David Farnor | On 08, May 2016

Wolf Hall bagged a double win at last night’s TV BAFTAs, as the BBC dominated proceedings.

Mark Rylance waltzed away with Leading Actor for his stunning turn as Cromwell, while director Peter Kosminsky was on hand to accept the big prize of the night for Best Drama Seres.

Channel 4’s This Is England ’90 also took home two prizes – Best Mini-Series and Supporting Actress for Chanel Cresswell – although the broadcaster’s sci-fi series, Humans, went away empty-handed. ITV also saw success, bagging Best Entertainment Performance for Celebrity Juice and Best Supporting Actor for Tom Courtenay in Unforgotten.

Amazon, meanwhile, trumped Netflix once again, with Transparent beating Narcos to win the International award – the streaming service’s first BAFTA. Netflix’s Making a Murderer was also beaten to the punch for the Radio Times Audience Award, which went (naturally) to Poldark, the BBC’s drama starring Aidan Turner and his topless torso.

Indeed, the ceremony was all about the Beeb. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and Inside No. 9 may have been sorely missing from the list of contenders, but the corporation was the talk of the town. Suranne Jones was awarded Best Leading Actress for Doctor Foster and Peter Kay’s Car Share – which first premiered on BBC iPlayer – won Best Scripted Comedy Series and Best Male Performance in a Comedy Performance.

The swathe of wins arrive days before the government prepared to publish a paper proposing the future for the BBC, as the broadcaster’s Royal Charter is up for renewal.

Rylance in his acceptance speech praised the “incredible variety of popular culture in this country”, adding: “Woe to any government and any corporation who tries to get between the British people and their love of a good joke, a true story, a good song, a fact, a fiction, good sports commentating, newscasters who can hold themselves together as they tell stories about tragedies in Paris, people who can bake cakes.”

Kosminsky joined him in defending the BBC:”In the week our Secretary of State John Whittingdale described the disappearance of the BBC as a ‘tempting prospect’, I’d like to offer a defence of that organisation,” he said.

“I think most people think that the main job of the BBC is to speak truth to power, to report to the British public without fear or favour no matter how unpalatable to those who might be in government. It is a public broadcaster, independent of government. It is your BBC. In many ways our broadcasting, the BBC and Channel 4, which they’re also attempting to eviscerate is the envy of the world and we should stand up and fight for it, not let it go by default. And if we don’t, if we don’t, blink and it will be gone. No more Wolf Hall, no more award-winning Dispatches documentaries on Channel 4…”

Read on for a full list of winners:

SUPPORTING ACTOR

TOM COURTENAY Unforgotten – ITV

MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME

PETER KAY Peter Kay’s Car Share –BBC iPlayer

SINGLE DRAMA

DON’T TAKE MY BABY Jack Thorne, Ben Anthony, Pier Wilkie, Aysha Rafaele – BBC Documentaries Production/BBC Three

MINI-SERIES

THIS IS ENGLAND ’90 Shane Meadows, Mark Herbert, Jack Thorne, Rebekah Wray-Rogers – Warp Films/Channel 4

DRAMA SERIES

WOLF HALL Peter Kosminsky, Peter Straughan, Mark Pybus, Colin Callender – Playground Entertainment, Company Pictures/BBC Two

INTERNATIONAL

TRANSPARENT Production Team – Amazon Studios/Amazon Prime Instant Video

FACTUAL SERIES

THE MURDER DETECTIVES Production Team – Films of Record/Channel 4

SINGLE DOCUMENTARY

MY SON THE JIHADI Production Team – True Vision/Channel 4

REALITY & CONSTRUCTED FACTUAL

FIRST DATES Nicola Lloyd, Martin Conway, Adam Chapman – Twenty Twenty/Channel 4

CURRENT AFFAIRS

OUTBREAK: THE TRUTH ABOUT EBOLA (THIS WORLD) Dan Edge, Sasha Achilli – Mongoose Pictures/Quicksilver Media/BBC Two

NEWS COVERAGE

CHANNEL 4 NEWS: PARIS MASSACRE Jon Snow, Lindsey Hilsum, Jonathan Rugman, Ben de Pear – Channel 4 News/Channel 4

LIVE EVENT

BIG BLUE LIVE Production Team – BBC/BBC One

SCRIPTED COMEDY

PETER KAY’S CAR SHARE – BBC iPlayer

RADIO TIMES AUDIENCE AWARD (voted for by members of the public)

POLDARK

LEADING ACTOR

MARK RYLANCE Wolf Hall – BBC Two

LEADING ACTRESS

SURANNE JONES Doctor Foster – BBC One

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

CHANEL CRESSWELL This is England ’90 – Channel 4

ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE

LEIGH FRANCIS Celebrity Juice – ITV2

FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME

MICHAELA COEL Chewing Gum – E4

SOAP & CONTINUING DRAMA

EASTENDERS Production Team – BBC Drama Production London/BBC One

SPECIALIST FACTUAL

BRITAIN’S FORGOTTEN SLAVE OWNERS Production Team – BBC History Unit/BBC Two

FEATURES

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF Paolo Proto, Andy Devonshire, Anna Beattie – Love Productions/BBC One

SPORT

THE ASHES Bryan Henderson, Mark Lynch, David Lloyd, Ian Ward – Sky Sports/Sky Sports 2

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME

STRICTLY COME DANCING Louise Rainbow, Vinnie Shergill, Sarah James, Nikki Parsons – BBC Entertainment/BBC One

COMEDY AND COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME

HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU Richard Wilson, Mark Barrett, Danny Carr, John L Spencer – Hat Trick Productions/BBC One

 

Photo: Giles Keyte / BBC

Add to Watchlist