Sports broadcasting legend Hazel Irvine, and the casting director behind Top Boy, Des Hamilton, will receive BAFTA Special Awards at the BAFTA Scotland Awards ceremony on Sunday 17 November.
Today, BAFTA Scotland has revealed the Special Award recipients for this year’s BAFTA Scotland Awards.
The BAFTA Scotland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, one of BAFTA Scotland’s highest honours, will be presented to Hazel Irvine, a sports broadcasting legend who is best known for fronting coverage of Snooker Championships and the Olympics.
As one of the very first female sports presenters in the country, starting her career with STV’s Scotsport in 1987, Hazel has been a leading figure in broadcasting and a trailblazer for women in sports journalism for over 30 years.
To date, Hazel Irvine has presented and reported from 18 Winter and Summer Olympics, fronted golf coverage for 25 years, snooker for 23 years and also anchored coverage of athletics and ski racing programme, Ski Sunday, for over a decade. Her many varied credits also include four World Cup Finals, the London Marathon, Grandstand, the Boat Race, Wimbledon, Final Score and Channel 4's pioneering women's football programmes in the late 1980s.
Hazel has been at the heart of athletics’ biggest world stage, guiding viewers through Olympic Opening and Closing ceremonies, since 2006. An estimated 28 million people listened to her commentary throughout London's historic Opening ceremony in 2012. More recently, she has struck up a partnership in the commentary box with Andrew Cotter, with whom Hazel has also worked on golf coverage for many years.
Hazel led BAFTA-award winning BBC athletics coverage in 2009. She was also an Executive Producer for IMG Productions Scotland, and served as EP on Glasgow '67; The Lisbon Lions, which won Single Documentary at the BAFTA Scotland Awards in 2017. Irvine also presented the BAFTA Scotland Awards in 2014.
Hazel Irvine said: “I feel overwhelmed and honoured to join the list of Scottish actors, presenters, writers, directors, producers and “Doctor Who’s” who have received this award over the last two decades. I have admired and looked up to these individuals for much of my life. Thank you to BAFTA Scotland for such an amazing and unexpected honour.”
Casting Director, Des Hamilton will be presented with the BAFTA Scotland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Craft (in memory of Robert McCann). This award is presented to a Scottish individual who has made significant contributions to the film, games and television industries through expertise in their craft.
Des Hamilton is a Casting Director with over 20 years of experience in film and television.
Hamilton’s career in casting began in 2001, after a chance meeting with director Lynne Ramsay. She enlisted the help of Hamilton to seek out non-actors to star opposite her latest leading actress Samantha Morton in Morvern Callar. Des discovered Kathleen McDermott in Glasgow city centre, with McDermott going on to be recognised with a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actress in a Feature Film.
Des is particularly well known within the industry for his street-casting methods. It was this method that led him to a young Thomas Turgoose, who shone as the lead in Shane Meadows’ This Is England, with no prior acting experience.
In addition to his notable work with Ramsay and Meadows, his casting agency has engaged with a broad range of critically acclaimed directors such as Nicolas Winding Refn, Gaspar Noe, Andrea Arnold, Taika Waititi, Lone Scherfig and Lars Von Trier.
In television, Hamilton is perhaps most recognised for casting the BAFTA-award winning Top Boy. This achievement earned him the very first BAFTA TV Award for Scripted Casting in 2020.
Des Hamilton, said: “Ultimately- I'm flattered. It's not natural for me to think about stuff like this. I’m proud that the work myself and my team do is being recognised by BAFTA and BAFTA Scotland, and that the work I’ve done has made my mum very happy!”
In August 2024, BAFTA Scotland presented a BAFTA Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film to producer, writer, curator and film festival director Lynda Myles at a special event during Edinburgh International Film Festival, with more information available here.
The BAFTA Scotland Awards 2024 will take place on Sunday 17 November at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central.
Event sponsors and partners have been confirmed as BBC Scotland, Champagne Taittinger, Channel 4, Deloitte, EE, Hildon Mineral Water, Johnnie Walker Princes Street, Lancôme, Screen Scotland, STV and Villa Maria.
The BAFTA Scotland Awards operate on a not-for-profit basis and tickets for the ceremony are available to buy at events.bafta.org now. The ceremony will be live streamed for those unable to attend at https://www.youtube.com/bafta, with an edited highlights programme broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer on Wednesday 20 November.