Baftas snub Ross to honour grand old man of television

Soap star June Brown loses out to actress Anna Maxwell Martin

(GETTY)

Jonathan Ross missed out on a TV Bafta tonight, while Sir David Attenborough picked up an award for the first time in 10 years – nearly half a century after winning his first.

Ross, 48, was nominated for his Friday night show despite being taken off the air for 12 weeks last year for his part in the Andrew Sachs obscene phone calls scandal. He was shortlisted in the entertainment performance category – won by Harry Hill for his TV Burp for the second year in a row.

Accepting the award, the 44-year-old Hill said: "I never thought I would win three Baftas for a clips show," referring to his weekly madcap recap of TV highlights and lowlights.

Sir David walked off with the specialist factual Bafta for Life In Cold Blood – the eighth time he and his programmes have been honoured. The 82-year-old naturalist's first Bafta came in 1961, though today's award is his first since 1999. Sir David said: "I have got the best job going. To go round the world and see the most marvellous things is the luckiest thing anybody could wish for."

The awards, hosted by Graham Norton at London's Royal Festival Hall, saw EastEnders' June Brown miss out on the best actress award. Anna Maxwell Martin took it for Poppy Shakespeare.

David Mitchell, who won in 2007 for That Mitchell And Webb Look, landed the award for comedy performance in Peep Show. The BBC won the battle of the broadcasters, winning eight Baftas across all its channels, though Channel 4 won the most for an individual channel with seven. ITV won five.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were given the academy fellowship. "This is a huge honour and after 30 years it's kind of like the cherry on the icing on the cake," Saunders said.

And the winners include...

*Actor: Stephen Dillane, The Shooting Of Thomas Hurndall

*Actress: Anna Maxwell Martin, Poppy Shakespeare

*Entertainment: Harry Hill, Harry Hill's TV Burp

*Comedy: David Mitchell, Peep Show

*Specialist factual: Life In Cold Blood

*International: Mad Men

*Factual series: Amazon

*Features: The Choir: Boys Don't Sing

*Situation comedy: The IT Crowd