Hazel Irvine and Des Hamilton to receive Bafta Scotland awards

Sports broadcaster Hazel Irvine and casting director Des Hamilton are to be recognised with Outstanding Contribution awards from Bafta Scotland.

They will receive the honours at the Bafta Scotland Awards ceremony in Glasgow on Sunday November 17.

Ms Irvine, perhaps best known for fronting coverage of snooker championships and the Olympics, will receive the award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting.

Bafta Scotland said that Ms Irvine, who started her career with STV’s Scotsport in 1987, has been a leading figure in broadcasting and a trailblazer for women in sports journalism for more than 30 years.

Ms 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.”

During her career so far, Ms Irvine has presented and reported from 18 Winter and Summer Olympics, fronted golf coverage for 25 years and snooker for 23 years.

She also anchored coverage of athletics and ski racing programme, Ski Sunday, for more than a decade.

Her many other varied credits 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.

Casting director Des Hamilton will be presented with the Bafta Scotland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Craft (in memory of Robert McCann).

The award is presented to a Scottish individual who has made significant contributions to the film, games and television industries through expertise in their craft.

In television, he is perhaps most recognised for casting the Bafta-award winning series Top Boy.

Mr Hamilton’s career in casting began in 2001, after a chance meeting with director Lynne Ramsay who enlisted his help to seek out non-actors to star opposite her latest leading actress Samantha Morton in Morvern Callar.

He 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.

Mr Hamilton is particularly well known within the industry for his street-casting methods, which led him to a young Thomas Turgoose, who played the lead in Shane Meadows’ This Is England, with no prior acting experience.

His casting agency has engaged with a wide range of critically acclaimed directors such as Nicolas Winding Refn, Gaspar Noe, Andrea Arnold, Taika Waititi, Lone Scherfig and Lars Von Trier.

Commenting on the award he 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.”