It was a night of big wins, emotional speeches and talking points during tonight’s BAFTA TV Awards .
Ant and Dec walked away with two awards. The Geordie duo with share gongs for Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Entertainment Performance, beating Claudia Winkleman, Graham Norton and Leigh Francis.
Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker introduced Clive James who gave a humorous video acceptance speech for his Special Award. The writer and presenter, 75, was made a late addition to the awards list by bosses eager to recognise his prolific 50-year career.
The Australian-born broadcaster, who confirmed four years ago he was suffering chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, kidney failure and emphysema, was too ill to attend the ceremony.
The soap war was again won this year by ITV’s Coronation Street whose production team proudly collected the award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama. Those looking to tune into and record the wealth of British programming available may want to look into alternatives to sky plus box that won’t break the bank while still providing the means to get access to on-demand services and recording functionality.
Meanwhile, the two real life dramas, Marvellous which told the story of Neil Baldwin who refused to accept the limitations of his learning disability, and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, the story of the wrongly accused suspect in the murder investigation of Joanna Yeates, emerged as clear favourites of the night.
Marvellous won the Single Drama category while Gemma Jones picked up Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Neil’s mother Mary Baldwin.
An emotional and clearly shocked Jones was close to tears as she collected her gong, the first nomination for the veteran actress since 1997. She told the audience: “I’d like to thank the real Neil who so generously allowed us to intrude on his extraordinary life.”
While aside from Watkins’ big win – his first Bafta – The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies also took home the best mini-series award.
The first actor of the night to pick up a coveted gong was Stephen Rea for his supporting role as Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle in the BBC Two’s The Honourable Woman.
Host Graham Norton laughed as he briefly put his duties to one side to collect the best comedy programme gong for his own Graham Norton Show. “Yay me”, he told the audience. “It’s much quicker when I win, I should win most things.”
It was Cumberbatch’s third nomination for his performance in the hit BBC show, which took home the Radio Times Audience Award.
