Emmerdale actor Mark Charnock won the award for best Serial Drama after a surprise message of support from King Charles III.
The ITV soap will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in just a few days and ahead of their milestone NTA presenter Joel surprised the case with a message from the King.
In a lengthy pre-recorded clip, King Charles spoke about how Important the ITV soap was and praised show bosses for keeping it similar to the original after all these years.
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He said: “I’m delighted to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Emmerdale. I’m afraid that I’m so old I can't remember when it was called Emmerdale Farm.”
Right after the sweet message it was not time to crown the winner for best Serial Drama, which was presenters by Love Island’s Gemma and her footballer dad Michael Owen.
The stars up for the award was, Gillian Wright as Jean Slater on EastEnders, Rose Ayling-Ellis as Frankie Lewis on EastEnders, Mark Charnock as Marlon Dingle Emmerdale and Paige Sandhu as Meena Jutla on Emmerdale.
Actor Mark ended up walking away with the award after his emotional stroke storyline. During his acceptance speech he thanked everyone at Emmerdale for trusting him with such a powerful storyline.
He said: “It’s been an important journey raising awareness, I just want to thank the public because I didn’t think I had any chance of winning. The fact that people were sharing their stories is amazing.”
Viewers were pleased to see the Emmerdale star walk away with the award @sunkisscribbles Tweeted: “I'm so pleased @markcharnock won an #NTA for his portrayal of Marlon Dingle. I've been saying he should win all the awards since this storyline started! Congratulations Mark.”
@Mofoman360 said: “Congratulations Mark Charnock his portrayal as a stroke victim is astonishing and this award is well deserved and everyone remembers FAST.”
@BrettHadley42 wrote: “Mark Charnock looked SO shocked but he TOTALLY deserves that #NTA award. Totally.” While @ruthabram added: “@markcharnock Well Done Mark x fabulous win #NTA.”
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