Stirling students secure success in top television awards

University of Stirling students are celebrating after being recognised at a leading UK television awards ceremony.

Maria Craig, Josefin Dahlin, Hannah McKelvie and Joel Rock won in the ‘undergraduate factual’ category of the Royal Television Society Student Television Awards 2018.

Dario Sinforiani, Head of Production Teaching in Stirling’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities, welcomed the result, which was announced at the BFI Southbank in London.

He said: “Stirling has a strong track record in production, having picked up 10 Scottish national awards for factual work in the past five years.

“Importantly, this prize means that the production team of Maria, Josefin, Hannah and Joel made the best undergraduate documentary in the UK last year – a fantastic achievement and beating off competition from a host of prestigious institutions.”

The students were recognised for their piece, Hear Me Now, which judges described as “featuring fantastic insight into a very sensitive and moving story”. They added: “The jury didn’t know about the world that this film beautifully told.”

The students describe their item as follows: “Set in idyllic rural Wales, the gothic Craig-Y-Nos Castle is a building with a dark secret past.

“From the 1920s until the late 1950s, Craig-Y-Nos was a sanatorium for Welsh children suffering from tuberculosis. Many of these children spent years in the castle, separated from family and friends, and subjected to regimes that seem barbaric today.

“In this powerful and moving documentary, some of the TB patients return to Craig-Y-Nos and relive the memories of their childhood.”

The RTS say the awards – which are chaired by Director of Sky Arts, Philip Edgar-Jones – “recognise student television work, produced during the 2016/2017 academic year, that shows outstanding visual and aural creativity, a mastery of craft skills, innovation, initiative and story-telling”. They add: “Judges will look in particular for freshness, originality and audience appeal within the constraints of the law and broadcasting practice.”