Channel 4 sweeps Grierson documentary awards

Educating Yorkshire won a National TV Award earlier this year

Channel 4's Educating Yorkshire and The Murder Trial were among the winners of this year's Grierson British Documentary Awards.

The channel picked up eight out of a possible 13 awards at Monday's ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank.

Also among its haul was Liz Mackean's Dispatches programme, Hunted, about the persecution of gay people in Russia.

The BBC won two prizes, including best historical documentary.

That award was given to BBC Two's The Iraq War: Regime Change.

And BBC Four won best art documentary for Colin Davis in His Own Words, a tribute to the late conductor who died in 2013.

Channel 4 also won best presenter for Rupert Everett's Love for Sale, looking at why people buy and sell sex, best international contemporary documentary for Dispatches: Children on the Frontline and best entertaining documentary for Our Gay Wedding: The Musical.

'Alive and kicking'

It was also honoured for Last Chance School, which collected the new documentary award. The programme followed pupils at an academy for boys who had been excluded from school.

Educating Yorkshire, which follows the lives of staff and pupils at a secondary school in Dewsbury, was a double winner, also picking up the Radio Times Readers' Choice award.

Lorraine Heggessey, chairman of The Grierson Trust, said: "Watching this year's entries is a fabulous reminder of how the documentary is alive and kicking in this digital age - there are funny, uplifting and moving films alongside those that pack a punch and expose the darker underbelly of our society.

"The richness of the human condition and the complexities of 21st century life are celebrated and scrutinised."

Hosted by TV presenter and comedian Sue Perkins, the ceremony can be seen on Sky Atlantic HD on Friday 7 November.