BREAKING NEWSTrust me, nothing has changed: Postmistress accuses Government of failing to pay back victims of Horizion IT scandal in blistering attack as Sir Alan Bates drama wins at National Television Awards

A postmistress has accused the government of failing to pay back victims of the Horizon IT scandal in a new attack as Sir Alan Batess drama won the National Television awards.    

Toby Jones secured the best drama performance gong at the NTA for his role in Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

The ITV drama helped renew attention to the subpostmasters who were wrongly prosecuted during the Horizon scandal.

Jones portrayed former subpostmaster Sir Alan Bates, one of more than 550 claimants who have brought legal action against the Post Office.

Collecting his gong during the annual awards ceremony at The O2 in London on Wednesday evening, the actor said: This means an awful lot, not just to me but to the extraordinary people who inspired our show.

He also used the opportunity to congratulate the real Sir Alan on his recent marriage to his partner Suzanne Sercombe and hailed the drama as an extraordinary project to work on.

The four-part miniseries, which shone a light on the issue, is also nominated for the new drama prize alongside Netflix hit Baby Reindeer, romantic drama One Day and thrillers Fool Me Once and Red Eye.

Stacey Solomon picked up the first prize of the night for her reality show Sort Your Life Out.

It beat Clarksons Farm, Gogglebox, The Martin Lewis Money Show Live and The Yorkshire Vet in the factual entertainment category.

TV presenter Solomon thanked the families who opened up their homes and hearts to her for the show as she collected the prize.

Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly kicked off what could be another successful night by picking up the Bruce Forsyth entertainment award for reality series Im A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.

Later in the show, Good Morning Britain star Kate Garraway will be hoping to secure a hat-trick in the best authored documentary category as she has been nominated for the prize again, this time for Kate Garraway: Dereks Story.

Ahead of the ceremony, Garraway said it is sad her late husband Derek Draper could not see her nominated for another NTA for a documentary about his health issues.

Speaking from the red carpet, she told the PA news agency: The comments Ive had and the emails and the letters have been so wonderful, and so obviously its been very sad in a way, because youd love him to be here, or even if he wasnt well enough to be actually here then to be going home to tell him all about it.

But on the other hand, he will be so happy, I think that the issues that he wanted raised are being raised and so hopefully thats good.

Garraway said he would have been very proud of these two, referring to their children Darcey and Billy, who get very shy at these things but wanted to come.

She added that it is wonderful to have the Draper gang.

The programme followed the final year of Drapers life, before he died in January aged 56, after a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.

It follows on from two other programmes about his battle with Covid and her struggles navigating the care system, which both picked up NTA gongs in the category in 2021 and 2022.

Garraway thought it was very unlikely she would win against also shortlisted former England captain David Beckham and pop star Robbie Williams, who both made Netflix documentaries.

Contestants from the most recent season of The Traitors were hopeful for a win in their reality competition category, with disability model Mollie Pearce telling PA: My mums a hairdresser. Shes been getting all her customers to vote.

Asked what it was about the show that drew such an avid audience, Pearce said: I think its just because everyones very normal and its all kinds of people, from walks of life, different places and youre just thrown into this situation together.

Its like fighting to the death.

Fellow contestant Diane Carson added: It was so obviously not scripted.

It was just human interaction.

The National Television Awards continue on ITV.