SURANNE JONES has triumphed at the TV BAFTAs, winning her first ever actress
gong at the ceremony.
The event, which is took place at London’s Royal Festival Hall, has seen the
biggest names from British TV descend on the red carpet, including Ant and
Dec, Stephen Fry and Alesha Dixon, as well as A-list stars such as Tom
Hiddleston, Idris Elba and singer Justin Timberlake.
Suranne, 37, won the Leading Actress gong for acclaimed drama Doctor Foster,
fighting off competition from the likes of Claire Foy in Wolf Hall, Ruth
Madeley for Don’t Take My Baby and Sheridan Smith for her work on The
C-Word.
She said: “This is such a big moment for me and I’ve got terrible baby
brain, I had a baby a few months ago and I can’t even remember my own name
let alone anyone else’s.
“Thank you to the BBC for commissioning a relationship drama. I’m so
thrilled.”
It’s the former Coronation Street actress’ first BAFTA, having already won a
National Television Award for her role earlier this year.
Suranne wasn’t the only first-time winner at the ceremony, as Strictly Come
Dancing also triumphed for the first time.
The BBC dancing show, which is presented by Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman,
won the Entertainment Programme category, beating Adele at the BBC,
Britain’s Got Talent, and TFI Friday Anniversary Special.
Tess, 47, couldn’t hide her surprise as she took to the stage to accept the
award, admitting her daughter had even told her Adele’s one-off special
would win.
She gushed: “Oh my goodness, we are genuinely shocked. Even my daughter said
today: ‘No offence mum but you’ve got no chance.’
“It’s an absolutely incredible honour, we’ve never won a BAFTA before,
and it honestly means the world to all of us so thank you so much to
everyone at BAFTA.”
Claudia added: “I’m regretting the three tequilas. Honestly we cannot
believe it; we’re going out for five days after this.”
Mark Rylance won the Leading Actor award for his work on period drama Wolf
Hall, beating fellow nominees Idris Elba for hit BBC drama Luther, Ben
Whishaw for London Spy and Stephen Graham for This is England ’90.
It’s been 10 years since the star, who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar
earlier this year, received his last BAFTA TV Award for The Government
Inspector.
Wolf Hall also won the first award of the night in the Drama series category,
triumphing over Humans, The Last Panthers and No Offence.
Host Graham Norton opened the show with a fun monologue, saying: “Thanks
for joining us for one of the most star stuffed TV events of the year. I’m
the host for the evening but thanks to my super injunction you’ll have to
check Twitter to find out my name.”
The presenter was referring to the unnamed married actor who had a romp with
Wayne Rooney prostitute Helen Wood six years ago.
While the British press – including The Sun – cannot name him, American
publications have revealed his identity and social media is also abuzz with
his name.
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Elsewhere, Poldark hunk Aidan Turner took to the stage to accept the Radio
Times Audience Award for the hit BBC One drama, which came out on top
against the likes of drama Doctor Foster, hit baking show The Great British
Bake Off, Channel 4 drama Humans, the addictive Making a Murderer, and
comedy show Peter Kay’s Car Share.
It’s win was no doubt helped by Aidan infamous topless scything scene which
won the actor a whole new legion of fans.
However his man bun almost stole the show’s win’s thunder, with Graham
quipping: “A man bun at the BAFTAs, how very modern.”
In the battle of the soaps, EastEnders beat rival Coronation Street as well as
Emmerdale and Holby City to pick up the Soap and Continuing Drama award.
The London-based soap has won the award on eight previous occasions, with the
first win – for Best Drama series – coming in 1997.
The win comes just days after the show’s boss Dominic Treadwell-Collins left
the BBC One soap.
He gave viewers memorable storylines including ‘Who Killed Archie?’ as well as
introducing the Carter family, which includes actor Danny Dyer.
Hit baking show The Great British Bake Off won the Features gong, beating Back
in Time for Dinner, Kevin McCloud: Escape to the Wild and Travel Man.
