THE British Soap Awards returned to screens last night after having been mysteriously axed in 2024.
The ceremony, screened on ITV, was dominated by EastEnders who picked up a total of eight awards, including the prestigious Best British Soap.
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Jane McDonald was back to host the Soap AwardsCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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EastEnders legend Patsy Palmer gave a memorable speechCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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Soap legend Denise Welch had an unaired blunderCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Jane McDonald was back in the hosting seat having taken over from axed TV star Phillip Schofield in 2023 and the night appeared to go off without a hitch.
However, The Sun can exclusively reveal a number of moments which were pulled from ITV’s final broadcast – including a series of faux pas’ from former soap stars as well as heavily edited speeches from Jaime Winstone and Patsy Palmer.
One moment that failed to make it to air involved former soap star Jan Pearson, who played Karen Hollins in now axed BBC soap Doctors.
She made a triumphant comeback on the Soap Awards stage to present the gong for Best On-Screen Partnership.
Jan, along with co-star Chris Walker, handed the gong to EastEnders duo Rudolph Walker and Angela Wynter.
However, she was forced to read out the nominations a total of THREE times.
And whilst one audience mole suggested on X the re-records took place as a result of the loud cheers for Corrie pair Vicky Myers and Alison King, The Sun can reveal an entirely different reason was behind the triple taping.
Actress Jan suffered an on-stage coughing fit which saw her struggle to read out the names of the nominees.
She gave it three goes but was affected by her tickly throat each time.
The second and third attempts were both filmed AFTER the gong had already been handed over – with the audience already aware of exactly who had won.
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Elsewhere, whilst hostess Jane was on top form for most of the evening, there were a handful of occasions where she was forced to do a series of re-takes despite the ceremony supposedly filming as live.
One audience member told The Sun: “The warm-up guy made it clear from the start that they were recording the ceremony as live and so everyone had to be on their best behaviour.
“It also put a lot of pressure on Jane as she was expected to rattle through her hosting duties without a hitch but with so many links to record, she was bound to mess up on a few of them.”
Getting flustered
Just moments after the show kicked off, Jane was forced to re-record one of her links about hunky Coronation Street star Jacob Roberts.
The actor, who plays lothario copper PC Kit Green, caught Jane’s eye and she was quick to make a joke about his good looks.
However, she tripped up over her own words and was left red-faced as she admitted she had become too flustered thinking about Jacob.
The audience erupted into laughter as Jane attempted to brush off her hilarious mishap and instead re-told her joke just seconds into the event.
The moment left Jacob looking down at the ground after unexpectedly becoming the centre of attention.
‘Live’ re-takes
Someone else who suffered an embarrassing blunder was awards presenter Denise Welch.
She was also forced into re-filming her entire segment after a blunder with her very own CHEE (Corrie, Hollyoaks, EastEnders & Emmerdale) award.
As part of a skit, Denise was handed a joke prize by Shirlie Kemp to mark her achievement of having played roles in all four major soaps.
The trophy was made out of items connected to each of the four soaps, but Denise held her prize back to front meaning the audience and cameras could not see what she was referring too.
Just before handing out the award for Best Newcomer, Denise was halted by bosses and instructed to re-do the entire segment again and have the trophy facing the crowd.
British Soap Awards 2025: Winners List
Here’s who took home trophys at the 2025 British Soap Awards
Best Single Episode – Eastenders: Phil’s Psychosis: The Mitchells In 1985
Best Young Performer – Emmerdale – Amelia Flanagan as April Windsor
Scene Of The Year – Eastenders: Angie Watts’ Shock Return
Best Newcomer – Hollyoaks: Isabelle Smith as Frankie Osborne
Villain Of The Year – Eastenders: Navin Chowdhry as Nish Panesar
Best Family – Hollyoaks: The Osbornes
Best Dramatic Performance – Eastenders: Steve McFadden as Phil
Mitchell
Best On-Screen Partnership – Eastenders: Rudolph Walker & Angela
Wynter as Patrick & Yolande Trueman
Outstanding Achievement Award – Coronation Street: David Neilson
Best Comedy Performance – Eastenders: Patsy Palmer as Bianca Jackson
The Tony Warren Award – Emmerdale: Mike Plant
Best Storyline – Hollyoaks: Sibling Sexual Abuse
Best Leading Performer – Eastenders: Lacey Turner as Stacey Slater
Best British Soap – Eastenders
One onlooker told The Sun: “Denise was referring to the trophy being connected to all four soaps but no one could see anything.
“It led to a lot of blank and unimpressed expressions on the soap stars faces when the cameras cut to a close-up hoping to get a hilarious reaction from them.
“It fell a bit flat but Denise was able to pick the mood back up when she was told of her error.”
During the ITV broadcast, clever camera trickery saw the award facing the correct way as Denise gave her speech.
Moreover, TWO star speeches were drastically cut down.
Actress Jaime Winstone delivered a whopping five-minute speech that had to be edited down to less than a minute after she accepted the gong for the first award of the night for Best Single Episode.
The star did not mince her words as she spoke about the honour of being part of the special episodes set in 1985 but less than half of it made it into the final edit.
Patsy Palmer also saw some editing after she made a slew of vulgar jokes after accepting the award for Best Comedy Performance.
