'Little Britain' scoops two awards at the BAFTAs

BBC comedy show ‘Little Britain’ cemented its reputation as one of the UK’s favourite comedy shows by scooping two awards at the BAFTA TV awards.

The show was named best comedy series and its two stars, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, won the award for best comedy performance.

Walliams thanked the BBC, who, he said, “believed in us even when we were rubbish”. Lucas added: “We were really mediocre. Now we’re brilliant, aren’t we, so we’ve made up for it now.”

Channel 4 drama ‘Sex Traffic’ also picked up two awards. The two-part drama, about two eastern European sisters who are forced into prostitution in London, was named best drama serial, while the Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca picked up the award for best actress for the role, which was her television debut.

‘Coronation Street’ continued its success, winning the award for best continuing drama for the third year running. The show has had a series of hugely successful story lines over the past few years, which have been proved to be massive ratings grabbers. Its longest serving actor, Bill Roache, who plays Ken Barlow, collected the show’s award. He said: “Coronation Street knows how to balance comedy and tragedy without one killing the other.”

Welsh actor Rhys Ifans, who has starred in a number of successful movies, including ‘Notting Hill’ and last year’s ‘Enduring Love’, picked up the award for best actor for his portrayal of the late comedian Peter Cook in Channel 4’s ‘Not Only But Always’.

Channel 4 also collected the award for best drama series for its hit show ‘Shameless’.

Reality TV show, ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ was named best entertainment show, although hosts Ant and Dec lost out to Paul O’Grady in the best entertainment performance category – O’Grady, who became famous for his Lily Savage persona, won the award for his chat show, ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’.

Channel 4’s quirky comedy ‘The Green Wing’ picked up the Pioneer Award – the only award for voted for by the public. However, it lost out in the best sitcom category to ‘Black Books’, starring Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey.

(KMcA/GB)