Sheridan Smith wins best actress theatre gong

Two Pints of Lager star Sheridan Smith was named best actress in a musical at the Whatsonstage.com awards, for her performance in Legally Blonde. The musical, which is based on the film starring Reese Witherspoon, won three other awards, including best new musical. Her co-star, former EastEnders star Jill Halfpenny, was named best supporting actress in a musical. The 25th anniversary performance of Les Miserables was hailed as the theatrical event of the year. The producer of the long-running musical, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, picked up three awards for the show at the ceremony at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London's West End. More than 500 past and present cast members of Les Miserables were brought together for last year's concert at the O2 including Little Britain star Matt Lucas and singer Nick Jonas. Veterans of stage and screen David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker won best actor and best actress in a play respectively for their performances in a revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, and Glee star Jonathan Groff was named London newcomer of the year. The awards, which were voted for by more than 45,000 theatregoers, were hosted by Sheridan, Christopher Biggins and Miranda Hart.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.