The Soap Awards are always a great occasion and I’m sure that everyone working at Coronation Street will be very happy with their Best British Soap win at this year’s awards.
Perhaps the most deserved award of the all though went to a man called Colin Murtagh, a man who has actually worked on Coronation Street as well as a host of other TV programs. He was the first ever winner of PlayOJO’s soap extra award beating off some great competition in the process.
His services to the entertainment history have been rewarded for a career of working in the background. His award was recognition to all of the extras that we’ve ever had on television. Colin has found himself in the past as a member of the police and has been a humble servant to Weatherfield Central Police station as well as many others.
He has made a career out of pretending to be a policeman and had played such roles in Holby City, Casualty and Hollyoaks to go with his appearances on Coronation Street. His expertise at playing a policeman has led him to over 20 different roles in uniform.
He has not just appeared in the soaps either as he has also played the part in the likes of Keeping Faith and Bulletproof. Coronation Steet’s Anthony Cotton personally gave the award to Colin and said “I see every day the level of enthusiasm and hard work supporting artists bring to the set, so I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to acknowledge them for the great work they do.” which just shows the level of respect the main actors have for the extras around them.
The award created by PlayOJO was driven through a vote on Facebook where Colin’s fans and friends voted in numbers to make sure that he claimed a much deserved reward for a career of quietly doing his job in the background without stealing the attention from the main stars.
There were many great candidates for the role and hopefully the award will continue so the likes of Colin can continue to receive the recognition that they deserve for the hard work that they put in. Some of these extras have been working on these shows such as the ‘corrie couple’ who have been on the show for an incredible 41 years.
There was also Winston the Market Trader who has been on Eastenders since 1986, a nurse who had been in some of Hollyoaks’ biggest storylines and one of the dedicated workers at Underworld in Coronation Street. All would have been worthy winners, but as we all know, there can only be one winner at the end of the day.
That winner was Colin Murtagh who has been busy keeping the soap streets clean with his police work over the years. We wonder how many more roles he’ll serve as a humble policeman before he hangs his police hat up for the last time.
It was great to see the extra get recognition for their hard work and hopefully the award will continue to recognise the work of people who are meant to go unnoticed, but play such a vital role in our favourite soaps.
