Ant and Dec have dedicated their Bafta TV Award to the Queen after winning a prize for their presentation of her 90th birthday celebration event.
The duo won the best live event prize for fronting The Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration on ITV last May.
The top honours had been expected to go to Netflix’s fictionalised royal drama The Crown, which led the nominations – but it missed out entirely.
“Tonight, the Queen has finally won a Bafta,” Dec said after the ceremony.
He told BBC News: “She’s never won a Bafta. She was given an honorary fellowship a few years ago but she’s never won a Bafta.”
Asked whether they really considered the Queen the recipient of the award, Ant replied: “Yes absolutely. It wasn’t our party, it was her party, her birthday.”
Dec added: “She put it on, it was in her garden at Windsor, it was round her gaff, so it’s her Bafta, she deserves it.
“We’re quite happy to take it round any time she wants it,” joked Ant. “She pops the kettle on, and we’ll pop round with a Bafta.”
The duo also won best entertainment programme for their ITV show Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
BBC One’s Damilola: Our Loved Boy, based on the death of Damilola Taylor, took home two of the night’s big prizes.
Accepting the best single drama prize, Damilola’s father, Richard Taylor, said he wanted to “send a strong appeal to young people on the street killing themselves”.
He said: “Parents are crying, others are crying, the surge of killing has gone up in the city of London, I beg you all to stop this unnecessary killing of innocent people.”
Wunmi Mosaku took home the best supporting actress award for her portrayal of Damilola’s mother, Gloria Taylor.
Happy Valley also won two prizes – best drama series and best leading actress for Sarah Lancashire.
In her acceptance speech, Lancashire paid tribute to one of her fellow nominees, The Crown star Claire Foy.
“You have given me the best 10 hours under a duvet I’ve ever had,” the actress joked.
The best leading actor prize was won by Adeel Akhtar for his role in BBC One’s Murdered By My Father, a one-off drama about an honour killing.
The BBC won 19 out of the 26 awards on offer.
Charlotte Moore, director of BBC Content said: “It was an incredible night for the BBC and I want to thank all the winners for their contribution to British television – the sheer quality on display is inspiring and I feel honoured to lead BBC Content on such top creative form.”
Emmerdale was named best soap and continuing drama in a year that saw the show praised for its portrayal of dementia.
Actor John Middleton, who played Ashley Thomas in the soap, criticised the “woeful” attention paid to common health problems such as Alzheimer’s disease.
“It is the biggest health problem that we have in the Western world and I don’t think we are addressing it enough,” he said.
“It’s extraordinary how not a day goes by that I don’t get stopped in the street by somebody saying, ‘Thank you very much for doing this story’, because it has affected them because of a relative who has had the disease.”
The “must see moment” – a prize introduced this year – was won by Planet Earth II: Snakes vs Iguana Chase.
The scene from the David Attenborough series beat off competition from Ed Balls’s Gangnam Style on Strictly Come Dancing and James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke with Michelle Obama, among others.
And the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme took home the news coverage prize for its story about abuse in football earlier this year.
Joanna Lumley was presented with Bafta’s highest honour – the Fellowship – by her Absolutely Fabulous co-star Jennifer Saunders.
She paid tribute to all those who work in the entertainment industry, not just the ones in front of the camera.
“We as actors, we’re dragged about in golden carriages… We are furnished with words, costumed, made up, we have stunt performers to make us look better. We have people who drive us, who dress us,” she said.
Source: BBC