Post Office drama delivers two BAFTAs for ITV

Lennie James, Marisa Abela and Danny Dyer all picked up gongs on TV’s big night

Mr Loverman actor Lennie James and Industry actress Marisa Abela have won the leading acting prizes at the TV Bafta awards as the ceremony saw drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office pick up two gongs.

The event at London’s Royal Festival Hall also saw Jessica Gunning pick up the best supporting actress gong for her role in dark comedy series Baby Reindeer, which had been nominated for four awards.

Elsewhere, the Bafta for limited drama was awarded to ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which has renewed public attention on the subpostmasters who fought to clear their names in the wake of the Horizon scandal.

The show had already seen ITV win a special award for making the programme, and its managing director Kevin Lygo called for compensation for those wrongfully convicted, telling the Government to “hurry up and pay these people”.

He also urged all TV corporations to continue making series that hold “power to account”, as the ceremony also saw the BBC win the news coverage prize for BBC Breakfast: The Post Office Special.

James won for the BBC series Mr Loverman, based on the acclaimed 2013 novel by the Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo.

On stage at the London event, The Walking Dead actor admitted he had not “prepared anything”, explaining he “didn’t think this was coming my way”.

The BBC series, based on Evaristo’s novel of the same name about a man who contemplates leaving his wife for his male lover, also won a best supporting actor gong for Ariyon Bakare.

James beat Toby Jones, who was nominated for his role playing Sir Alan Bates, the subpostmasters lead campaigner, as well as Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd and a handful of other actors.

Collecting her award, 28-year-old Abela said: “I’ve been filming Industry for about six years now and (production company) Bad Wolf and HBO, the fact that they let us carry on after season one is mental.”

She also said she booked the BBC series, about a group of young finance graduates, in her first year of drama school and added that the role of Yasmin “changed my life”.

Abela triumphed over Monica Dolan for playing former subpostmistress Jo Hamilton, Anna Maxwell Martin for true crime miniseries Until I Kill You, Lola Petticrew for historical Northern Irish drama Say Nothing, Sharon D Clarke for Mr Loverman, and Billie Piper for Netflix drama Scoop, about the Newsnight interview between Emily Maitlis and the Duke of York.

Over in the comedy section, the performance categories went to ex-EastEnders star Danny Dyer for Sky’s sitcom Mr BigStuff, and Welsh actress Ruth Jones for her role playing Vanessa Shanessa “Nessa” Jenkins in the Gavin And Stacey finale.

“I’m not going to lie this is immense,” Jones said.

“The person I would like to thank most his my dear, dear talented friend James Corden.”

Gavin And Stacey co-creator Corden attended the event, after he returned to play his character Neil “Smithy” Smith in the Christmas special, which saw his character concluded Smithy and Nessa’s love story.

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 BBC’s Blue Lights, a Northern Irish police drama, was named best drama series, while comedian and actor Joe Lycett won best entertainment performance for his Channel 4 comedy programme Late Night Lycett.

Birmingham comedian Lycett was absent on the night, and he succeeded over Geordie duo Anthony McPartlin, and Declan Donnelly for their Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, which is on pause, and Claudia Winkleman for BBC hit The Traitors among others.

The Traitors season two also failed to win memorable moment or reality programme, as the hit psychological game series was beaten by fellow BBC show Strictly Come Dancing, and Channel 4’s recreation of a court case, The Jury: Murder Trial.

Professional dancer Dianne Buswell picked up the memorable moment gong, which recognised a “blackout” dance with her celebrity partner and fellow Strictly winner, blind comedian Chris McCausland.

Elsewhere, the BBC coverage of Glastonbury won the Bafta Live Event Coverage award for the first time, and the sport award went to the corporation for its airing of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

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, who had their 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.

The Bafta TV Awards is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Published: 11/05/2025 by Radio NewsHub