Utopia scoops International Emmy

UK conspiracy thriller Utopia won the coveted Best Drama prize at the 42nd International Emmy Awards in New York on a night dominated by British productions.

The Channel 4 drama, which was not renewed for a third season, is being remade by David Fincher and Gillian Flynn for US premium cablenet HBO.

The series, from Shine-owned Kudos, beat off competition from three other contenders, including the Japanese public broadcaster NHK’s Yae’s Sakura.

The plot focuses on a small group of people who find themselves in possession of a secret sequel to cult graphic novel The Utopia Experiments, which was said to have predicted the worst disasters of the last century. They must uncover the hidden meaning in the pages before the new disasters depicted become reality.

In an evening containing plenty of UK winners, the UK’s Stephen Dillane won Best Actor for The Tunnel, a coproduction between Kudos and Shine France for pay TV broadcasters Sky Atlantic HD and Canal+. The series was a British and French version of the original Nordic Noir series The Bridge, aired on Sweden’s SVT and Denmark’s DR.

Meanwhile, Twofour Entertainment documentary series Educating Yorkshire, which airs on Channel 4, took home the non-scripted entertainment gong.

The fixed-rig obs doc, which films life in a British secondary school, has aired three different versions in the UK and is shopped as an international format under the title The School. Distributor Shine International recently secured a deal for a Chinese version with local broadcaster Hunan TV.

The BBC’s Doctor Who spin-off drama An Adventure in Space and Time lost out in the Best TV Movie category however to Germany’s Second World War drama Generation War.

Elsewhere Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner was presented the 2014 Founders Award by series stars Christina Hendricks and John Slattery.

For a full list of winners click here.