs the Trust, said that the awards showed “once again how rewarding it can be for both audiences and content-makers to engage with topics germane to belief or religion”.