The red carpet's being rolled up and the trophies have all been given out at the 2016 House of Fraser BAFTA TV Awards - and Wolf Hall, Peter Kay's Car Share and This Is England '90 were among the night's big winners.
Mark Rylance did the double following his BAFTA (and Oscars) success for Bridge of Spies, taking home the Lead Actor prize for Wolf Hall.
Rylance described Peter Kosminsky as "a lion of a director" in his acceptance speech - and that was certainly true when the filmmaker's passionate defence of the BBC and Channel 4 sparked a standing ovation and raucous cheers in the Royal Festival Hall.
"I agree with Peter that times are hard," Rylance added in his own acceptance speech, "but I think 'whoah' to any government or anyone who tries to get between the British people and the love of a good story."
BAFTA TV Awards 2016: All the news, gossip and exclusives from the winners
Peter Kay's Car Share also did the double, scooping the awards for scripted comedy and a gong for its star - who was quite literally speechless.
What to Read Next
There were two awards for This is England '90 too, with Shane Meadows' acclaimed drama scooping the Mini-Series award and its star Chanel Cresswell winning the Supporting Actress award for her portrayal of Lol's troubled sister Kelly.
Suranne Jones – widely acclaimed for her starring role in Doctor Foster – won the Leading Actress prize.
Elsewhere, rising star Michaela Coel added to her BAFTA Craft Award for Breakthrough Talent for Chewing Gum with the prize for Female Comedy Performance.
And Leigh Francis - aka Keith Lemon - won an award for Entertainment Performance for Celebrity Juice.
EastEnders pipped its soap rivals Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Holby City to the post for Soap and Continuing Drama, while there were awards for reality TV hits First Dates, Strictly Come Dancing and The Great British Bake Off, too.
Mary Berry and Nadiya Hussain were on hand to collect the prize for the BBC's popular baking show - and Nadiya's husband Abdal said that he was "so proud" of her.
Aidan Turner's Poldark triumphed in the hotly-contested Radio Times Audience Award, beating Doctor Foster, The Great British Bake Off, Humans, Making a Murderer and Peter Kay's Car Share.
The night ended with Sir Lenny Henry accepting a BAFTA Special Award celebrating his outstanding contribution to TV.
Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
Kate's screen passions include Taskmaster (their biggest career regret remains turning down the opportunity to visit the house), nature documentaries, and live sport (up there with the greatest of all soap operas although if asked to choose, it's Corrie… every time).
Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
LinkedIn
















