BAFTA Winners Announced

At yesterday evening’s ceremony at the London Palladium, Victoria Wood was a double winner, collecting her first-ever BAFTA in the Actress category for Housewife, 49 ahead of Anne-Marie Duff (The Virgin Queen), Samantha Morton (Longford) and Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre). The adaptation of the diary of a Lancashire housewife, written by Wood, was also victorious in the Single Drama category. The Actor BAFTA went to Jim Broadbent for his portrayal of the campaigning Labour peer in Longford.

Jonathan Ross’ Entertainment Performance in Friday Night With Jonathan Ross saw him triumph for the second year running, this time beating Ant and Dec, Stephen Fry and Paul Merton. Another consecutive victor, The X Factor scooped the Entertainment Programme category ahead of Derren Brown:The Heist and other Saturday night shows Dancing On Ice and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? This victory was one of six awards won by ITV1, the highest total for a single channel at this year’s Awards.

In the Continuing Drama category, Casualty triumphed over soap rivals Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale - a first BAFTA for the medical drama after more than twenty years on our screens. Jimmy McGovern’s six-part drama following the lives of various residents in The Street collected the coveted BAFTA mask for Drama Series, and See No Evil: The Moors Murders won Drama Serial.

Another first-time BAFTA winner was Ross Kemp, whose Ross Kemp on Gangs collected the award for Factual Series. This was one of two wins for Sky, the other going to Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather for Interactive. Specialist Factual went to Nuremberg: Goering’s Last Stand and Evicted triumphed in the Single Documentary category.

Ricky Gervais triumphed over co-star Stephen Merchant, Dawn French and Liz Smith to pick up his seventh BAFTA for his Comedy Performance in Extras. In the Comedy Programme category, That Mitchell & Webb Look picked up a BAFTA in its first series, whilst the one-off, conclusive, The Royle Family: Queen Of Sheba collected the Award for Situation Comedy, its first since 1999.

The Choir triumphed over some strong characters in the Features category beating Dragons’ Den, Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word and Sir Alan Sugar’s The Apprentice. Jenson Button’s first win was also a first win for coverage of Formula One in the Sport category with F1:The Hungarian Grand Prix triumphing.

Granada Reports:Morecambe Bay covered the plight of the Chinese cockle-pickers and was honoured in News Coverage over the BBC Ten O’Clock News, Channel 4 News and the ITV Evening News - the first time a regional news programme has been recognised in this category. In the new International category, the HBO-produced Entourage provided ITV2 with its first BAFTA win.

James Nesbitt presented the pioneering producer Andy Harries, whose TV credits include Cold Feet, The Royle Family and The Deal with the Special Award. This year Harries also triumphed at the Film Awards with a Best Film win for The Queen and received nominations at the Television Awards for both Longford & Prime Suspect: The Final Act.

The highest accolade the Academy can bestow, The Fellowship, was presented to Richard Curtis by Stephen Fry. Richard’s credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Black Adder and The Vicar of Dibley. He is also co-founder of Comic Relief, and has helped to raise almost £500m for charity projects in Africa and the U.K.

After receiving a record number of votes this year, The Pioneer Audience Award, the only award of the evening voted for by the public, went to Life On Mars.

Wins by Channel:

ITV1: 6
BBC One: 5
BBC Two: 3
Channel 4: 2
Sky One: 2
ITV2: 1