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Stars to hit TV Bafta red carpet Harry Hill takes Bafta TV prize
(about 15 hours later)
Stars from the small screen will gather for the Bafta Television Awards later at the ceremony's new venue - London's Royal Festival Hall. Harry Hill has been named the UK's best entertainment performer at the Bafta TV Awards for the second year in a row.
BBC Four drama Hancock and Joan, about the life of comedian Tony Hancock, leads the way with three nominations. Hill beat Stephen Fry, Ant and Dec and Jonathan Ross to the trophy - his third Bafta TV award in total.
Stephen Fry, Harry Hill and Jonathan Ross compete for the best entertainment performance prize, alongside ITV duo Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. "I never thought I'd get three Baftas for a clip show. Ridiculous," he joked. But he lost out in the entertainment show category, where X Factor won.
EastEnders star June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton, is up for best actress. The Bill won best continuing drama, while Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh, was named best drama series.
Brown's nomination marks the first time a soap actress has been nominated in her category since Jean Alexander - Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street - was shortlisted in 1988. Branagh's award was his first TV Bafta, and came 20 years after he won a film Bafta for Henry V.
The 82-year-old, who has played Dot Cotton (now Branning) since EastEnders' launch in 1985, is cited for a January 2008 episode in which she appeared alone. He said it was "marvellous" to win, and thanked the BBC for commissioning the programme, based on the detective novels by Swedish author Henning Mankell.
Brown (left) receives her first Bafta nomination at the age of 82 Kenneth Branagh played Kurt Wallander in the Sweden-set drama
Other best actress nominees include Andrea Riseborough, recognised for playing the young Margaret Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley. "They took a risk in wondering whether the world would be interested in the troubled life of a melancholy Scandinavian," he said.
Hancock and Joan's three nominations include a best actor nod for star Ken Stott. Wallander beat Doctor Who, Spooks and Shameless to the award.
Stott's competition includes rising star Ben Whishaw for Criminal Justice and Jason Isaacs, cited for his role as comedian Harry H Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe. The Bill, meanwhile, beat EastEnders, Casualty and Emmerdale to the continuing drama trophy, earning the ITV police show its first Bafta in 25 years.
Hancock and Joan also gets a best actress nod for Maxine Peake, with its third nomination coming in the best single drama category. EastEnders also lost out in the best actress category, where June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton, was the first soap star to be nominated since 1988.
Elsewhere, Brown's former EastEnders co-star Ross Kemp gets two nominations for his factual programmes in Afghanistan and Kenya. The 82-year-old, who has played Dot Cotton (now Branning) since EastEnders' launch in 1985, was cited for a January 2008 episode in which she appeared alone.
QI, hosted by Stephen Fry, faces competition for best entertainment programme from The X Factor, Harry Hill's TV Burp and The Friday Night Project (also known as The Sunday Night Project). But the best actress gong went to Anna Maxwell Martin for her role as a mental health patient in Channel 4's Poppy Shakespeare. She won the same award for Bleak House in 2005.
French and Saunders will receive a special award Stephen Dillane was named best actor for playing a grieving father in The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, also on Channel 4.
In the features category, Sir Alan Sugar's reality contest The Apprentice goes up against Jeremy Clarkson's motoring show Top Gear. Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse were given the best comedy programme trophy for their sketch show Harry and Paul.
Meanwhile, comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are to receive a Bafta Fellowship at the awards. class="" href="/1/hi/in_pictures/8019620.stm">In pictures: Stars on the Bafta TV Awards red carpet
They will be the second double-act to win the prestigious award, following Morecambe and Wise, who were honoured in 1999. Four-time winner Whitehouse congratulated Enfield, who had never won before. Enfield joked: "This time I made sure he was in the show so I might get at least a touch of it too."
The duo dedicated their award to their late producer Geoffrey Perkins, who died last year.
David Mitchell won best comedy performance for Peep Show, and thanked his comedy partner Robert Webb, who was not nominated.
The best sitcom prize went to Channel 4's The IT Crowd, which was chosen above Peep Show, Outnumbered and The Inbetweeners.
Some 48 years after his first Bafta, Sir David Attenborough received the award for best specialist factual for Life in Cold Blood, his series on reptiles and amphibians.
Jennifer Saunders is "honoured" to receive the Bafta Fellowship with Dawn French
He said the success of the show was down to the animals, adding: "Our thanks of course goes to spitting cobras, axelotls, golden frogs, dwarf chameleons, those happy tortoises."
BBC Four drama Hancock and Joan, about the life of comedian Tony Hancock, led the way with three nominations - up for best single drama, best actor for Ken Stott, best actress for Maxine Peake.
But it lost out in all three categories.
Meanwhile, comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders received Bafta's highest honour, the Fellowship.
They were the second double-act to receive the prestigious honour, following Morecambe and Wise, who were honoured in 1999.
The ceremony, hosted by Graham Norton in London, is the most prestigious night in the British TV calendar.