A BRADFORD actor was named Best Actor at the prestigious BBC Audio Drama awards. 

Edmund Davies beat off fellow competitors, including Christopher Eccleston, Toby Jones, and Robert Lindsay in the long list, then got down to the final three with Simon Russell Beale and Giles Terera MBE, who played Aaron Burr in the hit West End production of Hamilton.

Learning disabled actor Edmund started out with Bradford's Mind the Gap theatre company. 

He now plays one of the leads, Jamie, in a long-running BBC Radio 4 audio series called The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles, which is about young parents with learning disabilities. 

In the last series, for which Edmund was judged, the couple’s four-year-old daughter was attending school for the first time during Covid. 

Producer Pauline Harris said: "We had to record remotely because we were at the height of the pandemic, so each actor in their own home linked to the director and a high-quality broadcast link.  

"Edmund still managed to perform comic, heartfelt, and moving performance as the doting dad and downbeat husband in the five-part series."

Donna Lavin, who plays Jamie's wife, Darleen, also has learning disabilities. 

The couple meets the director and writer before each series is written and workshop ideas.

Each series is based on true stories from their own experiences or others.