The film community has the Oscars; the muso's have the Grammys; and British telly has...the ITV National Television Awards.
This year is the tenth anniversary of the awards and ITV are pulling out all the stops for tonight's ceremony. They've got Sir Trevor McDonald to host (again) because, the website informs us, he "relishes the challenge of pulling together an unpredictable ceremony where anything can happen - and usually does"; and this year he's being helped out by Tania Strecker and Andy Goldstein (we have no idea who those people are).
But, as usual, the big story is who will win in the Cockney Vs Manc', battle of the soaps.
ITV's Coronation Street and BBC's Eastenders feature in most of the 12 categories, but the most heated contests will be the Most Popular Actress category (Suranne Jones and Tina O'Brien from Corrie take on Jessie Wallace) and the Most Popular Actor section (Shane Ritchie and Nigel Harman go up against the Street's Bruno Langley).
We hate to say it but Londonist's money is on the northerners, and not just because they're on ITV. With the 'Enders ratings problem this past year they're going to need a miracle of Judy Finnegan's bra proportions if they want to scoop any of those strangely phallic statuettes.
On a side note, if you've never visited the Trevor McDonald fan site you should. The fan art page alone is worth the trip.
