Pride of Britain Awards

2001 Winner Lifetime Achievement – Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International When Peter Benenson opened his newspaper on his way to work one morning in late 1960, he had no idea he was about to change the world for ever. His eye was caught by a small item about two Portuguese students being sentenced to […]

2001 Winner Ellen MacArthur At the age of four, Ellen MacArthur began messing around in boats with her aunt. By the time she was eight, she could navigate her little sail boat down the local river and was showing all the signs of becoming a talented natural yachtswoman. But no-one could ever have suspected that […]

2001 Winner Tanni Grey-Thompson A whole new generation of British athletes were inspired by the extraordinary sporting feats of Tanni Grey-Thompson. And she did it all from the confines of a wheelchair. Tanni, 31, won a record-breaking four gold medals at Sydney 2000 Paralympics, beating the world’s best disabled track racers at 100, 200, 400 […]

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 […]