The British Soap Awards started this evening (Saturday, June 11) on ITV. The awards show saw a range of TV soaps up for nominations the awards including Emmerdale, Eastenders, Coronation Street, Doctors, and more.
The Young Performer Award is one of the award categories for the British Soap Awards and this year, 17-year-old Coronation Street actor, Millie Gibson who plays Kelly Neelan on the soap took home the award this evening.
Emmerdale fans will know that Amelia Flanagan has taken on several bullying storylines in the ITV soap. In 2020, she was taunted for what happened to her dad Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock). And in 2021, she took on the role of portraying the victim of online bullying. In the storyline, April is being targeted by her late mother Donna Windsor (Verity Rushworth). This comes after she opened up about her experiences of grief.
During the airing of the bullying storylines, there was much online reaction praising the spotlight on the storyline and Amelia’s performance in the soap. However, some viewers expressed that they thought it was unfair that young kids, as young as 14-year-old Amelia Flanagan’s (April Windsor) and EastEnders’ Sonny Kendall (Tommy Moon) were paired in the same category as Milly who won the award.
Before the winner of the Young Performer Awards was announced, @xToniBx was rooting for Amelia as she tweeted ‘I thought Amelia but Millie is a great Actress too, she deserves it #BritishSoapAwards #SoapAwards’.
Read more: British Soap Awards 2022: Emmerdale stars who could walk away with an award
Tweeting their thoughts on the format of the Young Performer Awards, @SAPPHSUKI wrote ‘why are little kids being put in the same category as a teen may i ask #BritishSoapAwards’. Seemingly agreeing with this point, @taylor198913red penned ‘Young actor? #BritishSoapAwards ’ paired with the thinking emoji.
@JimmyFunky also wrote ‘Young? Get out. #BritishSoapAwards’. Championing Emmerdale’s Amelia Flanagan’s performance, @maitra_sulagna typed ‘April has done an amazing job.’
@megamouth_88 tweeted ‘Sorry, but Amelia deserved that! #Emmerdale #BritishSoapAwards’
The British Soap Awards is available to watch on ITV Hub following the airing of the show.
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