Ben Whishaw Wins Best Leading Actor – BAFTA TV Awards

Ben Whishaw has won the coveted Leading Actor gong at the BAFTA TV Awards.

Whishaw beat off competition from Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy, Slow Horses’ Gary Oldman, The Responder’s Martin Freeman and Chaske Spencer, who led BBC/Amazon Prime Video’s The English.

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Whishaw played Adam in This is Going to Hurt, Adam Kay’s British medical comedy-drama television miniseries for the BBC. The show focused on the lives of a group of junior doctors working in the NHS, exploring the emotional effects of working in a stressful work environment.

Last year’s winner was Sean Bean for his role in Jimmy McGovern’s BBC prison drama Time.

Whishaw thanked co-star Ambika Mod and said, “You’re my best actor” to the newcomer, who played Shruti in the show. Mod was controversially snubbed from the Best Actress list and the comment appeared to be a barbed reference to this.

It’s been a good evening for Whishaw so far, as his comic performance as Paddington Bear having tea with the late Queen Elizabeth II helped the BBC’s coverage of the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee win Memorable Moment. He has starred in both Paddington features so far, and almost certain reprise the role in the upcoming Paddington in Peru, which we revealed in April had gone into production.

The BAFTA TV Awards are taking place through the late afternoon of Sunday 14 May at London’s Royal Festival Hall. Hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett, they are featuring the great and the good of the UK TV industry.

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