Bafta Craft Awards: The night's big winners and ceremony highlights

30th Apr 2019 | Source: BBC

Hugh Grant starred in A Very English Scandal, which won three awards

A Very English Scandal was the big winner at the Bafta TV Craft Awards on Sunday night, scooping three prizes.

The BBC drama was recognised for best costume design, best editing (fiction) and best director (fiction) for Stephen Frears.

The series, broadcast last year, starred Hugh Grant and was based on the Jeremy Thorpe scandal.

The Bafta Craft Awards recognise behind-the-scenes production talent like writers, editors and sound mixers.

The ceremony takes place in the month before the main Bafta TV Awards, which generally reward on-screen talent.

Here's a round-up of the big winners and some highlights from Sunday's ceremony:

Killing Steve

The ceremony was hosted by actor and comedian Stephen Mangan, who referenced one of the biggest TV hits of last year in an opening parody sketch.

He dressed up as Jodie Comer's ruthless assassin Villanelle from Killing Eve - complete with the frothy pink dress - and was seen auditioning for hosting duties.

"You don't frighten me, I've worked with Jeremy Irons," he tells two psychiatrists in a scene titled "Killing Steve" (brilliant).

The two men questioning him refer to the "psychopathic quality" he brought to his recent awards presenting.

After they have quizzed him, he whips out a gun and shoots them both.

"Oops!" he says, in a nod to Villanelle's cavalier attitude to killing in the show.

'Don't forget about Bros!'

The funniest and most viral moment of the night came as a documentary about Bros which became a surprise Christmas TV hit was awarded the best editing (factual) prize.

Mel Giedroyc presented this category, and struck a light-hearted tone as she announced the winner.

"And the Bafta goes to... [long pause] - real Bake Off pause there, did you like that, really long, just ludicrously long!" she joked before announcing Will Gilbey as the winner.

After a lengthy acceptance speech in which he thanked several people, Gilbey began to wrap up by saying: "I can't think of anyone else... I'm having a massive mental blank."

The problem, was he hadn't actually thanked Bros themselves.

Giedroyc came to his rescue by waltzing back up to the podium and loudly reminding him: "Matt and Luke, Matt and Luke, Matt and Luke!"

Fortunately, Matt Goss saw the funny side of Gilbey's omission on Twitter.

Red carpet glamour

There were plenty of fabulous dresses and tuxedos on display at the red carpet ahead of the ceremony, from both the nominees and category presenters.

Here's a selection of just a few who posed next to the giant Bafta.

Alex Kingston, Mel Giedroyc, Ainsley Harriott

TV presenter Konnie Huq with her Black Mirror writer husband Charlie Brooker

Diane Morgan, Nina Toussaint-White and Michael Palin

Winners and speeches

Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper jointly won the prize for best writer (comedy) for This Country at the ceremony.

Charlie beautifully summed up the love-hate nature of sibling relationships as he accepted the prize.

"My sister Daisy unfortunately isn't here today," he explained. "But as much as we sort of hate each other most of the time, and I know I don't say it as much as I should, but I do love you... in a way."

Script supervisor Emma Thomas was presented with the Special Award for her outstanding contribution to the industry.

Thomas has worked on classic television shows including Goodnight Sweetheart, Birds Of A Feather, Benidorm, Bad Education, Luther and The Bill.

"This must be what it's like when your life flashes before you," Thomas joked. "Thank you Bafta for this incredible acknowledgement of my career in script supervision and continuity."

She also praised changes in the TV industry, commenting: "It's wonderful to see more women on set as DOPs [directors of photography], lighting gaffers and grips.

"It's been wonderful to work with more female directors in the last five years as I have done in most of my career," she added before the crowd broke into applause.

Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh star in Killing Eve, which took home two prizes

The night's big winner, A Very English Scandal, took home more prizes than Killing Eve, which had been the favourite with nine nominations.

But the drama, which stars Sandra Oh as MI5 officer Eve alongside Comer as Villanelle, still took home two prizes - for original music and sound: fiction.

How to create the Killer soundtrack

However, the show's writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge lost out in the best writer (drama) category to David Nicholls, who wrote Patrick Melrose.

Killing Eve is likely to be one of the big winners at the main Bafta TV Awards next month, which take place on Sunday 12 May at London's Royal Festival Hall.

The show was considered so worthy of awards recognition that Bafta actively bent the rules to allow it to be nominated at the ceremony this year.