Bragg and Cowell the polar ends of BAFTA TV award wins

Melvyn Bragg last night won this year’s Bafta TV fellowship for his long championing of ITV’s arts with the now mothballed flagship The South Bank Show, which itself has been nominated for more than 30 Baftas and won nine. Ironically Simon Cowell was another winner at the London Palladium, with a special award for an outstanding contribution to entertainment and for furthering new talent in reality talent shows such as The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. The political satire The Thick of It won three awards, Julie Walters's win for Best Actress as Mo Mowlam beat herself in the euthanasia drama A Short Stay in Switzerland. The Haiti earthquake brought a three-way fight for the News gong, won by ITV.

The full list of awards follows:

• Fellowship: Melvyn Bragg for his unique contribution to British broadcasting, best known for the multi-award-winning The South Bank Show, which ended its illustrious 32-year run on ITV last year.
• Special Award: Simon Cowell in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the entertainment industry and for his development of new talent. Chair of the BAFTA Television Committee, John Willis, described him as  “quite simply one of the most brilliant entertainment producers of our time.”
• Leading Actor: Kenneth Branagh (Wallander, BBC One) - also nominated Brendan Gleeson (Into the Storm), John Hurt (An Englishman in New York), David Oyelowo (Small Island)
• Leading Actress: Julie Walters (Mo, Channel 4) - also nominated  Julie Walters (A Short Stay In Switzerland), Helena Bonham Carter (Enid), Sophie Okonedo (Mrs Mandela)
• Supporting Actor: Matthew MacFadyen (Criminal Justice, BBC One) - also nominated Benedict Cumberbatch (Small Island, Tom Hollander (Gracie!), Gary Lewis (Mo)
• Supporting Actress: Rebecca Hall (Red Riding) - also nominated Sophie Okonedo (Criminal Justice), Lauren Socha (The Unloved), Imelda Staunton (Cranford)
• Entertainment: Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!) - also nominated Stephen Fry (QI), Harry Hill (Harry Hill’s TV Burp), Michael McIntyre (Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow)
• Female Performance in a Comedy Role: Rebecca Front (The Thick Of It, BBC Two) - also nominated Jo Brand (Getting On), Miranda Hart (Miranda), Joanna Scanlan (Getting On)
• Male Performance in a Comedy Role: Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It, BBC Two) - also nominated Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners), Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered Christmas Special), David Mitchell (Peep Show)
• Single Drama: The Unloved (Samantha Morton, Tony Grisoni, Kate Ogborn, Andrew Eaton Channel 4) - also nominated A Short Stay in Switzerland (Production Team BBC One), Five Minutes of Heaven (Guy Hibbert, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Eoin O’Callaghan, Stephen Wright BBC Two), Mo (Jeff Pope, Neil McKay, Lisa Gilchrist, Philip Martin Channel 4)
• Drama Series: Misfits (Production Team, E4/Clerkenwell Films) - also nominated Being Human (Rob Pursey, Toby Whithouse, Matthew Bouch, Colin Teague BBC Three/Touchpaper Television), Spooks (Production Team BBC One/Kudos Film & TV), The Street (Jimmy McGovern, Sita Williams, Roxy Spencer, David Blair BBC One/ITV Studios)
• Drama Serial: Occupation (Peter Bowker, Derek Wax, Nick Murphy, Laurie Borg BBC One/Kudos Film & TV) - also nominated Red Riding (Production Team Channel 4/Revolution Films), Small Island (Paula Milne, Alison Owen, Vicky Licorish, John Alexander BBC One/Ruby Films and Television & AL Films), Unforgiven (Sally Wainwright, Nicola Schindler, Karen Lewis, David Evans ITV1/Red Production Company)
• Continuing Drama: EastEnders (Production Team BBC One/BBC Productions) - also nominated The Bill (Production Team ITV1/Talkback Thames), Casualty (Production Team BBC One/BBC Productions), Coronation Street (Production Team ITV1/ITV Studios)
• International: Mad Men (Matthew Weiner, Scott Hornbacher BBC Four/Lionsgate) - also nominated Family Guy (Seth Macfarlane BBC Three/Twentieth Century Fox), Nurse Jackie (Evan Dunsky, Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem, Richie Jackson BBC Two/Lionsgate, Showtime Networks, Inc., CBS Studios International), True Blood (Alan Ball, Brian Buckner FX/HBO)
• Factual Series: One Born Every Minute (Production Team Channel 4/ Dragonfly Productions) - also nominated Blood, Sweat and Takeaways (Mark Rubens, Tim Quicke, James Christie-Miller, Jo Bishop BBC Three/Ricochet), The Family (David Clews, Beejal-Maya Patel, Jonathan Smith, Sanjay Singhal Channel 4/Dragonfly Productions), Who Do You Think You Are? (Liz Dobson, Colette Flight, Lucy Carter, Alex Graham BBC One/Wall To Wall)
