BBC Three bags triple win, as Netflix snubbed at BAFTA TV awards
James R | On 14, May 2017
BBC Three bagged a triple win at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards, on a night where voters played things surprisingly safe and traditional.
The online channel, which jumped from traditional TV to the web last year, has gone from strength to strength in its first 12 months, scooping up the RTS Award for Channel of the Year in March. It went into the 2017 BAFTA awards as one of the leading contenders, with Fleabag alone boasting the joint second highest number of nominations. On the night, it converted three of its eight nods into wins, from Adeel Akhtar’s performance in Murdered by My Father winning Best Actor and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s performance in Fleabag nabbing Best Female Performer in a Comedy to the superb mockumentary series People Just Do Nothing, which triumphed in Scripted Comedy.
“Shout out everyone that believed in us. We literally came from nothing on YouTube,” said the makers of the series, in a typically hilarious speech.
"Shout out everyone that believed in us. We literally came from nothing on youtube" @kuruptfm #PJDN @Bafta #BAFTATV pic.twitter.com/wxIESIbKrB
— BBC Three (@bbcthree) May 14, 2017
“I have been wet dreaming about having a BAFTA my whole life,” added Phoebe Waller-Bridge, when collecting the gong for Fleabag.
Away from BBC Three, though, Academy voters failed to embrace streaming services, with Netflix snubbed completely by the awards: the streaming giant didn’t win any of its six nominations, while Amazon’s Transparent lost out to The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story in the International category.
Other big winners at the BAFTAs included the BBC’s Damilola, Our Loved Boy, which won two awards, including first-time winner Wunmi Mosaku receiving the BAFTA for Supporting Actress. The true-crime drama, written by Levi David Addai, which retells the story of Damilola Taylor’s tragic murder and his family’s fight for justice, also received the award for Single Drama.
In the Leading Actress category, Sarah Lancashire won for her performance in Happy Valley, which was also crowned Best Drama Series – beating The Crown, although Sarah Lancashire praised Claire Foy in her acceptance speech for “giving me the best 10 hours under the duvet I’ve ever had”.
In Supporting Actor, Tom Hollander took the BAFTA for his performance as Lance ‘Corky’ Corkoran in The Night Manager while National Treasure fought off the competition to win in Mini Series.
The BAFTA for Entertainment Performance was presented to Michael McIntyre for Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, while the award for Entertainment Programme went to Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, the programme’s third BAFTA in this category to date. Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe won for Comedy & Comedy Entertainment Programme.
Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, which revealed the gruelling journeys of people smuggling themselves into Europe, received the BAFTA for Factual Series. Hillsborough secured the BAFTA for Single Documentary, while the BAFTA for Specialist Factual went to Planet Earth II, which was also awarded two BAFTAs at the recent British Academy Television Craft Awards.
The Special Award was presented to Nick Fraser, one of Britain’s leading figures in the documentary field, in recognition of his outstanding creative contribution to television throughout a career that saw him launch and grow BBC’s Storyville strand and fund and develop hundreds of award-winning documentaries. His work includes India’s Daughter, Man on Wire, Notes on Blindness, Project Nim and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.
The Fellowship, the highest accolade the Academy bestows, was presented to Joanna Lumley.
The Virgin TV’s Must-See Moment, the only award voted for by the public, was won by Planet Earth II: Snakes vs Iguana Chase.
Read on for a full list of the winners, plus which ones are available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and All 4. (You can see the list of nominations here.)
COMEDY & COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
CHARLIE BROOKER’S 2016 WIPE Production Team – House of Tomorrow/BBC Two
CURRENT AFFAIRS
TEENAGE PRISON ABUSE EXPOSED (PANORAMA) Production Team – BBC Productions/BBC One
DRAMA SERIES
HAPPY VALLEY Sally Wainwright, Juliet Charlesworth, Nicola Shindler, Neasa Hardiman – Red Production Company/BBC One
Watch on Netflix UK
ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE
MICHAEL MCINTYRE Michael McIntyre’s Big Show – Hungry McBear/BBC One
ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
ANT & DEC’S SATURDAY NIGHT TAKEAWAY Production Team – ITV Studios/Mitre Television/ITV
FACTUAL SERIES
EXODUS: OUR JOURNEY TO EUROPE Production Team – KEO Films/BBC Two
FEATURES
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Production Team – Wall to Wall Media/BBC One
FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE Fleabag – Two Brothers Pictures/BBC Three
Watch on BBC iPlayer
INTERNATIONAL
THE PEOPLE V OJ SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson – Fox 21 Television Studios/FX Productions/BBC Two
Watch on Netflix UK
LEADING ACTOR
ADEEL AKHTAR Murdered by My Father – BBC Studios/BBC Three
Watch on BBC iPlayer
LEADING ACTRESS
SARAH LANCASHIRE Happy Valley – Red Production Company/BBC One
Watch on Netflix UK
LIVE EVENT
THE QUEEN’S 90TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Production Team – ITV Studios/Spun Gold Television/ITV
MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
STEVE COOGAN Alan Partridge’s Scissored Isle – Baby Cow Productions/Sky Atlantic
MINI-SERIES
NATIONAL TREASURE George Ormond, Marc Munden, Jack Thorne, John Chapman – The Forge/Channel 4
Watch on All 4
NEWS COVERAGE
VICTORIA DERBYSHIRE Victoria Derbyshire, Louisa Compton – BBC News/BBC Two
REALITY & CONSTRUCTED FACTUAL
MUSLIMS LIKE US Production Team – Love Productions/BBC Two
SCRIPTED COMEDY
PEOPLE JUST DO NOTHING Production Team – Roughcut TV/BBC Three
Watch on BBC iPlayer (Season 3)
SINGLE DOCUMENTARY
HILLSBOROUGH Production Team – Very Much So Productions/Passion Pictures/BBC Two
SINGLE DRAMA
DAMILOLA, OUR LOVED BOY Levi David Addai, Euros Lyn, Susan Horth, Colin Barr – Minnow Films/BBC One
SOAP & CONTINUING DRAMA
EMMERDALE Production Team – ITV Studios/ITV
SPECIALIST FACTUAL
PLANET EARTH II Michael Gunton, Tom Hugh-Jones, Elizabeth White, David Attenborough – BBC Studios/BBC Natural History Unit/BBC America/ZDF/France Television/BBC One
SPORT
THE OPEN Production Team – Sky Sports/European Tour Productions/Sky Sports 1
SUPPORTING ACTOR
TOM HOLLANDER The Night Manager – The Ink Factory/Demarest/Character Seven/BBC One
Watch on Amazon Prime Video
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WUNMI MOSAKU Damilola, Our Loved Boy – Minnow Films/BBC One
VIRGIN TV’S MUST SEE MOMENT
PLANET EARTH II: Snakes vs Iguana Chase