Bafta TV awards 2024: Happy Valley and Top Boy celebrate major wins

Timothy Spall took home the leading actor Bafta

British dramas Happy Valley, Top Boy and The Sixth Commandment were the big winners at the Bafta television awards.

Sarah Lancashire was named best leading actress for her portrayal of no-nonsense Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the swansong of Sally Wainwright’s Yorkshire-set thriller.

Collecting the gong, Lancashire said: “I feel very, very privileged to have been surrounded by these brilliant actors and I thank each and every one of you.”

Lorraine Kelly poses with the Special Award (Photo by Joe Maher/Getty Images)

Cawood’s final kitchen showdown with James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce in the series also won the P&O Cruises memorable moment award.

Gang drama Top Boy was named best drama series, while Jasmine Jobson was named best supporting actress for her role as Jaq Lawrence in the series about the lives of two drug dealers on a Hackney estate.

Matthew Macfadyen won the supporting actor category for the final series of Succession, the conclusion of the drama about the struggle for power in a media dynasty, but the actor who played the ambitious Tom Wambsgans was not at the ceremony.

Timothy Spall took home the leading actor Bafta for true crime series The Sixth Commandment, about the deaths of Peter Farquhar and Ann Moore-Martin in a quiet Buckinghamshire village.

Jasmine Jobson (right) in the press room after winning the Best Supporting Actress award for Top Boy at the BAFTA TV Awards 2024, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Picture date: Sunday May 12, 2024.

The veteran star said: “I didn’t actually write anything down. Look it all up on IMDB and you will see who was involved because to each and every soul of them, they are brilliant.

“Acting is a stupid thing, it’s a soppy old thing, standing up pretending to be someone and pissing around in costume.”

The drama also won the limited series Bafta.

Strictly Come Dancing won the best entertainment prize in its 20th year on the air and co-host Tess Daly celebrated the triumph, saying it was “the best birthday present” to mark two decades on the BBC.

Awards hosts Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan looked bashful when their show Rob And Romesh VS won the comedy entertainment Bafta, while Mawaan Rizwan won the award for best male performance in a comedy for his role in Juice, about a young gay man who desperately wants to be the centre of attention, but his family keep stealing his thunder.

Gbemisola Ikumelo won the female performance in a comedy Bafta for Black Ops.

Collecting the award, she encouraged the audience to repeat her call of “Good is good,” and said: “That is how you know diversity is working!”

She also joked her agent would be telling her next employers: “Yesterday’s price is not today’s price.”

Former Play School children’s presenter Baroness Floella Benjamin was presented with Bafta’s highest honour, the Fellowship, by newsreader Clive Myrie.

Daytime stalwart Lorraine Kelly was also honoured at the ceremony with a special award.

She urged “don’t pull up the ladder” to those from working-class backgrounds to break into the TV industry, as she was presented with the award by Succession star Brian Cox.