Pride of Britain Awards

2001 Winner David Marks and Julia Barfield The London Eye, the giant wheel on London’s South Bank, is universally acknowledged as a Great British triumph, an amazing engineering feat which is a magnet for tens of thousands of tourists. But it only exists because of the determination of husband and wife architecture team David Marks […]

2001 Winner Sara and Michael Payne The parents of murdered eight-year-old Sarah Payne touched the hearts of the nation with their quiet dignity and refusal to give in to despair and bitterness in the face of the unimaginable agony of losing a daughter. They forced all of us to face and debate one of the […]

2001 Winner Sir Steve Redgrave Steve Redgrave is a sporting giant, his fifth gold medal at the Sydney Olympics making him Britain’s greatest Olympian. Not bad for someone who left Great Marlow School, Buckinghamshire, at 16 with only a single qualification – in woodwork. Luckily, Steve and rowing discovered each other. Tall, immensely strong and […]

2001 Winner Carla Lane For years, writer Carla Lane was TV’s undisputed sitcom queen.  But Carla’s heart was always with the animals she loved and whose suffering she could not ignore. Over the past 15 years, she has poured her time and money into caring for animals with a passion that has made her an […]

2001 Winner Brian Krishnan A raging fire in a house would terrify anyone. But it holds a particular fear for Brian Krishnan. Twenty five years ago, flames ripped through Brian’s childhood home. Brian, then aged five, survived, carried to safety by his father. But his four-year-old sister Gillian died in the blaze and the 31-year-old […]

2001 Winner Michael O’Leary Licenced taxi driver Michael O’Leary was making a routine trip to Heathrow Airport when he spotted a car swerving across the M4 motorway on a deadly collision course with motorists in the fast lane. The 67-year-old father-of-six, of Willesden, London, had watched the blue Vauxhall Cavalier crawl off the hard shoulder […]