Blue Lights, the BBC police drama written by Irish duo Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, was named best drama series at the TV Bafta awards in London last night.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland series beat off meaty competition, including from Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, the adaptation of the Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall historical novels.
“Belfast, this one’s for you,” said Lawn as he accepted the award for the second series of Blue Lights. Two more seasons of the successful drama have been commissioned.
The event at London’s Royal Festival Hall also saw Derry production company Alleycats TV – Des Henderson, Emma Parkins, Ed Stobart, Jane Magowan and Denis Minihan – win in the daytime category for BBC show Clive Myrie’s Caribbean Adventure.
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Irish actors Lola Petticrew and Nicola Coughlan missed out on awards, having both been nominated for the first time.
Petticrew was nominated in the leading actress category for her role as Dolours Price in the Disney/FX Productions series Say Nothing, with the series itself nominated for the international Bafta award. The leading actress award was won by Marisa Abela, star of Industry, a BBC drama following a group of finance graduates.
Gavin & Stacey’s Ruth Jones beat Coughlan to triumph in the category for best female performance in a comedy. Coughlan had been nominated for her role in Channel 4’s depression-themed Big Mood.
Elsewhere, the Bafta for limited drama was awarded to ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which has renewed public attention on UK subpostmasters who fought to clear their names following a scandal related to post office IT software.
Mr Loverman actor Lennie James won the prize for leading actor, beating, among others, David Tennant for his performance in Rivals, Gary Oldman in Slow Horses and Richard Gadd in Baby Reindeer.
Gadd’s co-star Jessica Gunning picked up the best supporting actress gong for her role in the dark comedy series by Netflix, which was nominated for four awards.
The In Memoriam Bafta segment paid tribute to Kenneth Cope, Richard Chamberlain, William Russell, Brian Murphy, Linda Nolan, Michael Mosley, Timothy West, The Vivienne, Paul Danan, and Michelle Trachtenberg, among others who have died recently.
The ceremony was opened by host and Scottish actor Alan Cumming, who referenced his presenting role on The Traitors US in a sketch with footage of him shown in the Scottish Highlands castle where the hit reality series takes place.
The best single documentary Bafta went to the BBC’s Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods, which follows Ukrainian soldiers fighting against Russia, while the current affairs award went to State of Rage, about Palestinian and Israeli families in the West Bank, from Channel 4.
The international Bafta was won by Disney+ for Shogun, which focused on the scheming in 1600s Japan after the emperor dies and a traveller arrives from England, while Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour, about Rylan Clark and Robert Rinder exploring Italy, won the factual entertainment prize.
The BBC documentary Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods, was made by London-based Hoyo Films, which had its programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone pulled from BBC iPlayer.
The broadcaster is carrying out “further due diligence with the production company”, after it emerged that the film’s child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
Former Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark received a standing ovation as she collected her Bafta fellowship, the body’s highest accolade, and said she had seen the “most joyous change in television”, after “the number of women in senior roles” increased. – PA
