National Television Awards comes to V&A Dundee for first-ever live event shortlist launch

The shortlist for the National Television Awards, watched every year by 10m people on ITV, was announced during the first-ever ‘live launch’ at V&A Dundee on Monday.

Broadcaster Dermot O’Leary unveiled this year’s nominees for the coveted ceremony during a glitzy show at the iconic new venue on the banks of the River Tay – following a live link to This Morning viewers across the UK.

X Factor star O’Leary, who was welcomed on stage by Dennis the Menace (he was also honoured with his own character in the Beano by publisher DC Thomson), said he was excited to be bringing the event out of London. In a major coup for the city, VisitScotland successfully lobbied production company Indigo Television to bring its flagship title to Dundee – and capitalise on a broadcasting trend to lure major events away from the capital.

VisitScotland’s Director of Events, Paul Bush OBE, who held a meeting in London to seal the deal on bringing the shortlist event to Dundee, said: “This is a quality venue and we’ve had people talking to us about bringing product here already. When we talked about this to Kim [Kim Turberville, Director of Indigo], she wasn’t really aware of the V&A in Dundee but when she came up to have a look at it, she was blown away.”

He added: “And the result is today has been hugely successful – it’s a major coup and another first for Scotland.”

Asked whether Scotland could play host to the actual awards, which will be hosted on Tuesday, January 22nd at the O2 in London, Bush, who was instrumental in bringing the music industry’s MOBO Awards to Glasgow, said: “Scotland has the experience and facilities to host an event like the National Television Awards and if the opportunity arose to bring the event to Scotland we would be interested.”

Among such venues which would have the capacity would be the Hydro in Glasgow and the soon-to-be unveiled 12,500-seater TECA arena in Aberdeen.

“It’s down to aspiration, commitment, a bit of vision and bravery. It’s exciting to have two venues in same country not that far apart. What it means is that it gives you another opportunity,” said Bush.

As for V&A Dundee, Bush said he was excited about the prospect for its versatility to be deployed as a major venue for events in the coming years and that there was also an opportunity for the venue to attract rotating international museum shows. He said: “This is not just a museum; it’s a venue that we can utilise for other events – it’s a fantastic space. Music, opera, launches, films, you name it. Philip Long [Director of V&A Dundee] is hugely ambitious and was very up for doing this, which is great.”

However, despite Scotland’s well-established credentials over the past few years in hosting major events, Bush hinted that there will be some difficult funding decisions in the months ahead. “Sadly with the reducing public investment there will be some difficult decisions, as there always is. But overall I think the landscape is still rosy and positive.”

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