# 2006 British Academy Television Awards

The 2006 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 7 May at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The ceremony was hosted by television presenter Davina McCall and broadcast on ITV the following day. The nominees for the audience-voted Pioneer Award were announced on Tuesday 14 March; other nominees were revealed on Monday 27 March.

## Winners

* Best Actor
** Winner: Mark Rylance — The Government Inspector (Channel 4)
** Nominees: Bernard Hill — A Very Social Secretary (More4); Denis Lawson — Bleak House (BBC One); Rufus Sewell — The Taming of the Shrew (BBC One)
* Best Actress
** Winner: Anna Maxwell Martin — Bleak House (BBC One)
** Nominees: Gillian Anderson — Bleak House (BBC One); Lucy Cohu — The Queen's Sister (Channel 4); Anne-Marie Duff — Shameless (Channel 4)
* Best Comedy (Programme or Series)
** Winner: Help (BBC / BBC Two)
** Nominees: The Catherine Tate Show (Tiger Aspect Productions / BBC Two); Creature Comforts (Aardman Animations / ITV); Little Britain (BBC / BBC One / BBC Three)
* Best Comedy Performance
** Winner: Chris Langham — The Thick of It (BBC Four);
** Nominees: Peter Capaldi — The Thick of It (BBC Four); Ashley Jensen — Extras (BBC Two); Catherine Tate — The Catherine Tate Show (BBC Two)
* Best Drama Serial
** Winner: Bleak House (BBC /Deep Indigo Productions/WGBH / BBC One)
** Nominees: Fingersmith (Sally Head Productions / BBC One); Funland (BBC / BBC Three); To the Ends of the Earth (BBC / Power Productions / Tightrope Pictures / BBC Two)
* Best Drama Series
** Winner: Doctor Who (BBC Wales / BBC One)
** Nominees: Bodies (Hat Trick Productions / BBC Three); Shameless (Company Pictures / Channel 4); Spooks (Kudos Film & Television / BBC One)
* Best Single Drama
** Winner: The Government Inspector (Mentorn Television/Stonehenge Films / arte France Cinéma / Channel 4)
** Nominees: Much Ado About Nothing (BBC Northern Ireland / BBC One); The Queen's Sister (Touchpaper Television / Channel 4); Red Dust (BBC / Distant Horizon / Videovision Entertainment/Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa / BBC Films / BBC Two)
* Best Continuing Drama
** Winner: EastEnders (BBC / BBC One)
** Nominees: Casualty (BBC / BBC One); Coronation Street (Granada Television / ITV); Holby City (BBC / BBC One)
* Best Current Affairs
** Winner: Dispatches - Beslan (??? / Channel 4)
** Nominees: Panorama Special - Undercover Nurse (BBC / BBC One); Dispatches - Iraq: The Reckoning (??? / Channel 4); Storyville - A Company of Soldiers (??? / BBC Four)
* Best Entertainment Performance
** Winner: Jonathan Ross — Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (BBC One)
** Nominees: Jeremy Clarkson — Top Gear (BBC Two); Jack Dee — Jack Dee Live at the Apollo (BBC One); Noel Edmonds — Deal or No Deal (Channel 4)
* Best Factual Series or Strand
** Winner: Jamie's School Dinners (Fresh One Productions / Channel 4)
** Nominees: 49 Up (Granada Television / ITV); Cocaine (??? / Channel 4); Coast (BBC Birmingham / BBC Two)
* Best Feature
** Winner: The Apprentice (Talkback Thames / BBC Two)
** Nominees: Dragons' Den (BBC / BBC Two); Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (??? / Channel 4); Top Gear (BBC / BBC Two)
* Flaherty Award for Single Documentary
** Winner: Make Me Normal (Century Films / Channel 4)
** Nominees: Children of Beslan (??? / BBC Two); The Real Sex Traffic (??? / Channel 4); Taxidermy: Stuff the World (Century Films / BBC Two)
* Huw Wheldon Award for Specialist Factual
** Winner: Holocaust, a Memorial Film From Auschwitz (BBC / BBC Two)
** Nominees: The Boy with the Incredible Brain (Focus Productions / Five); Life in the Undergrowth (BBC Natural History Unit / BBC One); No Direction Home (Spitfire Pictures / BBC Two)
* Lew Grade Entertainment Programme or Series
** Winner: The X Factor (Talkback Thames / SYCOtv / ITV)
** Nominees: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (Open Mike Productions / BBC One); Have I Got News For You (Hat Trick Productions / BBC One); Strictly Come Dancing (BBC / BBC One)
* News Coverage
** Winner: BBC Ten O'Clock News - 7 July 2005, London Bombs (BBC / BBC One)
** Nominees: Channel 4 News - The Attorney General Story (ITN / Channel 4); ITV Evening News - The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes (ITN / ITV); Sky News - 7 July bombings (Sky News)
* Situation Comedy Award
** Winner: The Thick of It (BBC / BBC Four)
** Nominees: Extras (BBC / HBO / BBC Two); Peep Show (Objective Productions / Channel 4); The Worst Week of My Life (Hat Trick Productions / BBC One)
* Sport
** Winner: The Ashes - England v Australia (Sunset + Vine / Channel 4)
** Nominees: Champions League Final Live: AC Milan v Liverpool (Granada Sport / ITV); Formula One - United States Grand Prix (North One Television / Granada Sport / ITV); The Open Championship - Final Round of Jack Nicklaus (BBC / BBC Two)
* Interactivity
** Winner: Coast (BBC/BBC Two)
** Nominees: Channel 4 News - Breaking the News (Illumina Digital / ITN / Channel 4 / More 4); Not Forgotten / Lost Generation (Wall To Wall / Darlow Smithson Productions / Channel 4); Shakespeare's Stories (BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment / BBC One)
* The Pioneer Award
** Winner: Doctor Who (BBC One)
** Nominees: The Apprentice (BBC Two); Bleak House (BBC One); The Catherine Tate Show (BBC Two); Desperate Housewives (Channel 4); Jamie's School Dinners (Channel 4); Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One); The X-Factor (ITV)
* The Dennis Potter Award
** Russell T Davies
* The Alan Clarke Award
** Adam Curtis
* The Richard Dimbleby Award
** Jamie Oliver
* Fellowship
** Ken Loach