\'EastEnders\' has been awarded a prize for its Pride episode earlier this year.
The BBC One soap has been recognised for its LGBTQ+ representation after airing a special episode which saw character Callum \'Halfway\' Highway - played by Tony Clay - battle with his own sexuality, and Bernadette Taylor (Clair Norris) embrace hers.
Accepting the Pink News Drama Award at the ceremony, Pete Lawson, who penned the episode, said: "35 years ago \'EastEnders\' started and I was 15, and there were no LGBT people on TV.
"I would have loved to have seen the life that was out there waiting for me. If you told me then that 35 years later I would have been here with this amazing show, I would have been amazed.
"It would have made me very, very happy. As a show we had the first gay kiss, the first gay Muslims, we had the first trans character, and this year we wanted to tell the story of Pride.
"We wanted to show a day in the lives of our community that for so many of us is important, for so many of us it\'s a time when we first stood somewhere with hundreds and thousands of people and said, \'These are my people, this is my family, this is where I belong.\' "
\'EastEnders\' saw off competition from \'Butterfly\', \'Pose\', \'Gentleman Jack\', and \'Sex Education\' for the Drama prize, which is awarded to a series for its LGBTQ+ representation.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn praised the soap before he presented the gong.
He said: "They educate, entertain and inform in the great traditions of that institution."
\'EastEnders\' show boss Kate Oates recently said she hopes a same-sex kiss in a "mainstream soap" will receive "zero complaints" one day.
She said: "I\'m looking forward to the day when a same-sex kiss can be shown on a mainstream soap and the duty log receives zero complaints - because then we\'ll be in a much better place as a society."
