Backstage at the TV Quick awards

EastEnders may have bagged five gongs at the TV Quick Awards, but, backstage, the night belonged to Big Brother's Jade Goody.

The cream of British TV talent had taken their seats for the ceremony by the time she rolled up, fashionably late.

Her suit, she explained, was "pinstripe, with a purple lining" and her trim figure was down to "circuit training".

"It's cardio-vastic or something. Cardio-plastic."

'Interesting'

Fellow contestant Alex Sibley was less conspicuous, but revealed that his family are working on a possible TV show called At Home With The Sibleys.

"We just have to see whether we are interesting enough," he said.

He will also be putting a 1976 Austin Princess to the test for car show Driven.

"When I saw it, I thought it was a beast. I suppose it could be like Jade. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me," he joked.

Big Brother's first winner, Craig Phillips, was resplendent in a kilt which he said he was wearing because his tuxedo had not been dry-cleaned.

"It was this or jeans and T-shirt," he joked. More than two years after his win, he revealed he still has not watched the first Big Brother series.

"I haven't had time," he said.

But Big Brother failed to retain its reality TV crown, losing out to Pop Idol, much to DJ and programme judge Neil Fox's delight.

Upcoming drama

"Fifteen million people watched it and nine million voted. It's been phenomenal. It's global domination," he said, flanked by former contestants Hayley Evetts and Jessica Garlick.

EastEnders stars past and present were out in force. Martin Kemp, picking up his third award, spilled the beans on his upcoming drama, Daddy's Girl.

"My character and his little girl live together. Her mother goes missing and the girl starts having dreams in which she remembers her mother being killed.

"We don't know if she's having them because her father is in a new relationship or if it's something she's seen," said Kemp.

Alex Fearns, who plays bad guy Trevor in the soap, said it was "a bit weird" picking up best newcomer on the day he filmed his last scenes for the show.

"Trevor's exit is going to be hugely dramatic," he said.

"If you think you have seen him at his worst, you haven't seen anything yet."

Revived series

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet actor Tim Healy had a chuckle at his show being named best new drama.

"We started in 1982," he said of the revived series.

"It's fantastic that the viewers voted for us. We needed that. It could have been a big mistake."

Best actress, Bad Girls' Claire King, said she is staying with the prison drama "for this series and we'll see how it goes" and that, in the future, she would not mind doing a "wicked lady-type thing" in a costume drama.

With that, she retired to the bar for "an appointment with a drink and a cigarette".

Meanwhile, Jade was still going strong.