Judge Mary Berry said: “I’m not normally in charge, but Paul, Mel and Sue
have dropped me in it. I miss them as we are a real team.
“It all started with a bit of baking in a tent. The programme is all
about wonderful amateur bakers making fantastic cake.
“So thank you Anna Beattie for creating the Bake Off and the BBC for
commissioning a show that we are enormously proud of.”
Elsewhere, the winner of the Supporting Actor category was Tom Courtenay for
his work on Unforgotten.
The other nominees were Anton Lesser for Wolf Hall, Sir Ian McKellen for The
Dresser and Cyril Nri for Cucumber, and Tom’s win meant Ian missed out on
winning his first TV BAFTA.
This is England ’90 won in the Mini-series category, beating The Enfield
Haunting, London Spy and Doctor Foster, while the show’s Chanel Creswell
picked up the Supporting Actress gong after beating out competition from
Michelle Gomez for Doctor Who, Lesley Manville in River and Eleanor
Worthington-Cox in The Enfield Haunting.
Meanwhile the Female Performance in a comedy programme award went to Michaela
Coel in Chewing. Michaela, who writes and stars in the Channel 4 show was
congratulated by fellow nominees Sian Gibson, Miranda Hart and Sharon
Horgan.
After paying tribute to the late Victoria Wood, who died last month, she said: “To
anyone out there who looks like me, you are beautiful, embrace it, you are
intelligent, embrace it, you are powerful, embrace it.”
In the Male Performance in a comedy programme, Peter Kay won the award for for
his work on Peter Kay’s Car Share. He was up against Hugh Bonneville for
W1A, Toby Jones in Detectorists and Javone Prince for The Javone Prince
Show.
The Northern comic, 42, used his allocated 30 second acceptance speech time to
be silent, resting his arms on the podium as he shook his head in mock
disbelief.
Eventually he said: “Thanks” and as he left the stage, Graham
quipped: “For me, speech of the night.”
The show also picked up Scripted Comedy award, and Peter was more talkative
during his second appearance of the night.
He said: “Thanks everybody. It’s just two people in a car, simple as
that. It’s nice to do comedy and a lovely opportunity for people in this
world.
“That’s it, time’s up it says up there. Thirty seconds! B******s to that.”
The International award went to Amazon hit series Transparent, which stars
Jeffrey Tambor as a transgender father.
After thanking the cast, crew, network and producers, Jeffrey said: “This
is the series that answers the question, It’s OK to change, you will still
be loved, be who you are to hell with the consequences, live, love be free.
First Dates triumphed in the Reality and Constructed Reality genre, beating
Gogglebox, I’m a Celebrity,Get Me Out of Here! and The Secret Life of 5 Year
Olds.
Leigh Francis beat out stiff competition from the host Graham, Stephen Fry,
and Romesh Ranganathan to pick up the Entertainment Performance award for
Celebrity Juice.
Appearing as himself on a rare occasion, he said in a funny posh accent: “I
quite don’t know what to say, thanks to my wife for letting me being so
silly, thanks to telly for giving me a job, to ITV for giving me a job, for
Ferne Cotton for giving me a job.
“I love soaps. I feel ever so posh. I won’t reveal my real voice as I’m
actually from France.”
Long-running panel show Have I Got New For You received the Best Comedy &
Comedy Entertainment Programme gong, beating fellow BBC shows Charlie
Brooker’s Election Wipe, Have I Got News for You, QI and Would I Lie to You.
The Single Drama gong went to BBC Three’s Don’t Take My Baby after triumphing
over Channel 4’s Cyberbully and fellow BBC shows The Go-Between and The
C-Word.
Elsewhere, My Son the Jihadi has picked up the gong for Best Single
Documentary while Outbreak: The Truth About Ebola won the Current Affairs
category and The Murder Detectives received the Best Factual award.
Big Blue Live won Live Event, The Ashes won in the Sport category, Channel 4
News: Paris Massacre picked up the News Coverage gong and Britain’s
Forgotten Slave Owners won for Specialist Factual