Any seasoned award show nominee will tell you that you need to practise your best loser face, just in case you’re not the one who ends up lifting the gong. 

However, it seems someone forgot to give ‘Benidorm’ star John Challis the memo. 

The actor was caught looking less than enthused as the ITV sitcom lost out on the award for Best Comedy at Tuesday night’s National Television Awards. 

After it was announced the gong had gone to Peter Kay’s ‘Car Share’ for the second year running, the camera cut around to all the other nominees. 

Unfortunately for John, it caught him looking less than enthused at the result, as he buried his head in his hands. 

Let’s hope he was only joking, eh?

Sian Gibson was on-hand to collect the award for ‘Car Share’ in the absence of Peter. 

It had been rumoured the comedian was set to return to public life after Chris Evans said on his Virgin Radio show that he would be attending the awards. 

Sian told the audience Peter “couldn’t be there” and would bring the award over to his house the next day. 

It also marked the final time ‘Car Share’ would be eligible for the award, after its final episode aired last year.

Peter had originally ended the show in 2017, but fans called for a conclusion to the love story between lead characters John and Kayleigh, prompting him to film one final episode with the addition of an improvised special, which he and Sian did not have scripts for. 

The comedian has been out of the spotlight in recent times, after cancelling his comedy tour in December 2017 due to “unforeseen family circumstances”. 

Peter’s only appearance since then was at a charity screening of his sitcom ‘Car Share’ in April last year.