Mark Leckey Wins 2008 Turner Prize

Mark Leckey, 44, from Birkenhead, took the £25,000 first prize for his video "Industrial Light and Magic". Leckey, who describes himself as a "modern day dandy", combines film, sculpture and performance complete with clips from the film Titanic.

Part of the entry included a lecture, Cinema-in-the-Round, which features a voice-over by Leckey, and an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer registers his horror as he turns into a three-dimensional being. The winning artist has confessed to having a "slight obsession" with Felix the Cat.

The jury, which included Nicholas Serota, the director of London's Tate Modern, commended the "intelligent, energetic and seductive nature of the work", which was the runaway favourite at the bookmakers.

By contrast, only three bets were waged on the entry from the Glaswegian Cathy Wilkes, the least popular nominee, to be shortlisted for the prize. The highest bet was £7.99. The irony might appeal to the artist whose exhibition, which features a naked mannequin wearing horseshoes, sat on a lavatory next to half-eaten bowls of porridge on a supermarket conveyor belt, is called I Give You All My Money.

The Turner Prize has always thrived on controversy. Previous winners have included Martin Reed who exhibited an empty room with the lights going on and off, Chris Ofili who attached balls of elephant dung to canvas, and Damien Hirst, who displayed a cow and calf cut in half and preserved in formaldehyde. Tracey Emin was the best known loser with her soiled bed.

Critics have panned this year's Turner Prize as the "worst on record" and likened the exhibition at London's Tate Britain to an "afternoon spent in a Heathrow departure lounge". Some are now questioning whether the competition has any future.