The TV Bafta awards belonged to Olivia Colman after the Broadchurch star picked up two awards for two very different roles.
I’m a bit doomed now, I’m never going to work again- Olivia Colman
The star won the supporting actress award for her role as the mother of a murdered son in Accused (Mo’s Story) and picked up her second Bafta for female in a comedy for her role in Olympic satire Twenty Twelve.
She beat three other actresses including her Twenty Twelve co-star Jessica Hynes to the award, saying: “I’m not even the funniest one in our own programme”.
Speaking backstage, Colman said she was: “Thinking there has been a mistake” after winning her second award.
She joked: “I’m a bit doomed now, I’m never going to work again” and said her appeal was down to people thinking she was “safe”, saying: “I’m never going to take anyone’s husband”.
She said Hollywood had not come calling, but said she would be happy to go if it did adding: “Of course, it’s warm and I think they pay better”.
Host Graham Norton introduced the show, formally known as the Arqiva British Academy Television Awards, from the Royal Festival Hall in London.
He kicked off with a series of gags about the spate of recent celebrity arrests, before Homeland stars Damian Lewis and David gave the evening’s first award – for best drama series – to Last Tango in Halifax.
The show, about a pair of pensioners who rekindle a romance late in life, beat off competition including ITV cop show Scott and Bailey.
Sheridan Smith was named leading actress for her role in Mrs Biggs.
A tearful Smith, who played the wife of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in the ITV show, said winning was like an “out of body experience”. She also said she was going to call the real Mrs Biggs in Australia to tell her she had won.
The Bafta for leading actor went to Ben Whishaw for Richard II (The Hollow Crown). The award for supporting actor went to Shakespearean veteran Simon Russell Beale for his performance as Falstaff in the BBC version of Henry IV Part 2 (The Hollow Crown).
Olympic satire Twenty Twelve won the sitcom award.
The award for entertainment programme went to Norton’s chat show with the Irish comic accepting his own award before returning to hosting duties.
The award for reality and constructed factual show went to Made in Chelsea.
There was a special award for sports presenter Claire Balding who hosted much of the Olympics coverage.
The tearful star said the games brought an “incredible positive energy, a feeling we could do anything and we did”.
EastEnders won the award for soap and continuing drama and the award for male in a comedy went to Steve Coogan for Welcome to the Places of My Life.
The Revolution Will Be Televised was named the best comedy programme.
The Radio Times Audience Award, voted for by viewers, went to Sky’s bloodthirsty fantasy series Game of Thrones.
The international award went to US show Girls, with the award for entertainment performance going to Alan Carr for his chat show.
Monty Python star Terry Jones presented his co-star Michael Palin with the Bafta Fellowship.
Accepting his award to a standing ovation, Palin said his first celebrity invite was to open some public toilets in Lambeth and said it had been “quite a journey” from there to the Royal Festival Hall. He said his award was for “thoroughly enjoying myself for the last 48 years and I feel slightly guilty about that”.
Speaking backstage, Palin added his career would go on and he “will die but not retire”.
He said he was once recognised while filming on a small island between Alaska and Russia. A group of Inuit elders watched as he sailed off the island, before one said to him: “Hey, aren’t you the guy from Monty Python?”
The award for factual series went to BBC Three’s Our War, which followed events on the front line in Afghanistan from the perspective of the troops on the ground.
This World’s investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church won the award for current affairs, beating ITV’s documentary about Jimmy Savile’s sex crimes, a Panorama special on the crisis in Britain’s housing and Al Jazeera’s investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat.
The award for news coverage went to Granada Reports programme, Hillsborough – The Truth At Last.