This year the awards recognise people who best demonstrate a particular characteristic of great performance. In no particular order:

Energy:  Mary Portas.  Lots of expertise delivered with compelling energy. Unfortunately too late for our high streets?

Style:  The Middleton Family.  Kate for sure but the whole family made the Royals look ordinary.

Structure:  Christine Lagarde.  Great communication skills rooted in clear simple structures so you feel she really does know what she is talking about.

Body language: David Cameron.  No remarkable performances but he manages to create a physical impression of leadership his rivals in Westminster and across Europe can’t match.

Listening: Rebecca Brooks.  She deflected the hostility of the inquisitor MPs by listening, really listening, to each questioner and answering the actual question asked. Unlike Murdoch junior.

 Pausing: Rupert Murdoch.  A pause has rarely been more powerful than his response to the question, Did you know what was going on?  After a seemingly endless delay his barked NO! took the wind out of the collective MP sails. 

 

Theatre:  Kim Jong-il  (deceased).  A million people in weeping in unison takes some beating.

Passion:  Sir David Attenborough. Who else?

Presence:  Aung San Suu Kyi.  A voice too rarely heard but an unmistakable and compelling presence.

Charisma: Tariq Jahan. The Currys van driver who spoke so eloquently after the death of his son in the riots that a city came to its senses.