The Thick of It wins three BAFTAs
Julie Walters wins her sixth BAFTA
*Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Macfadyen and Rebecca Hall
all win their first acting BAFTAs*
Ant & Dec steal Harry Hill’s entertainment crown
Britain’s Got Talent wins first BAFTA
Simon Cowell receives a Special Award
Melvyn Bragg is presented with an Academy Fellowship
Julie Walters’ sixth competitive BAFTA award for her Leading Actress performance in Channel 4’s Mo makes her the most-rewarded film and television actress in the history of the Academy.
Kenneth Branagh, who has won before as a director and a producer, won his first performance BAFTA for Leading Actor for Wallander .
Matthew Macfadyen and Rebecca Hall claimed their first BAFTA masks in the new Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress categories. Matthew Macfadyen, who was nominated in the Actor category two years ago for Secret Life, won tonight for Criminal Justice. First-time nominee Rebecca Hall won for her performance in Red Riding 1974.
The Thick of It was one of the night’s big winners taking home three awards for its stars Peter Capaldi and Rebecca Front as well as the coveted Situation Comedy award. While Peter Capaldi had been nominated twice before for his performance as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, this was the first nomination for Rebecca Front. Their wins were in the newly created Male and Female Performance in a Comedy Programme categories .
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly took home a BAFTA mask for their performance in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!. Having been nominated on five previous occasions in the Entertainment Performance category, Ant and Dec triumphed over Stephen Fry, Michael McIntyre and Harry Hill who has won this award for the last two years.
The Entertainment Programme award was won for the first time by Britain’s Got Talent.
The Special Award, in the gift of the Academy, was presented to Simon Cowell in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Entertainment industry and for his development of new talent.
Drama honours were shared this year between the BBC and Channel 4. EastEnders won the battle of the soaps for the Continuing Drama award for the first time in four years, beating The Bill, Coronation Street and Casualty. BBC One claimed the Drama Serial award for Occupation while Samantha Morton’s directorial debut The Unloved took the Single Drama award. E4’s superhero comedy drama Misfits took the Drama Series award, the first BAFTA for the channel.
ITV News at Ten won the News Coverage BAFTA for the second year running, this year for its reporting of the Haiti earthquake. Channel 4 enjoyed a very strong showing in the factual categories – Factual Series went to One Born Every Minute, the fly-on-the-wall documentary series set in a maternity ward; Inside Nature’s Giants won the Specialist Factual category; and Current Affairs was won by Terror in Mumbai (Dispatches), the sixth BAFTA for the Dispatches strand. BBC One’s Wounded won the Single Documentary award and BBC Two’s Masterchef: The Professionals won the Features BAFTA. The Virtual Revolution,* BBC Two’s collaborative documentary experiment won the New Media BAFTA.
The Armstrong and Miller Show was a first-time winner in the Comedy Programme category, fighting off strong competition from The Kevin Bishop Show and Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle as well as the 2006 winner That Mitchell and Webb Look.
The Sport BAFTA was wrested away from Formula 1 for the first time in three years as BBC Two’s coverage of the World Athletics Championships took home the award.
Mad Men scooped the International BAFTA for the second year in a row.
This year’s public vote for the YouTube Audience Award was won by The Inbetweeners, beating Britain’s Got Talent, Glee, The One Show, Unforgiven and The X Factor.
The Fellowship, the highest accolade bestowed by the Academy, was presented to Melvyn Bragg in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television and, in particular, arts programming.
Red carpet highlights, backstage interviews with all the winners, clips of the nominated programmes and all the latest images from the night’s events are at www.bafta.org/awards/television
TV Award Winners Press Release (39.5 KB)