Rudolph: a true trailblazer
EastEnders' star Rudolph Walker has been honoured at Britain's "Black Baftas".
Alhough delighted at his award, he joked that he had many years of acting left in him.
"Don't call me a veteran because I still have a long time to go," he said.
The 63-year-old actor first found fame in seventies sitcom Love Thy Neighbour.
As the first British TV show to feature a major black character, it was credited with breaking down race barriers.
The comedy, which revolved around a black man who lives next door to a white racist, was eventually dropped as it was deemed politically incorrect.
Trinidad-born Walker is currently starring in The Crouches, BBC1's first black family sitcom.
It made its debut yesterday and was roundly panned by the critics.
Michael Eboda, editor of New Nation, said it was "about as funny as being carjacked".
However, Walker defended the sitcom, in which he plays Grandad Langley.
The show has been criticised for employing a white writer - Glaswegian Ian Pattison, creator of Rab C Nesbitt - to write about a black family from south London.
But Walker said: "I have no objections, the colour of the writer doesn't matter. Shakespeare was white - did his colour matter?
"About 90 per cent of the work I have done has been from white writers. Should I have said no to The Thin Blue Line because it was written by Ben Elton? Of course not, and the same goes for The Crouches."
The Screen Nation awards, now in their second year, honour black actors and performers in film and TV.
Organisers hope they will become as established as the Mobos, which began as a low key event and have now become one of the biggest fixtures in the showbiz music calendar.
Stars who attended the ceremony at the Empire Cinema in London's Leicester Square included Cutting It star Angela Griffin, newsreader Moira Stewart and MP Paul Boateng.
Griffin won favourite female TV star and favourite male was Casualty and Celebrity Fame Academy star Kwame Kwei-Armah.
White Teeth's Naomi Harris won best TV actress and Lenni James, last seen in gritty prison drama Buried, was best TV actor.
T4's June Sarpong was best presenter and Caroline Chikezie, from teen drama As If, won the emerging talent award.
Channel 4's White Teeth won the drama award and BBC3's 3 Non Blondes took home the comedy prize.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Sophie Okonedo, stars of British movie Dirty Pretty Things, were named best film actor and actress.
Mercury Prize nominee Terri Walker sang at the ceremony, as did Kwame, who is soon to release an album on the back of his Celebrity Fame Academy success.
