BSAs 2009: The Debrief

So these awards that went on last night...

Yep, the eleventh annual British Soap Awards were held at the traditional venue of BBC Television Centre in London and it turned out to be quite a night.

After rolling up at 4pm, we were eventually escorted to the arrivals area to prepare for what can only be described as the pandemonium that followed. This year's red carpet arrivals were the most hectic yet.

The Hollyoaks cast began showing up at around 5.30pm in, to begin with, a mostly calm and collected manner. A few Emmerdale and Doctors stars soon began filtering through and within about 45 minutes, all hell broke loose as the entire casts of EastEnders and Coronation Street piled down in force. A special thanks to James Fiddy for taking time out of his weekend to operate the camera.

Luckily, I managed to avoid being targeted by a pooing pigeon this year, too, which was a bonus.

The highlight of the red carpet probably has to be the late arrival of the legendary June Brown. She ended up running around like a headless chicken backwards and forwards between fans and the press. The reason she was late? Apparently her beady dress fell to pieces on her way out of the door, so she wound up wearing a black and white two-piece number, which in her words made her "look more like she was going to the theatre".

Bedlam finally over, I headed straight into the ceremony and on the way, managed to trip over in the corridor in front of Corrie's entire Windass clan. Everything was going so well.

Filming for the awards began at around 8pm and lasted around an hour-and-a-half, during which the likes of Sir Alan's aide Nick Hewer, funnyman Lee Mack and Neighbours' Stefan Dennis made guest appearances as award presenters.

EastEnders bagged seven gongs to Corrie's six, while Doctors found themselves back on the winners' rostrum and celebrated with three awards. Emmerdale managed just one. Quite surprisingly, Hollyoaks didn't manage to pick up a single trophy, despite being nominated in every category.

Not to taint Doctors' trio of wins in any way - Vivien's rape storyline was excellent and was extremely worthy of the awards - but I can't help thinking that EastEnders' paedophile plot wasn't given the credit it deserved.

And finally, here are just a few things I picked up along the way:
§ The only two recent EastEnders cast members who are who they say they are on Twitter are Adam Woodyatt and Rob Kazinsky. Madeline Duggan and Melissa Suffield are imposters.
§ Emma Rigby's (Hannah Ashworth) definitely leaving Hollyoaks at the back-end of this year.
§ There's a huge storyline coming up for Syed in EastEnders, but more on that soon.
§ Kat Kelly can't wait for Steve and Becky's 'much bigger and much better' wedding...
§ There's a new family headed for Emmerdale as part of the show's reinvention.
§ Larry Lamb's just returned to filming with EastEnders.
§ Nandos-loving Chris Fountain hinted that a Hollyoaks Later stint could be on the cards...
§ Anna Karen will be making a welcome return as Walford's Aunt Sal within the next couple of months.
§ Barry Sloane suggested that his Hollyoaks character Niall Rafferty might not be dead. I think he may have been joking, though. Could he really have survived that fall?
§ Glen Wallace is sticking around for a fair bit longer in Hollyoaks, but won't be appearing in this year's Later edition.
§ Apparently there's quite a big Beale storyline in the pipeline in EastEnders.
§ September's going to be a huge month for Hollyoaks. Four weeks of 'fantastic material' which includes Hollyoaks Later.

Don't forget you can watch the ceremony on Wednesday evening at 8pm on ITV1.

Check back from tomorrow to see our red carpet videos from the event.

Why do you think Hollyoaks didn't do as well as last year? Are you pleased with this year's outcome? Did you agree with the panel-chosen winners? Let me know your views by using the usual form below!