Little Britain walks off with two BAFTA gongs

LONDON - Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the creators and stars of the BBC Three comedy series Little Britain, walked off with top honours in two categories at the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA) on Sunday.

The show, which began life on radio, was named Best Comedy Performance and Best Comedy Series at the annual BAFTA awards at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Rhys Ifans was named best actor for the UK Channel 4 drama Not Only But Always in which he played comic legend Peter Cook.

Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca won best actress for her television debut in Sex Traffic, a Channel 4 drama about eastern Europeans being sold into prostitution in London.

Paul O'Grady won the award for entertainment performance for his new chat show The Paul O'Grady Show.

Television's longest-running soap Coronation Street won the Continuing Drama award for the third successive year, while Shameless, the Channel 4 drama set in a Manchester estate, won the Best Drama Series category.

Veteran presenter and interviewer Sir David Frost received an Academy Fellowship and the best-known traveller on the small screen Michael Palin was given a special award.

- REUTERS