Casualty wins Best Soap in RTS Awards shock as Danny Dyer takes home gong and Claudia Winkleman gets prestigious honour

MEDICAL drama Casualty delivered a shock win over its soap competitors as it managed to win the top gong at last night's Royal Television Society Awards.

The BBC programme was awarded Best Soap and Continuing Drama in a surprise result as it beat off competition from fellow BBC show EastEnders and Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.

The ITV soaps were famously snubbed at being nominated once again this year with Emmerdale failing to receive a nod in eight years.

Casualty found out it won the top gong at a prestigious ceremony last night at London’s JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel.

Comedian and Cooking with the Stars host Tom Allen delivered the results in front of a packed out crowd filled with telly favourites.

But it wasn't technically all doom and gloom for the snubbed soap EastEnders.

Their former star Danny Dyer managed to win an award for his performance in the acclaimed Disney+ series, Rivals.

He won the Best Supporting Actor award beating off competition from Sonny Walker in Channel 4's The Gathering as well as McKinley Belcher III in Netflix show Eric.

Baby Reindeer actress Jessica Gunning took home the female equivalent gong thanks to her role in the runaway Netflix hit of last year, understood to be inspired by Fiona Harvey.

Elsewhere, Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors star Claudia Winkleman was handed a special honour at the industry bash.

Claudia picked up this year's Outstanding Achievement Award after delivering another impeccable year in TV thanks to the two aforementioned shows as well as her role in Channel 4's The Piano.

Other winners include Boarders actor Josh Tedeku who collected the Breakthrough Award for his performance in the BBC comedy as well as The Traitors taking home the prize for Entertainement beating Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and RuPaul‘s Drag Race UK.

Actress and comedian Lucia Keskin also proved triumphant over her rival Joanna Page as her sitcom, Things I Should Have Done, delivered a shock win over Gavin and Stacey: The Finale for Scripted Comedy.

Lucia and Joanna were locked in a surprise feud after Joanna took aim at the budding comedian and slated the sitcom on her Off The Telly podcast.

Joanna scathed that the programme should never have been made and insinuated it was unwatchable, leading to a huge backlash, including from her own co-star Matthew Horne who just days later went on to very publicly praise Lucia and her talents.