The show, which approaches the story of a woman
who tries to rebuild her life following a sexual assault with
moments of dark humour, had previously received awards from
British Academy of Film and Television Arts for directing,
editing and writing.
"Not only is Arabella someone who's very close to me, I feel
like she represents a lot of women who aren't really seen on
television - she's messy and she's not perfect," Coel said
tearfully of her character in a post-awards interview.
She paid tribute to Ita O'Brien, the show's intimacy coordinator
in charge of making cast and crew feel safe while filming scenes
that were intimate or sexual in nature.
Many nominees attended the awards in person at the London
ceremony, with indoor gatherings now allowed in England
following a partial lifting of COVID-19 lockdown rules.
However, others did so online.
Dance Troupe "Diversity" won the Must See Moment award, voted
for by the British public and announced by a virtual audience
member, for their performance dedicated to George Floyd and the
Black Lives Matter movement on ITV's "Britain's Got Talent".
"I have to say thank you to the people that complained, to the
people that did put all of that abuse out there online - because
you showed the truth, you showed exactly why this performance,
this moment, was necessary," Diversity's leader Ashley Banjo
said.
BAFTA awarded the thriller "Save Me Too", created by and
starring Lennie James as a flawed father searching for his
missing daughter, with its drama prize.
"Dear God we're going to have a party when I get back to
England," James told the BAFTA awards via video link.
Paul Mescal, a first-time nominee who starred in Irish drama
series "Normal People", took the award for leading actor.
The supporting actor prize went to Malachi Kirby for his role in
"Small Axe" - directed by Oscar winner Steve McQueen and which
is made up of stories about West Indian immigrants in London in
the 1960s-1980s. The show received 15 nominations in all.
Rakie Ayola won the supporting actress BAFTA for her turn in
"Anthony", a Jimmy McGovern-penned film that imagines the bright
future that Anthony Walker, a Black teenager murdered 16 years
ago in a racist attack in Liverpool, should have lived.
Ayola played Gee Walker, Anthony's mother.
"Gee Walker, thank you for having the bravery and the strength
to ask Jimmy McGovern to write your son's story - to celebrate
the person that Anthony Walker should have been, and never was,"
Ayola said in her acceptance speech.
(Additional reporting by Sophie Royle; editing by Diane Craft)
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