The Fades: fantasy drama dumped by BBC wins coveted RTS awards

Jack Thorne’s acclaimed science-fantasy drama series – which was cancelled by the BBC earlier this year – has secured two more prestigious television-industry awards.

The Fades secured the Effects Digital Award and the Music Original Title Award, at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Craft & Design Awards on Monday evening. For the Effects Digital Award, the judges said, “On a tight schedule and a tight budget, the winning programme was well executed and imagined. The end result made the programme stand out against others with similar aspirations.” The series was up for a third gong – Make Up Design Drama – but lost out to Appropriate Adult, the ITV Studios drama that starred Dominic West (The Hour), which was based on the British serial killer, Fred West. The Fades was a BBC Productions/BBC America co-production, created and written by Jack Thorne (The Scouting Book for Boys) for BBC Three. Its producer, Caroline Skinner has since moved on to become an executive producer on the BBC’s flagship science-fiction drama series Doctor Who. However, despite being well received by viewers and winning a BAFTA award for Best Drama Series, The Fades was cancelled earlier this year by the controller of BBC Three, Zai Bennett. Among its stars were Iain De Caestecker (The Secret of Crickley Hall) and Daniel Kaluuya (Psychoville), who played best friends Paul and Mac. Last Christmas, De Caestecker played James Herriot in Young Herriot, the prequel series to All Creatures Great and Small. Kaluuya, 23, has just been cast in the movie Kick-Ass 2, the sequel to 2010’s Kick-Ass, which starred Aaron Johnston. In total, the RTS presented awards in 22 separate categories. A number of awards were presented for the London 2012 Olympics. Danny Boyle and his team received the “Innovation Award” for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony; BBC Sport bagged the “Judges’ Award” for its TV coverage of the Games; and Passion Pictures and Red Bee Media took home the “Graphic Design Trails & Packaging Award” for the BBC 2012 creative trail it put together to promote the event. Other winners included Paul Staples and Annie Symons. Staples won the Effects Picture Enhancement Award for White Heat, the BBC Two Paula Milne-scripted drama series set over five decades. Symons, meanwhile, picked up the Costume Design Drama Award for the 2011 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, which starred Douglas Booth (Christopher and His Kind) and Gillian Anderson (The X Files).