David Bowie gets posthumous gong at South Bank Sky Arts Awards

David Bowie has been honoured with a posthumous award for his final album Blackstar.

His 25th studio album won the Pop Music category at The South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

Iggy Pop accepted the gong on his late friend’s behalf, with a touching video message recorded from his US home.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, tipped to take over from Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who, won the comedy category for Fleabag.

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child scooped the theatre gong, which was presented by Bond director Sam Mendes.

Happy Valley, starring Sarah Lancashire, beat off competition from The Crown to win best TV drama.

“He has written tunes which will stay in people’s hearts forever, generation after generation,” she said.

Sir Cameron Mackintosh called his former collaborator “the biggest catalyst in the musical world in my lifetime”, and paid tribute to his ability to make “a great piece of theatre” out of the “most unlikely subject”.

The award came as Lord Lloyd Webber suggested to The Observer that he was saddened to see British musicals overshadowed by US shows.

“America is pretty much back to where it was now. Nearly all the 14 new musicals that opened on Broadway last year were American,” he said. “We had a great moment here in the 1980s, but whatever I started back then has not really got to where I hoped it would.”

Pop paid tribute to Bowie, saying that the late star changed “the game in rock and roll and in popular music”, but was also a fan of The South Bank Show.

“Later, producer Tony Visconti brought over a big load of the… shows which we would watch to interrupt the hilarity of the Monty Python stuff,” he said.

The English National Ballet’s production of Giselle and Rose Tremain’s book The Gustav Sonata also picked up awards.

The ceremony took place at London’s Savoy Hotel, with performances from classical violinist Tasmin Little and opera tenor Lawrence Brownlee.

“The arts have defied gravity in this country for decades, and now they are more powerful and welcome than ever.”

The South Bank Sky Arts Awards ceremony is broadcast on Sky Arts on Wednesday at 8pm.

:: Winners

Classical Music: Philharmonia Orchestra, Stravinsky: Myths and Rituals

Comedy: Fleabag (BBC3)

Dance: English National Ballet, Akram Khan’s Giselle

Film: I, Daniel Blake

Literature: The Gustav Sonata, Rose Tremain

Opera: Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle), Opera North

Pop Music: David Bowie, Blackstar

Theatre: Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Palace Theatre

TV Drama: Happy Valley (BBC1)

Visual Art: Artangel, Inside: Artists And Writers In Reading Prison

Times Breakthrough: Classical Music – Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Outstanding Achievement: Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber