Underdogs triumph at Baftas

It was a night of surprises at the annual British Academy of Film and Television awards, with several underdogs triumphing in key categories.

Perhaps the biggest upset was in the Current Affairs category, where The Shame of the Catholic Church, part of the BBC’s This World strand, beat ITV Exposure’s The Other Side of Jimmy Savile.

The Savile affair had far-reaching repercussions, with BBC director general George Entwistle forced to resign after just 54 days in the role and several other high-profile TV personalities having since been questioned about allegations of sexual misconduct.

That wasn’t the only surprise though. HBO series Girls, which aired on Sky Atlantic in the UK, beat Homeland, The Bridge and Game of Thrones in the international category.

Although Steve Coogan took the prize for best male performance in a comedy programme for Alan Partridge Welcome to the Places of My Life, the show was beaten to the best comedy programme gong by The Revolution Will Be Televised, produced by Hat Trick for BBC3.

Local news programme Granada Reports beat off competition from BBC and Channel 4 news to take the news coverage award for its programme Hillsborough – The Truth at Last, while C4’s coverage of last year’s paralympic games took the sport and live event prize ahead of the BBC’s coverage of the main games and opening ceremony.

Overall though it was a good night for the BBC. BBC1’s Last Tango in Halifax was named best drama series, while BBC4’s Room at the Top beat Parade’s End to best miniseries. BBC2 won the single drama prize for Murder and best single doc for 7/7 One Day In London, while Love Productions’ format The Great British Bake Off won in the features category for the second year in a row.

BBC3’s Our War, produced by BBC Vision, won best factual series for the second consecutive year, while Olympic-themed comedy Twenty Twelve won best sitcom.

C4 took home the reality and constructed factual prize for Made in Chelsea, while All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry won the specialist factual category.