Adolescence makes history and Celebrity Traitors triumphs at Baftas

The Netflix series won four prizes at the ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall

Adolescence makes history and Celebrity Traitors triumphs at BaftasPA Media

Adolescence has made Bafta history as it completed its winning streak through awards season, taking top prizes at the Television Awards, where Celebrity Traitors also triumphed.

The hit Netflix drama, about a teenage boy accused of a terrible crime, claimed four awards, the most won by a single TV series in the main ceremony.

It was named best limited drama, while stars Stephen Graham, Christine Tremarco and Owen Cooper all won awards.

Owen Cooper, winner of the best supporting actor award for Adolescence, in the winners room at the BAFTA TV Awards 2026, at the Royal Festival Hall in London.PA Media
Owen Cooper, winner of the best supporting actor award for Adolescence, in the winners room at the BAFTA TV Awards 2026, at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Graham was named best leading actor, Tremarco won the supporting actress prize and Cooper took supporting actor.

Graham, who co-wrote the script with Jack Thorne, has won a string of awards for his performance in the Netflix series, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe, but had never won a Bafta.

Speaking on stage, he said: “I might take my time. I’ve been nominated eight times and this is the first time I’ve won.

“Nice one Bafta, this is lovely.

“When I was a kid, I watched a telly programme called Scully, written by Alan Bleasdale, and it had the wonderful Drew Schofield in it and he lived across the road from my nana’s house, so he showed me that I could be on the telly.

“He was my inspiration. So for any other young kid, no matter where you’re from, anything is possible.

“We are all people that have done that, we get to do what we love, which is different.

“We’re not digging holes, we’re not digging ditches, we’re not saving lives, but we have the opportunity to tell the human condition, and we have the obligation to tell beautiful stories and we need to keep that going.”

Cooper, 16, who has also proved unbeatable through awards season, won the first prize of the night and said: “A year ago, I was presenting an award and now I’m collecting one. This is a bit mad.”

He added: “In the words of John Lennon, you won’t get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it.

“So in my eyes, I think you only need three things to succeed: one, you need an obsession; two, you need a dream; and three, you need The Beatles.”

Graham echoed this sentiment in his speech when he said: “The kid’s already said it, but in the words of The Beatles, all we need is love, namaste.”

Tremarco was named best supporting actress for playing Cooper’s mother.

She said: “I feel so privileged to be standing up here holding this Bafta. I feel so honoured to be part of Adolescence.

“I hold this Bafta high.”

The show also won two prizes at the Bafta Craft Awards last weekend for directing and sound.

Alan Carr and Paloma Faith attending the BAFTA TV Awards 2026, at the Royal Festival Hall in London.PA Media
Alan Carr and Paloma Faith attending the BAFTA TV Awards 2026, at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Celebrity Traitors won the best reality award, as well as the memorable moment prize, for Alan Carr’s treacherous victory.

Collecting the award, he said: “Was I good? Was I really? Or were the other celebrities just thick?

“It was Nick (Mohammed) who made me cry – we were round that round table and he went, ‘We’ve got this’, and I was like, ‘No, I’ve got this’.

“When I laughed in their faces and went ‘I’m a faithful’, I was packing my bags. But I had the best time ever.”

Referring to the cast filming the second series in Scotland, he said: “I’m so jealous of all the celebs up there doing it, I wish I could do it all again.

“Sometimes, when I’m a bit sad, I remember the laughter. I can even smell Celia’s fart.

“I dedicate this to Paloma (Faith): there is no-one else I would rather murder than you.”

While it was not nominated, the audible fart Celia Imrie emitted during the show was a recurring gag throughout the ceremony, referenced by Carr, host Greg Davies and even US star Seth Rogen.

Comedy show Last One Laughing won two awards, for entertainment programme and entertainment performance for Bob Mortimer.

Hit BBC comedy Amandaland won the prize for best scripted comedy.

The leading actress Bafta was won by Narges Rashidi for her portrayal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Prisoner 951.

Dedicating the prize to the British-Iranian woman who was imprisoned in Tehran, and her family, Rashidi said: “Your resilience, your dignity, your love through impossible circumstances have moved us all.

“Your courage will stay with me for the rest of my life. This is for you.”

She added: “I was a seven-year-old who survived war. In Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, they may never get that opportunity, that chance.”

Leading actress in a comedy was won by Katherine Parkinson for Here We Go, while leading actor in a comedy went to Steve Coogan for How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge).

During his speech, Coogan pledged to play Partridge for the rest of his life, saying: “Doing comedy in these troubled times is so important. It’s a privilege to make people laugh after all these years.

“I will keep on doing it. If anyone wants to know when Alan Partridge is going to die, it’s about the same time that I am going to die.”

EastEnders was named best soap, while US comedy The Studio was named best international.

Code Of Silence, starring Rose Ayling-Ellis as a deaf canteen worker who helps police with a dangerous investigation using her advanced lip-reading skills, called on the TV industry to improve representation, saying: “The industry needs to improve and hopefully it will.”

TV chef and former Bake Off judge Dame Mary Berry was honoured with the Bafta fellowship, saying: “I’m really bowled over by this accolade. I’m a cook, I’m a teacher, so I feel very honoured to be given Bafta’s highest award.”

She reflected on her career with the BBC and said the corporation was “the broadcaster that we must cherish”.

Consumer champion Martin Lewis was given the special award.

Collecting the prize at the Royal Festival Hall, he said he wrote his speech on Thursday, 42 years after the death of his mother when he was 11.

He said: “For six years, barring school, I barely left the house. Now I’m picking up a Bafta.

“Life can be transformed, it can get better.

“If you had told that broken, scared boy that I’d proudly be a campaigning journalist, his jaw would have dropped.

“So I dedicate this to consumer journalism, where I found my voice.”

Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, the documentary commissioned and then shelved by the BBC over impartiality concerns and later aired by Channel 4, won the current affairs Bafta.

During his speech on stage, executive producer Ben de Pear referred to the fact the BBC airs the ceremony on delay, saying: “Finally, just a question for the BBC: given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?”

Grenfell: Uncovered was awarded the Bafta for single documentary, and director Olaide Sadiq used her acceptance speech to say the victims of the fire “deserve justice”.

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