Sandford St Martin Awards
Why religious and ethical broadcasting?
We believe that in today’s world, religious literacy is more important than ever. Good programmes that explore belief and ethics can help audiences understand how religion affects human affairs. They can raise awareness about diversity, challenge stereotypes and broaden our understanding of the world’s many rich cultures and traditions.
Read our blog and hear why leading media figures and previous award winners like Jimmy McGovern, Frank Cottrell Boyce, and Lyse Doucet think religious broadcasting is important. Or watch the 2025 awards ceremony overture below to get a flavour of the inspirational content championed by the Sandford St Martin Trust.
The Sandford St Martin 2025 Awards
Winners Announced
The Sandford St Martin 2025 Award winners were announced at a ceremony held at Lambeth Palace on 17 June 2025, when a Special Award was also presented to Horrible Histories and director Peter Kosminsky received the Sandford St Martin 2025 Trustees’ Award. Congratulations to all this year’s finalists in the TV/Video, Radio/Audio, Journalism and Young Audience categories and the Radio Times’ Readers Award nominees.
For almost 50 years the Sandford St Martin Awards have celebrated the best of this kind of broadcasting. Our judges are particularly interested in content which promotes a better understanding about how religions or belief affect the world we live in.
The Sandford St Martin 2026 Awards will open for entries in November this year. If you’d like be reminded either follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter.
In the meantime, you can find out more about the four categories and eligibility criteria, or, if you’re looking for inspiration, you can watch the overture to this year’s awards ceremony featuring some of our 2025 finalists, below.
Outreach and advocacy
In addition to making awards, the Trust works to encourage and advocate for excellence in the broadcast coverage of religion and belief.
We have held a series of events aimed at encouraging conversations between media experts, practitioners and audiences about some of the biggest issues in broadcasting and the media coverage of religion and ethics today.
The Trust is also engaged in the wider public debate surrounding the future of religious broadcasting in the UK through our public submissions and our work with partners – such as our latest project with the University of Leeds, collaborating to help develop new methods to better evaluate public service media provision across VOD services.