BAFTA TV Awards 2024: Top Boy, Happy Valley and The Sixth Commandment among the big winners – as The Crown misses out

Published

6 months ago

May 12, 2024

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Top Boy, Happy Valley and The Sixth Commandment are the big winners at this year’s BAFTA TV Awards, taking home two prizes apiece.

The final season of the critically acclaimed Netflix series Top Boy was named best drama, with star Jasmine Jobson also named best supporting actress for her portrayal of Jaq Lawrence.

Happy Valley picked up the award for most memorable moment, the only prize voted for by the public, while star Sarah Lancashire was named best actress once again for her portrayal of no-nonsense police sergeant Catherine Cawood – after first winning the prize for the role in 2017.

The Sixth Commandment picked up the awards for best limited drama and best actor for its star, Timothy Spall.

Despite leading the nominations race with eight nods in total, royal drama The Crown left empty-handed.

‘You changed my life’

Crime drama Top Boy follows the lives of Sully (Kane “Kano” Robinson) and Dushane (Ashley Walters) and deals with themes of crime, drugs and violence on the Summerhouse estate in Hackney, east London.

Picking up the best drama award ahead of Happy Valley, Slow Horses and The Gold, producer Charles Steel paid tribute to stars Walters and Robinson.

Jobson also took the chance to tell the BAFTAs audience: “I just want to say I am the woman who has been standing in a group full of men, you have shown me what it is to be strong and independent and how important it is to stand out in a crowd full of people where it’s easy to be invisible.

“Netflix, Top Boy, you changed my life.”

Yorkshire-based crime drama Happy Valley was another show that came to an end in 2023, bringing to a close the story of Sgt Cawood and Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), the criminal who destroyed her family.

Accepting the award for best actress, Lancashire said it was an honour to win and praised Sally Wainwright, the writer and creator of the show.

“I would like to acknowledge my fellow nominees and their tremendous work,” she said. “Sally Wainwright, I shall forever be grateful to you for this opportunity.

“I feel very, very privileged to have been surrounded by these brilliant actors and I thank each and every one of you.”

The series also won the memorable moment award for her character’s explosive final kitchen showdown with Royce, beating fellow shortlisted moments including David Beckham teasing wife Victoria about her “working class” roots in the Beckham documentary, and Logan Roy’s death in Succession.

‘Look it up on IMDB’

Picking up the leading actor award for The Sixth Commandment, a true crime drama exploring the murders of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in Buckinghamshire in 2014 and 2017, as well as the subsequent investigation and trial, veteran British star Timothy Spall joked: “Look it all up on IMDB and you will see who was involved because to each and every soul of them, they are brilliant.”

He continued: “Acting is a stupid thing, it’s a soppy old thing, standing up pretending to be someone and p*ssing around in costume. Sixty-seven and you think ‘am I still doing this?’

“But sometimes you get the chance to play people that have had a terrible thing happen to them and all they wanted was love, and it’s a beautiful thing to be able to tell a story about that. It’s about crimes but it’s also about love.”

Looking at his award, he added: “I’ve always wanted one of these. I’m just so pleased to be amongst you lot.”

Elsewhere, Matthew Macfadyen won in the supporting actor category for his performance in the final series of Succession, the conclusion of the drama about the struggle for power in a media dynasty, while Strictly Come Dancing won the best entertainment prize in its 20th year on the air.

Tess Daly, who co-hosts with Claudia Winkleman, described the win as “the best birthday present”.

Squid Game: The Challenge was named best reality TV series, while last year’s Eurovision Song Contest won the award for live event coverage.

And there was a surprise in the international category, when French series Class Act beat huge shows including The Bear and Succession.

Comedy prizes include the hosts

In the comedy categories, Mawaan Rizwan won the award for best male performance for his role in Juice, about a young gay man who desperately wants to be the centre of attention as his family continuously steals his thunder, while Gbemisola Ikumelo won the female performance award for Black Ops.

Accepting his award, Rizwan said: “Thank you to my therapist – we had a conversation last week where we said I had to stop relying on external forms of validation.”

There was even an award for the ceremony hosts, comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, who took home the comedy entertainment prize for Sky show Rob And Romesh Vs.

Former Play School children’s presenter Baroness Floella Benjamin was presented with BAFTA’s highest honour, the Fellowship, by newsreader Clive Myrie, while daytime TV queen Lorraine Kelly was also honoured with a special prize, presented by Succession’s Brian Cox.

“Don’t pull up the ladder” to those from working-class backgrounds, Kelly told the crowd as she accepted her prize.

The ceremony also paid tribute to the stars of TV we have said goodbye to in the past year, including talk show host Sir Michael Parkinson, Lord Of The Rings actor Bernard Hill, newsreader George Alagiah, Hairy Biker Dave Myers, film and TV director Roy Battersby and Friends star Matthew Perry.

