EastEnders' night with six top soap awards

THE stars of Albert Square were the big winners last night as EastEnders emerged victorious at the annual Inside Soap awards. The long-running BBC show scooped six gongs in total at a glitzy ceremony in London, including the top prize of Best Soap and a fifth consecutive Best Actress win for Lacey Turner, who stars as Walford's Stacey Branning.

Coronation Street – soon to celebrate its 50th anniversary – landed four prizes, with Michelle Keegan awarded the gong for Sexiest Female for the second year running for her portrayal of Tina McIntyre.

Emmerdale's Danny Miller won two awards for his role as Aaron Livesy, picking up the honours for Best Actor as well as Best Dramatic Performance, for the emotional scenes in which Aaron admitted to Paddy that he was gay. But it was EastEnders' night overall, with Best Newcomer awarded to Ricky Norwood for his role as Arthur "Fatboy" Chubb and Sexiest Male going to Scott Maslen, who plays Jack Branning. Syed and Amira's nuptials were chosen as the year's Best Wedding, while Best Exit went to Charlie Clements for his character Bradley Branning's fatal plunge from the roof of the Old Vic pub while being pursued by a policeman.

For Coronation Street, Craig Gazey – who plays hapless butcher Graeme Proctor – received the Funniest Performance award. He paid tribute to last year's winner, the late Maggie Jones. "It's a great honour to follow in the footsteps of last year's winner, the incredible Maggie Jones. Thank you to everyone who voted for me. The fact it's an award from viewers is very special."

The ITV1 soap also picked up the Best Stunt gong for the gripping siege, fire and explosion at the Underworld knicker factory.

Neighbours beat Home and Away and Doctors to be named Best Daytime Soap, while one of its stars, Ryan Moloney – who has played Toadfish Rebecchi for some 15 years in the series – was awarded as Best Daytime Star.