Last night, the great and good of the TV world descended upon the Royal Albert Hall for a night of celebration.
It was a star-studded night, but more than a few walked away empty-handed – while still others managed to pip their peers to the post and scoop an unexpected gong.
Here’s our pick of the biggest surprises (and snubs) of the night.
Biggest surprise? Blue Lights
In what must have been one of the bigger surprises of the night, the winner for the coveted Best Drama award was not one of the heavy hitters like Sherwood or indeed Wolf Hall, the 5-star dramas beloved by the critics. Instead, it went to Blue Lights, the Northern Ireland police procedural drama that follows a group of police officers as they go about trying to tackle crime post-Troubles.
“Thanks to our amazing cast and crew - those here and those back in Belfast,” the show’s co-creator Declan Lawn said. " We've been on a quite a journey together through this season. It's been pretty extraordinary.”
Marisa Abela wins Best Actress
The other big surprise? Marisa Abela taking home the trophy for Best Actress, in a crowded field that saw her beat Anna Maxwell Martin (Until I Kill You), Monica Dolan (who appeared in Mr Bates vs the Post Office) and Sharon D Clarke, who starred in Mr Loverman.
The actress plays Yasmin Kara-Hanani in the BBC/ HBO drama Industry, and got emotional as she accepted the award. “Yasmin changed my life. I started off carrying salads into that office, but you really allowed me to take it wherever I wanted to take it,” she said. “And you just wrote with such excitement and such ferociousness, and it allowed me to just go for it. And I thank you so, so much for that.”
Danny Dyer
Cockney hardman Danny Dyer completed his arc to serious actor by netting an award for his role in Sky show Mr Bigstuff. Despite calling the acting “so bad it was funny”, Dyer also managed to let rip with a couple of (very not allowed) F-bombs as he celebrated on-stage. “I want to thank Sky for giving our show a shot. F***ing hell, I’m choked up,” he said. All the more so considering the competition: Nabhaan Rizwan, Oliver Savell and Phil Dunning.
Biggest snub? The Traitors
Beloved gameshow The Traitors was one of the biggest shows to lose out this year, failing to scoop any awards in any of its nominated categories this year. For the coveted Reality Show prize, it (and others) were instead pipped to the post by Channel 4’s The Jury: Murder Trial. To rub salt in the wound, Claudia Winkleman then lost out to Joe Lycett in the host category. Justice for the Traitors.
Gavin and Stacey
This is more of a retrospective snub, but can we take a minute to wonder why Gavin and Stacey missed out on being nominated for Best Comedy? Sure, the show aired at Christmas, but only Ruth Jones managed to bring home any awards, for best female performance in a comedy. Boo: the show was undoubtedly robbed.
Baby Reindeer
Richard Gadd’s darkly funny Netflix show about a man who ends up being stalked was based on his own real-life experiences – and blew up massively when it launched in April last year. On its heels came controversy, some hefty legal issues and an outburst of internet sleuthing that must have proved overwhelming for the team involved.
While Baby Reindeer did pick up some gongs last night (most notably for Jessica Gunning, who won Best Supporting Actress, and Richard Gadd, who picked up best writer) it did also miss out on two of the biggest awards: Best Actor (for Gadd) and best drama. Given how it swept the board at the Emmys earlier this year, that’s quite a turnaround.
Slow Horses
Won’t anybody think of Slow Horses? The show continued its losing streak at awards ceremonies by failing to scoop any awards – either for Leading Actor (Gary Oldman) or for the multiple people nominated for a supporting role. I’ve railed before about how the Slow Horses team has been repeatedly robbed when it comes to netting an award (read more about that here) and it’s long past time people recognised how excellent the show is.
