C4 WIN BAFTA HAT TRICK FOR ‘LONGTITUDE’

CHANNEL 4 drama ‘Longitude’ won three BAFTA awards at this year’s British Academy Television Craft Awards, but BBC2 had the most successful night, picking up seven of the 14 awards.
‘Longitude’, produced by Granada Films, was nominated for a record-breaking eight nominations. It won Production Design, Photography & Lighting Fiction/Entertainment and Original Television Music.
BBC2’s ‘Gormenghast’, which was up against ‘Longitude’ in six categories, came away with two awards, Make Up & Hair Design and Visual Effects & Graphic Design.
BBC2 also won awards for Costume Design for ‘The League of Gentlemen’ and Photography Factual for ‘Wisconsin Death Trip’ as well as the three new talent awards, Ed McCardie for ‘Tinsel Town’, Dominic Savage for ‘Nice Girl’, and Sarah MacDonald for ‘Newsnight Special: A Family Affair’. The new talent awards were introduced for the first time this year to recognise the importance of new talent in writing and direction.
Two special awards were presented this year – to World Productions, the production company behind such hits as ‘Ballykissangel’, ‘The Cops’, and ‘This Life’ and to cinematographer Brian Tufano, whose work includes ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘Trainspotting’, ‘East Is East’ and ‘Quadrophenia’, as well as TV series including ‘Silent Witness’, ‘Middlemarch’ and ‘Mr Wroe’s Virgins’.
ITV’s ‘South Bank Show: Simon Rattle on Judith Weir’ won the Sound Factual category, while an Omnibus programme about Dudley Moore was awarded the Editing Factual prize.
Channel 4 drama North Square, meanwhile, was awarded the Editing Fiction/Entertainment prize.
The awards were established last year to recognise the exceptional talent of British Television craft people. The ceremony was held at Sadler’s Wells and hosted by Liza Tarbuck. Individual citation readers included Kevin Whately, Robbie Coltrane, Alice Evans, Brian May, Michelle Collins, Samantha Bond, the Academy’s vice president Lord Puttnam and Roy Marsden. Filmed tributes included Ewan McGregor and Edward Woodward. (CD)