Pulling scoops South Bank Award

Sitcom triumphs over Gavin & Stacey

Axed BBC Three sitcom Pulling has been named best comedy award at the South Bank Show Awards.

Writer and star Sharon Horgan collected the prize at London's Dorchester Hotel on Tuesday, triumphing over fellow nominees Gavin & Stacey and Michael McIntyre

Despite critical acclaim , Pulling has been dropped from BBC Three’s schedules after two series, bowing out with an hour-long special soon.

It’s thought that the programme wasn’t recommissioned because its subject matter - thirtysomething women desperately trying to cling on to their hard-living youth youth – does not fit with the channel’s increasingly youthful target audience.

Stand-up Rhod Gilbert failed to take the South Bank Awards’ breakthrough title - which is voted on by readers of The Times newspaper – despite being nominated as the comedian who had made the biggest impact in the past 12 month.

Dancer Aaron Sillis beat him to the prize, for his starring role in a new version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The awards, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, will be screened on ITV1 next Wednesday.

Published: 21 Jan 2009

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