• Specialist Factual (given in honour of Huw Wheldon): Inside Nature’s Giants (David Dugan, Julian Thomas, Alex Tate, Yvonne Bainton Channel 4/Windfall Films) - also nominated The Art of Russia (Andrew Graham-Dixon, John Hay, Silvia Sacco, Karen McGann BBC Four/BBC Productions), Chemistry: A Volatile History (Jim Al-Khalili, Helen Thomas, Sacha Baveystock, Kim Shillinglaw BBC Four/BBC Productions), Yellowstone (Production Team BBC Two/BBC Productions)
• Single Documentary (given in honour of Robert Flaherty): Wounded (Sara Hardy, Jane Aldous, Gwyn Jones, Roger Courtiour BBC One/BBC Productions) - also nominated Katie: My Beautiful Face (Jessie Versluys, Dan Goldsack, Kate Collier, Samuel Santana Channel 4/Mentorn), Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles (Louis Theroux, Emma Cooper, Guy King, Nick Mirsky BBC Two/BBC Productions), Tsunami: Caught on Camera (Tom Brisley, Janice Sutherland, Sarah Swingler, Alex Kiehl Channel 4/Darlow Smithson Productions)
• Features: Masterchef: The Professionals (Karen Ross, Carla-Maria Lawson, Antonia Lloyd, David Ambler BBC Two/Shine Television) - also nominated The Choir: Unsung Town (Production Team BBC Two/Twenty Twenty Television), Heston’s Feasts (Production Team Channel4/Optomen Television), James May’s Toy Stories (Will Daws, Stuart Cabb, James May, Ian Holt BBC Two/Plum Pictures)
• Current Affairs: Dispatches: Terror in Mumbai (Dan Reed, Eamonn Matthews Channel 4/Quicksilver Media) - also nominated Dispatches: Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines (Najibullah Quraishi, Jamie Doran, John Moffat, Paul Woolwich Channel 4/Clover Films), Generation Jihad (Peter Taylor, Leo Telling, Sam Bagnall BBC Two/BBC Current Affairs), This World: Gypsy Child Thieves (Liviu Tipurita, Sam Bagnall, Lucy Hetherington BBC Two/BBC Current Affairs)
• News Coverage: ITV News at Ten – Haiti (Mark Austin, Bill Neely, Dave Harman, John Irvine ITV1/ITN) - also nominated BBC News Channel - The Haiti Earthquake (Kevin Bakhurst, Ben Brown, Matthew Price, Matt Frei BBC News Channel/BBC News),  Channel 4 News - Haiti Earthquake (Production Team Channel 4/ITN), Sky News - Pakistan: Terror’s Frontline (Production Team Sky News/Sky News)
• Sport: World Athletics Championships (Production Team BBC Two/BBC Sport) - also nominated F1 - The Brazilian Grand Prix (Production Team BBC One/BBC Sport), FA Cup Final (Simon Moore, Paul McNamara, John Watts ITV1/ITV Sport), UEFA Champions League Live (Tony Pastor, John Watts, Paul McNamara ITV1/ITV Sport)
• New Media: The Virtual Revolution (Dan Gluckman, Julian Philips, Dominic Crossley-Holland, Dan Biddle BBC Two/BBC Productions) - also nominated Antony Gormley’s One & Other (Sari Blom, Laura Green, Steve Boland, Antony Gormley Sky Arts/Headshift), One Born Every Minute: Life Begins (Production Team Channel4.com/Airlock/Dragonfly), Primeval Evolved (Production Team ITV1/ITV.COM/Hoodlum/Impossible Pictures)
• Entertainment Programme (given in honour of Lew Grade): Britain’s Got Talent (Production Team ITV1/Talkback Thames) - also nominated The Graham Norton Show (Graham Norton, Jon Magnusson, Graham Stuart, Steve Smith BBC One/So Television), Harry Hill’s TV Burp (Harry Hill, Spencer Millman, Peter Orton ITV1/Avalon Television), Newswipe with Charlie Brooker (Charlie Brooker, Annabel Jones, Nick Vaughan-Smith, Al Campbell BBC Four/Zeppotron)
• Comedy Programme: The Armstrong and Miller Show (Alexander Armstrong, Ben Miller, Caroline Norris, Dominic Brigstocke BBC One/Toff Media) - also nominated The Kevin Bishop Show (Lee Hupfield, Kevin Bishop, Dominic Brigstocke, Sam Martin Channel 4/Objective Productions), Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (Stewart Lee, Tim Kirkby, Richard Webb BBC Two/BBC Productions), That Mitchell and Webb Look (David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Ben Gosling Fuller, Gareth Edwards BBC Two/BBC Productions)
• Situation Comedy: The Thick Of It (Armando Iannucci, Adam Tandy BBC Two/BBC Productions) - also nominated The Inbetweeners (Damon Beesley, Iain Morris, Ben Palmer, Christopher Young E4/Bwark Productions), Miranda (Jo Sargent, Nerys Evans, Juliet May, Miranda Hart BBC Two/BBC Productions), Peep Show (Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong, Phil Clarke, Becky Martin Channel 4/Objective Productions)
• YouTube Audience Award: The Inbetweeners (E4/Bwark Productions) - also nominated Britain's Got Talent (ITV1/Talkback Thames), Glee (E4/20th Century Fox), The One Show (BBC One/BBC Productions), Unforgiven (ITV1/Red Production Company), The X Factor (ITV1/Talkback Thames/Syco)

Watch Melvyn Bragg's speech at the awards ceremony: "We decided to concentrate on living artists - not the great dead, they look after themselves."