Comedy award for BBC2's 'The Office'

The spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary The Office continued its critical success yesterday when it picked up a prize at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards.

The workplace comedy, which is shown on BBC2, saw off competition from the controversial Brass Eye special on paedophiles and Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights to take the award for best situation comedy and comedy drama.

However, the star of The Office, writer and comedian Ricky Gervais was beaten to the best actor award by David Suchet, for his role in BBC1's The Way We Live Now. The best actress prize went to Diane Parish for her role in BBC2's drama Babyfather.

The BBC won the battle of the networks picking up 16 of the 26 awards on offer including Clocking Off for the best drama series. Perfect Strangers picked up honours for BBC2, winning best serial or single drama and best writer for Stephen Poliakoff.