A pioneering Scottish sports presenter is to receive a special BAFTA Scotland award which recognises groundbreaking coverage stretching back almost 40 years.
Hazel Irvine, 59, started out on Radio Clyde in 1986 and STV’s Scotsport the following year.
She is best known for coverage of Snooker Championships and the Olympics, having become one of Scotland’s first female sports TV presenters in the country.
In 1998 she presented ITV’s Olympics coverage with Dickie Davies.
The St Andrews born broadcaster will receive the BAFTA Scotland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, one of BAFTA Scotland’s highest honours.
Irvine has presented and reported from 18 Winter and Summer Olympics, fronted golf coverage for 25 years, snooker for 23 years and also anchored coverage of athletics and ski racing programme, Ski Sunday, for over a decade.
Her credits also 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.
She has guided viewers through Olympic Opening and Closing ceremonies, since 2006, while an estimated 28 million people listened to her commentary throughout London’s historic Opening ceremony in 2012.
More recently, she has struck up a partnership in the commentary box with Andrew Cotter, with whom Hazel has also worked on golf coverage.
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.”
Casting Director, Des Hamilton, who has over 20 years of experience in film and television, 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.
Hamilton’s career in casting began in 2001, after a chance meeting with director Lynne Ramsay.
She enlisted the help of Hamilton to seek out non-actors to star opposite her latest leading actress Samantha Morton in the 2002 film Morvern Callar.
Hamilton discovered Kathleen McDermott in Glasgow’s city centre, with McDermott going on to be recognised with a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actress in a Feature Film.
In television, Hamilton is perhaps most recognised for casting the BAFTA-award winning Top Boy. This achievement earned him the very first BAFTA TV Award for Scripted Casting in 2020.
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!”
In August 2024, BAFTA Scotland presented a BAFTA Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film to producer, writer, curator and film festival director Lynda Myles at a special event during Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The BAFTA Scotland Awards 2024 will take place on Sunday, November 17 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central.
Other awards include a public vote for the favourite Scot in which Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd, Dr Who’s Ncuti Gatwa, David Tennant, Ashley Storrie, Blue Peter’s Abby Cook and Slow Horses star Jack Bowden are shortlisted.
The BAFTA Scotland Awards operate on a not-for-profit basis and tickets for the ceremony are available to buy at events.bafta.org now.
The ceremony will be live streamed for those unable to attend here, with an edited highlights programme broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer on Wednesday, November 20.
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