Why Pride of Britain is still the most important awards show of the year

An extraordinary event happened 25 years ago at the Dorchester Hotel in London – a gathering of the great and the good sat listening to the stories of ordinary, everyday heroes.

That night, as celebs mixed with lifeboat men, cancer patients with firefighters and royalty with bus drivers, our Pride of Britain Awards were born.

It was the only ceremony that could have honoured 19-year-old Michael Owen, for his goal against Argentina, alongside the Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam, for fighting for peace while battling a brain tumour.

And the only awards where the Spice Girls would not look out of place next to the extraordinary Doreen and Neville Lawrence – whose dignified campaign for justice following the murder of their son Stephen had just led to the damning Macpherson report.

But if there was ever anyone who most deserved a Pride of Britain Award, it was its architect, Mirror editor Peter Willis, who died three years ago at 54.

And this week, his wife and sons were honoured with a special award presented by Simon Cowell.

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Peter was the only person who could have created Pride of Britain. His golden contacts book – with everyone from Elton John to Rod Stewart and Cilla Black on speed dial – combined with a love of the most human of stories.

It wasn’t just celebs Peter knew – it was police inspectors, MPs and trade union leaders. A regular visitor to Clarence House, he convinced the future king to become one of the Awards’ first backers.

The then-Mirror editor, Piers Morgan, had jokingly demanded a Prime Minister, a Queen and a Beatle at the first Pride of Britain Awards.

Peter put in a few calls and Tony Blair and Queen Noor of Jordan were among those at the Dorchester. Then, in walked Paul McCartney.

Many of those honoured were in a realm far beyond celebrity. The list is long and distinguished: Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

The hero firefighters of 9/11. Prof Stephen Hawking and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

The Hillsborough families, the Grenfell bereaved and survivors, and the Windrush Generation. Then there was Alan Bates, who fought the Post Office scandal. The cave rescue team who saved 12 Thai boys and their football coach.

And Richard Taylor, whose tireless campaigning in the name of murdered son Damilola earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award.

There were lighter moments too, such as 111-year-old First World War veteran Henry Allingham’s 20-minute “tribute to the fairer sex” which had to be cut from the final edit.

James Cordon being upstaged by abseiling pensioner Doris Long.

If Peter was the only journalist who could have created the awards, Carol Vorderman is the only one who could have presented it. “Peter and I were the only ones there from the very start,” she told this week’s audience. “And it is because of Peter we were there.”

When Peter died, I wrote that he had never really understood how loved he was. He would have both loved and hated the standing ovation at this week’s awards.

He was, quite simply, the Pride of Britain.