Entertainment

Ed Sheeran ‘helped Ipswich sign player’ before appearing on stage with Taylor Swift

Published

12 hours ago

November 22, 2024

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Ed Sheeran 'helped Ipswich sign player' before appearing on stage with Taylor Swift

Ed Sheeran helped Ipswich Town to sign a player over the summer just before getting on stage with Taylor Swift, according to the club’s chief executive.

Mark Ashton claims the pop star got on a video call to encourage a prospective new signing to seal his move to the East Anglia outfit.

He did not reveal the player’s name, but said he is “certainly scoring a few goals” and is a fan of Sheeran, who is a minor shareholder at his hometown club.

“Ed jumped on a Zoom call with him at the training ground, just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift,” Ashton told a Soccerex industry event in Miami.

“Hopefully that was a key part in getting the player across the line.”

Sheeran and pop icon Swift were on stage together on 15 August at Wembley Stadium, one day before Sammie Szmodics signed from Blackburn.

After scoring an overhead kick in Ipswich’s 2-1 win over Tottenham this month, he shared a picture of himself with Sheeran on Instagram.

“Overhead kick, Win & a smudge with big ed. GET IN THERE,” Szmodics wrote alongside the post.

Ashton joked Sheeran is now “officially a part of our recruitment team”, adding he is a “local man” and “global superstar”.

Sheeran has been the club’s shirt sponsor since 2021 and is regularly seen at matches at the club’s Portman Road stadium.

Ipswich host giants Manchester United on Sunday, a match that’s particularly notable for being Ruben Amorim‘s first game in charge of the Red Devils.

Entertainment

Voice behind top Simpsons character quits after 35 years on hit show

Published

2 days ago

November 21, 2024

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Voice behind top Simpsons character quits after 35 years on hit show

The voice actor behind Milhouse Van Houten – Bart Simpson’s very uncool friend – is stepping away after 35 years on the show.

Pamela Hayden, who also voiced Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey and Malibu Stacy, will sign off from The Simpsons on 24 November in a Treehouse of Horror episode.

“It’s been an honour and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show,” the 70-year-old said in a statement.

Show creator Matt Groening said: “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield.

“She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”

Milhouse first appeared in a Butterfinger commercial in 1989 and was named after former US president Richard Milhous Nixon.

Groening said he adopted it “because that was the most unfortunate name a kid could have”.

The nearsighted character was often the butt of most jokes and bullied mercilessly by Nelson.

In one episode, Bart got Milhouse placed on the America’s Most Wanted list.

Entertainment

Tulisa Contostavlos: ‘My life fell apart’ after fake sheikh set up drugs bust

Published

2 days ago

November 21, 2024

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Tulisa Contostavlos: 'My life fell apart' after fake sheikh set up drugs bust

Tulisa Contostavlos has opened up about the moment she says her life “fell apart” after being “set up by a British newspaper” and charged with supplying drugs.

The N-Dubz star has been speaking about her experiences in 2013 on the reality show, I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!

The charges against the singer were later dismissed after prosecution witness “fake sheikh” journalist Mazher Mahmood was found to have tampered with evidence during her 2014 trial.

“2013 was the year I was set up by a British newspaper, for concern in the selling of class A drugs,” she told fellow campmate Oti Mabuse.

“The guy’s name was Mahmood and basically, I was approached by a big movie company and they sent me a tweet or a DM from their official account to audition me for a movie role… I’d dabbled in acting, so this opportunity for me was huge.”

Contostavlos, 36, said the role was offering £3.5m and she was flown out for meetings with producers in Las Vegas but told former Strictly Come Dancing star Mabuse “it was a lie”.

She claimed the team behind the movie encouraged her to take on a real-life role of a “bad girl from London who was constantly up to naughtiness, rolling with gangs, up to all kinds of naughty stuff”.

Contostavlos said “they had me dangling on the end of a string”, claiming every time she met with the team they would tell her “we need some drugs”.

“After months and months, eventually they got a number and it was of someone that wasn’t even a drug dealer, it was an aspiring movie producer and I wanted to make a hook up as well for that person, but I didn’t know anyone that could do that,” she said.

“The long story short is they ended up ordering £800 worth of cocaine from the number that I had given them.

“Then before I knew it, I was being arrested in the concern of the selling of Class A drugs and I was facing four years in prison.”

Contostavlos revealed she lost “all my endorsements” over the incident and “my life fell apart”, she said.

“When it came to the trial, I’d had a conversation with one of their drivers, I was being recorded but I didn’t know, I was saying how anti-drugs I am, so they were very aware of my feelings towards drugs.”

Contostavlos said the driver initially gave a statement confirming she was anti-drugs, however she claimed that as the trial loomed the journalist forced him to change his statement.

In 2016, Mahmood was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice relating to his actions in Tulisa Contostavlos’s court case.