Oldie honours Sachs and Sergeant

Andrew Sachs (left) with Sir Terry Wogan and John Sergeant

Actor Andrew Sachs and former Strictly Come Dancing contestant John Sergeant were among the winners at the Oldie Awards ceremony in London.

Sachs, who was at the centre of the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand phone calls row, won granddad of the year.

Sergeant, who eventually bowed out of BBC One's ballroom dancing show despite huge support, won hoofer of the year.

The awards are given out every year by The Oldie magazine to well-known older citizens who have made the headlines.

'All in the past'

Other winners included novelist Sir Terry Pratchett, named campaigner of the year for raising awareness of Alzheimer's Disease which he suffers from.

"I was a grumpy old man as well. I'm quite happy to be an oldie," said the 60-year-old writer.

Former Fawlty Towers star Sachs was given his prize for his "dignified response to the BBC furore surrounding phone calls about his granddaughter".

He explained that he wanted to put the incident behind him, and said: "I don't harbour grudges, it's happened, there we are, it's all in the past."

Sergeant said that his unconventional yet popular stint on Strictly Come Dancing had been "a great triumph".

"A mistake that some people made is that they seemed to think I was a bad dancer. Now I don't know how they got that impression, I did everything I could to stop that," he added.

Other winners included Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable for predicting the economic downturn, and writer Diana Athill for her memoirs of old age.

The event, which was founded in 1992, was hosted by Sir Terry Wogan.