BAFTA Television Awards: Winners 2014

I don't take awards ceremonies seriously these days, but the BAFTA Television Awards were held last night, so the results are below... together with my thoughts on the most popular category's results...

Leading Actor

• Jamie Dornan - The Fall
• Sean Harris- Southcliffe -WINNER!
• Luke Newberry - In the Flesh
• Dominic West - Burton And Taylor

Agree? No. Sean Harris was fantastic in Southcliffe, but he was only in one episode of a four-part miniseries. The Fall's Jamie Dornan should have won, for playing one of the most unsettling and realistic serial killers I've seen portrayed on television in years.

Leading Actress

• Helena Bonham Carter - Burton and Taylor
• Olivia Colman - Broadchurch -WINNER!
• Kerrie Hayes - The Mill
• Maxine Peake - The Village

Agree? Yes, but there was weak competition. Colman's had some fine moments, but I wasn't very engaged with her Broadchurch character for many of the middle episodes.

Supporting Actor

• David Bradley - Broadchurch -WINNER!
• Jerome Flynn - Ripper Street
• Nico Mirallegro - The Village
• Rory Kinnear – Southcliffe

Agree? Yes, happy with that. He made one of Broadchurch's middle episodes shine.

Supporting Actress

• Shirley Henderson - Southcliffe
• Sarah Lancashire - Last Tango in Halifax -WINNER!
• Claire Rushbrook - My Mad Fat Diary
• Nicola Walker - Last Tango in Halifax

Agree? I don't watch most of those shows, so can't really give an informed opinion.

Entertainment Performance

• Ant & Dec - Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway -WINNER!
• Charlie Brooker - 10 O'Clock Live
• Sarah Millican - The Sarah Millican Television Programme
• Graham Norton - The Graham Norton Show

Agree? Um, well... no. Takeaway's light and fun, but there's only about two segments of the show I actually tune in for. I'd have given it to The Graham Norton Show.

Female Performance In A Comedy Programme

• Frances De La Tour - Vicious
• Kerry Howard - Him & Her: The Wedding
• Doon Mackichan - Plebs
• Katherine Parkinson - The IT Crowd -WINNER!

Agree? No, sorry. I mean, I like Katherine Parkinson, but The IT Crowd's Jen is a two-dimensional role in a silly comedy. Kerry Howard and her three-dimensional monstrous bitch all the way.

Male Performance In A Comedy Programme

• Richard Ayoade - The IT Crowd -WINNER!
• Mathew Baynton - The Wrong Mans
• James Corden - The Wrong Mans
• Chris O'Dowd - The IT Crowd

Agree? Ditto the above IT Crowd comment. Ayoade gives a funny performance as geek Mos, but he gets a BAFTA for appearing in one farewell special? How is that fair? Mathew Baynton was more deserving for The Wrong Mans.

Single Drama

• An Adventure in Space & Time
• Black Mirror: Be Right Back
• Complicit -WINNER!
• The Wipers Times

Agree? No, that episode of Black Mirror was much better. Or An Adventure in Space & Time.

Mini-Series

• The Fall
• The Great Train Robbery
• In The Flesh -WINNER!
• Southcliffe

Agree? No, The Fall was far better.

Drama Series

• Broadchurch -WINNER!
• My Mad Fat Diary
• Top Of The Lake
• The Village

Agree? Yeah, satisfied with that, despite thinking Broadchurch is overrated.

Soap & Continuing Drama

• Casualty
• Coronation Street -WINNER!
• EastEnders
• Holby City

Agree? Oh, the BAFTA bingo ball machine spat out Corrie this year? Huh.

International

• Borgen
• Breaking Bad -WINNER!
• House of Cards
• The Returned

Agree? Of course! Richly deserved. Just look at what Breaking Bad overcame in the UK, in terms of shoddy treatment by the UK networks. It's now a global phenomenon and, let's face it, a better TV show than everything else on this list combined.

Reality & Constructed Factual

• The Big Reunion
• Dragons' Den
• Gogglebox -WINNER!
• The Undateables

Agree? Yikes! Certainly not. Gogglebox is a live-action Twitter with misfits and morons you'd never follow, given a public soap box to "entertain" the audience with their ill-informed opinions. Bleugh.

Entertainment Programme

• Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway -WINNER!
• Derren Brown: The Great Art Robbery
• Dynamo: Magician Impossible
• Strictly Come Dancing

Agree? No, for reasons stated earlier. Dynamo has been far more entertaining and genuinely must-see television everyone talks about.

Comedy And Comedy Entertainment Programme

• The Graham Norton Show
• A League of their Own -WINNER!
• The Revolution Will Be Televised
• Would I Lie To You?

Agree? Um, no. Would I Lie To You or Graham Norton for me, as I don't like many sports.

Situation Comedy

• Count Arthur Strong
• Him & Her: The Wedding -WINNER!
• The IT Crowd
• Toast of London

Agree? Hmm, sort of. I think Toast of London would have been a better winner, to guarantee a few more series, but giving the award to Him & Her is a nice way to reward its final run.

Radio Times Audience Award

(Voted For By Members Of The Public)

• Breaking Bad
• Broadchurch
• Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor -WINNER!
• Educating Yorkshire
• Gogglebox
• The Great British Bake Off

Agree? Doctor Who won a public vote? How unusual. I can't grumble given the quality of the 50th anniversary special.

And the rest of the winners... which I have no opinion on, frankly...

Factual Series

• Bedlam -WINNER!
• Educating Yorkshire
• Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day
• The Route Masters: Running London's Roads

Specialist Factual

• David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive -WINNER!
• Martin Luther King and the March on Washington
• Richard III: The King in the Car Park
• Story of the Jews

Single Documentary

• 28Up South Africa
• The Day Kennedy Died
• The Murder Trial -WINNER!
• The Unspeakable Crime: Rape

Features

• The Choir: Sing While You Work
• Grand Designs
• The Great British Bake Off
• Long Lost Family -WINNER!

Current Affairs

• The Cruel Cut
• The Hunt For Britain's Sex Gangs (Dispatches)
• North Korea: Life Inside the Secret State (Dispatches)
• Syria: Across The Lines (Dispatches) -WINNER!

News Coverage

• Channel 4 News
• ITV News At Ten: Woolwich Attacks -WINNER!
• North West Tonight Special: The Dale Cregan Verdict
• ITV Granada Reports: The Lee Rigby Trial

Sport & Live Event

• Bollywood Carmen Live
• Glastonbury 2013
• The Ashes 2013 - 1st Test, Day 5 -WINNER!
• Wimbledon Men's Final