Winners Named for BAFTAs

LONDON: Wallander, Criminal Justice and The Bill were all recognized as stand-out dramas at last night’s British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA), hosted by funnyman Graham Norton.

Channel 4 came out ahead with seven BAFTAs, followed by ITV with five and BBC One with four.

On the performance side, Stephen Dillane of C4’s The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall beat out Jason Isaacs, Ken Stott and Ben Whishaw. Meanwhile, best actress went to Anna Maxwell Martin of C4’s Poppy Shakespeare, edging out June Brown, Maxine Peake and Andrea Riseborough. The award for best entertainment performance went to Harry Hill of ITV1’s Harry Hill’s TV Burp, while David Mitchell of C4’s Peep Show won out for best comedic performance.

From BBC Two/Tiger Aspect Productions, White Girl took home top honors as best single drama. Best drama series went to the BBC One/Left Bank Pictures show Wallander. BBC One/BBC Productions’ Criminal Justice was named best drama serial, and ITV1/TalkbackTHAMES’ The Bill was honored as best continuing drama. The U.S. hit Mad Men, which airs on BBC Four, beat out The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Dexter and The Wire in the international category.

In the way of factual programs, BBC Two’s Amazon with Bruce Parry, from Indus Films & Endeavour Productions, took best factual series. And Sir David Attenborough picked up his third BAFTA for specialist factual for Life In Cold Blood (BBC One), which has six BAFTAs now. True Vision Productions’ C4 title Chosen (True Stories) won out as best single documentary.

Looking at entertainment, TalkbackTHAMES’ X Factor, an ITV1 series, came out ahead of Friday/Sunday Night Project (C4), Harry Hill’s TV Burp and QI (BBC One). Tiger Aspect’s Harry and Paul (BBC One) was named best comedy program, while Talkback Productions’ The IT Crowd (C4) won best situational comedy. Nabbing the Philips Audience Award was Skins.