Tony Blackburn receives golden anniversary honour

Tony Blackburn began his broadcasting career on pirate station Radio Caroline

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Tony Blackburn has picked up a special honour at The Radio Academy Awards, marking his 50 years on the airwaves.

It is the second time the DJ has received the academy's Gold Award - having originally been honoured on his silver anniversary in 1989.

"It's very kind of you," said the 71-year-old. "I want to thank the medical team that keep me going."

BBC Radio 2 won Station of the Year, while LBC's phone-ins with Nick Clegg and Boris Johnson got a special award.

Ask Boris and Call Clegg have consistently made headlines, as listeners question London's Mayor and the Deputy Prime Minister on their policies and current events.

Boris Johnson accepted the award with LBC host Nick Ferrari

Emilia Fox, Matt Cardle and Melanie C were among the presenters at the ceremony

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Mr Johnson dedicated the prize to the programme's production team, without whom, he said, he was just "an overweight Belgian tourist" on the Alpine slopes of live radio.

He also thanked "the people of London, who have listened in their dozens."

It was one of three awards for commercial broadcaster LBC, which went national last year.

However, the BBC dominated the ceremony, formerly known as the Sony Awards, topping 22 of the ceremony's 34 categories.

Zane Lowe victory

BBC Radio 4 won more top prizes than any other station, with gold awards for best music documentary (Strange Fruit), best drama (The Morpeth Carol) and best comedy (The Secret World).

Winifred Robinson's moving, illuminating interview with the father of murdered toddler Jamie Bulger was named interview of the year.

And John Sergeant handed the best news programme prize to Radio 4's PM.

Asked by host Chris Evans to explain why Jeremy Paxman had quit Newsnight, the former political correspondent replied: "He wants to be a ballroom dancer".

Rock group The Kaiser Chiefs closed the ceremony, despite singer Ricky Wilson's injury

Continue reading the main storyommercial station Absolute got four awards, including best speech programme for Frank Skinner's weekly show.

"This is like The Hungry Caterpillar winning the Booker Prize," said the comedian.

Radio 1 took three awards, including best entertainment show for drivetime host Greg James, and best documentary for Tempted by Teacher, an investigation of student-teacher relationships.

Evening show DJ Zane Lowe, meanwhile, was named music broadcaster of the year for the fifth time.

"Thanks to the academy for recognising that I love music," said the New Zealander, whose bizarre interview with Kanye West went viral last year.

"That's all I'm here to do - to put music and audiences together."

Myleene Klass presented Greg James with his award

He was given his award by Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson, who was sporting an eyepatch, after an accident on the set of his latest music video.

"I only had time to apply mascara to one eye," he joked. "It's all affectation, like Chris Eubank with his monocle."

Chris Evans failed to win the Music Radio Personality of the Year category, which went to Sam Pinkham and Amy Voce, who present the breakfast show on East Midlands station Gem 106.

"Oh crumbs!" said Voce, who apologised to the Radio 2 host as she took to the stage.

"This is really awkward, because our heroes are in this category."

Lisa Snowdon and Dave Berry won breakfast show of the year for their "original, confident" slot on Capital FM, while Danny Baker won speech presenter of the year for his 5 live show.

Gem 106's Sam and Amy beat the likes of Graham Norton and Chris Evans to the title of music radio personality of the year

Blackburn's career has been full of high-profile presenting jobs, including being the first DJ to broadcast on Radio 1 when it launched in September 1967 - a station where he spent 17 years.

He then presented BBC London's weekday mid-morning show before becoming one of the launch presenters on Capital Gold.

Since 2010 he has hosted Radio 2's Pick of the Pops, and he also currently presents shows on BBC London 94.9, BBC Radio Berkshire, the Magic network, BBC3CR and KMFM.

He was presented with his Gold Award by Graham Norton, whose own Radio show precedes Pick of the Pops on Saturday mornings.

"My greatest pleasure at Radio 2 is every Saturday morning when Tony comes into our studio," said Norton.

"He bounces in and I go, 'how are you Tony?'

"And he replies: 'Still not arrested!'"

Blackburn on BBC Radio 1 in the 1970s

In his speech, Blackburn thanked his many employers over the years, and made special mention of Radio Caroline founder Ronan O'Rahilly.

"I've never heard anyone say thanks to Ronan," he said, "but he's the man who started it all.

"I'm very grateful to Radio Caroline. They brought about the radio we have now, and without them I certainly wouldn't be here... So they've got a lot to answer for."

Blackburn went on to say he had recently considered retiring live on air, in the style of US chat show host David Letterman.

"I got my family together last week, and I said it's probably time I spent more time with you at home.

"And they all said to me, 'we'd rather you didn't.' So I've decided to go on for another 50 years."

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Alien designer HR Giger dies at 74

Giger also produced artwork for recording artists

The Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott's Alien, H. R. Giger, has died aged 74, a spokesperson at Giger's museum in Gruyere has confirmed.

He died in hospital of Monday after he fell down stairs at his Zurich home.

Born in 1940, Giger was best known for his 'Xenomorph' alien in Scott's sci-fi horror masterpiece for which he won a visual effects Oscar in 1980.

He studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich and was known for creating strange dreamscapes.

Giger on the set of Alien, his most well-known work

Meticulously detailed, Giger's surrealist paintings were usually produced in large formats and then reworked with an airbrush and usually feature scenes of humans and machines fused together.

Giger described his style as "biomechanical".

One of his pieces in particular - Necronom IV - inspired the titular alien killer in Sir Ridley's hit film.

He also worked on Aliens 3 (1992) and, more recently, appeared in a documentary about director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade film of the book Dune.

Giger's museum is based in the historic, walled city of Gruyeres

Giger's vision of a human skull inside a machine appeared on the cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1973 album, Brain Salad Surgery.

He also designed covers for Debbie Harry's solo album, Koo Koo.

His most infamous work was a poster inserted into the album sleeve of The Dead Kennedys' LP Frankenchrist.

The image of rows of genitalia resulted in the band's vocalist Eric Reed Boucher, aka Jello Biafra, being tried for distributing harmful material to minors in 1986. The case was dismissed.

In 1998, Giger opened his own museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland, which alongside his own paintings and sculptures, displays works from his own art collection from the likes of Salvador Dali, Dada and Ernst Fuchs.

The museum is run by the artist's wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger.

In December 2004, Giger received the prestigious award, La Medaille de la Ville de Paris, at Paris City Hall.

Last year, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle, along with fellow inductees, David Bowie and JRR Tolkien.

His work has also been exhibited around the world, including recent retrospectives in Hamburg, Germany, Moscow and Istanbul.

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Caroline Aherne, Royle Family star, has lung cancer

Aherne is known for shows including The Mrs Merton Show and The Fast Show

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Award-winning TV writer and comedian Caroline Aherne is recovering from treatment for lung cancer.

Macmillan Cancer Support confirmed that the Royle Family star, who has previously had bladder and eye cancer, would speak at an appeal to improve cancer care in Manchester on 26 June.

Aherne, 50, said of the appeal: "I've had cancer and my brother's had cancer and we know how it affects people."

She has starred in The Mrs Merton Show, The Royle Family and The Fast Show.

Aherne (front, second left) co-wrote and starred in The Royle Family

Nicola Cook, from Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "Caroline's one of Manchester's own - she's loved here and people identify with her. We hope that if people see that Caroline is sitting down and talking to us then maybe they'll know that they can too."

Aherne had eye cancer along with her brother when she was a child and also revealed that she had been treated for bladder cancer in the past.

Her brother Patrick told Macmillan Cancer Research that his sister was diagnosed "late last year" and that "the form of lung cancer that she is suffering from is genetic and linked to the retinoblastoma she had as a baby".

Aherne's Fast Show roles included the weather forecaster who endlessly exclaimed 'Scorchio!'

"Her bladder cancer was also genetic and linked to the retinoblastoma," he said, adding that she no longer smokes and is keen to raise awareness about the Macmillan cause rather than her medical condition.

Aherne said: "They've asked me to get involved and I'm really glad that I can do my bit to encourage Manchester people to speak up about where things do go wrong with cancer care."

The writer and actress said it was "truly shocking" that the city had come bottom of 150 areas in England for premature deaths from cancer.

"Our survival rates are 25% lower than average and the number of people getting lung cancer is a third higher here than in the rest of England," she said.

She added that her role on Channel 4 seriesGogglebox would not be affected, and said: "I will be narrating this week's Gogglebox, and I will continue to narrate Gogglebox for as long as Gogglebox want me."

Aherne, who was born in London but lived in Manchester from the age of two, began her career as gossiping granny Mrs Merton.

Mrs Merton was known for her cutting questions delivered with a smile

Mrs Merton got her own TV chat show in 1995 and her no-holds-barred interviewing style ensured it became a hit.

The show won a Bafta in 1997 for best talk show and a BBC Comedy Award for top BBC One personality.

She was also one of the writers and performers on BBC Two's sketch series The Fast Show, which screened from 1994 to 2001.

With Craig Cash, she went on to write BBC Two's acclaimed comedy The Royle Family, which revolved around a family who spent most of their time slumped in front of the TV.

Collection of awards

Aherne and Cash also starred in the series along with Sue Johnston, Ricky Tomlinson, Liz Smith, Ralf Little and Jessica Hynes.

It ran from 1998 to 2000 and had a one-off return in 2006, in which the comedy was mixed with sadness when Nana died.

The Royle Family won two Baftas in 2000 and another in 2007 for best situation comedy.

Aherne's sometimes troubled personal life often featured in the tabloid press. She split from her first husband, New Order bass player Peter Hook, in 1996.

Problems in public eye

She was then involved in a relationship with television researcher Matt Bowers, who was caught on camera fighting with Hook at a party in Manchester.

Aherne split with Mr Bowers, who died from stomach cancer in 1997.

A suspected suicide bid in 1998 brought into sharp focus the problems she was having. Following a drug overdose, Aherne admitted she was an alcoholic and had not been aware of what she was doing to herself.

She moved to Australia to escape media scrutiny and within a year had written and produced Dossa and Joe - a sitcom about an Australian couple who do not do very much. She returned to the UK in 2002.

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