Bleak House Wins Two BAFTAs!
Posted at 2:08 PM (PDT) on Sunday, May 7, 2006

The BBC's Doctor Who and Bleak House have triumphed at the British Academy Television Awards. They each won two awards at the London ceremony, including best drama series for Doctor Who, and best drama serial.

The BBC's Charles Dickens adaptation Bleak House, which had been nominated in four categories, also claimed the best actress award thanks to Anna Maxwell Martin's performance.

She beat fellow Bleak House star Gillian Anderson to the prize.

"I never expected to win," Maxwell Martin said after collecting her award.

"I didn't particularly want to beat Gillian Anderson. I think she's the most worthy of all of us in that particular category and obviously she's an incredible actress."

Actor Dennis Lawson, who played Mr Jarndyce in the critically acclaimed period drama, lost out on the best actor Bafta to Mark Rylance for The Government Inspector.

More at BBC News.

Updated, May 8:

And if any of the crowd harboured dreams of a life in showbiz themselves, they should perhaps remember Anna Maxwell Martin's description of her evening, as she waited to be named best actress.

"I've just felt very sweaty for the past hour and I desperately needed the loo, so really that's what I was thinking. Then when they announced me, I went into a blind panic."

Few could begrudge her an award after that.

For more on "The humble winners of Bafta night," click here.