Fleabag actress Sian Clifford and Chernobyl star Jared Harris were among the winners accepting gongs virtually for this year’s Bafta Television Awards.
Here is what some of this year’s winners had to say:
Tasked to perfection
Greg Davies, speaking after Taskmaster was named winner of the comedy entertainment programme category.
Davies promised there will not be changes to the show when it leaves Dave and moves to Channel 4.
We’ve been asked/told to tweet: Taskmaster’s amazing, handsome and funny @AlexHorne & @GDavies want to say big thank you to the cast, crew, and channel that made it all possible 🤗 #VirginMediaBAFTAs #BAFTAs pic.twitter.com/Ry6AOerVAc
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) July 31, 2020
He said: “No, there won’t be many changes and I believe Alex (Horne) promised that when we made the decision that we would go to another channel, it’s the same show.
“Obviously Covid has had a bit of an impact on how we filmed the most recent series but the show remains the show.
“We have just wrapped on series 10 and we managed to do it in a studio, so there is a lot of measures but we had filmed 99% of the tasks before the pandemic, so we managed to get it all in the can before.”
He added that their Bafta win was “the perfect way to start a new era and to end on a high with them (Dave) and they were wonderful”.
Champagne celebration
Chernobyl star Jared Harris said he is celebrating the series’ Bafta wins, for best actor and mini-series, with champagne.
He said: “It was a long time ago, it was two years ago we were shooting it, you don’t think about this side of the journey when you’re starting or in the middle of it, but of course you want as many people to see what you do and love it and feel about it the same way you do, so it’s tremendously gratifying when you get this response.”
The person originally slated to play the role in #Chernobyl that @JaredHarris just won the BAFTA for Leading Actor for…may surprise you! #VirginMediaBAFTAs #BAFTAs pic.twitter.com/wFYxQq4vrb
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) July 31, 2020
Creator Craig Mazin added: “We have been at this for quite some time, the final episode aired just over a year ago so this feels wonderful, Bafta is this incredible honour and we were a UK production, the vast majority of our cast was UK and this was a European story, so being acknowledged this way by Bafta is wonderful.”
Friends and Fleabag
Actress Sian Clifford, who took home the female performance in a comedy programme award for her role as Claire, sister to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character Fleabag, said: “There is so much history with this show, with my friendship with Phoebe.
“We have just championed each other since that day and I just feel so lucky to have found her and have somebody who believes in me more than I believe in myself.”
Pinch-yourself moment
Mo Gilligan, whose Channel 4 show The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan won the entertainment performance category, said: “I was just so happy to be nominated, so to win hasn’t sunk in yet.
“When it happened we were in lockdown, so it felt a million miles away. I can’t believe I’ve won, if I’m honest.
“Being in a category with people like Graham Norton, who have done it for years, Lee Mack, to be amongst those names and the rest of the celebrities, I’ve only been doing this TV stuff for three or four years, so I still have a lot of pinch-yourself moments.”
.@tomallencomedy had a chat with @MoTheComedian backstage and it’s safe to say he is VERY happy 😍😂 #VirginMediaBAFTAs #BAFTAs pic.twitter.com/oA3bW7kSF0
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) July 31, 2020
Asked to expand on his acceptance speech, where he said his win should give hope to people who look like him, he said: “Within TV, I think we all know there is so much more to do, there is so much work to do to get people like myself on TV, people that sound like me.
“Not feeling like if you’re on TV you have to change the way you speak, hopefully there is someone watching who thinks ‘I am a Mo, I’ve got a friend called Mo and I can do it’, but there is still so much work to do and I think we all collectively know it.”