Brits dominate Golden Globes TV Awards
By BBC
British actors have enjoyed a golden night in the TV categories at the Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood.
Three stars of BBC spy drama The Night Manager – Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie – won acting prizes.
Claire Foy, who plays the Queen in Netflix’s royal epic The Crown, was named best TV drama actress and the show won best TV drama.
In the other TV categories, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story and Atlanta won two awards each.
The Golden Globe Awards, which are run by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, honour the best in TV and film from the past year. The musical La La Land swept the board in the film categories.
In the TV section, The Night Manager was the biggest winner. The six-part thriller was adapted from the 1993 John Le Carre novel of the same name and made by the BBC and US network AMC.
Hiddleston won best performance by an actor in a mini-series or TV movie for playing a hotel night manager who is recruited by the British government to infiltrate an arms dealer’s inner circle.
“Well this is lovely,” Hiddleston said in his acceptance speech. “Thank you.”
He dedicated his win to aid workers in South Sudan, where he had recently travelled, and where he said he had met humanitarian personnel who had watched the show while sheltering from shelling.
In the series, his handler was played by Olivia Colman, who was named best supporting actress in a series, mini-series or TV movie. However Colman was not at the ceremony to collect her award.
The arms dealer was played by Hugh Laurie, who won best supporting actor in a series, mini-series or TV movie.
“Thank you to the HFPA for this amazing honour,” he said. “I suppose made more amazing by the fact that I’ll be able to say I won this at the last ever Golden Globes.”
In a reference to US President-elect Donald Trump, he continued: “I don’t mean to be gloomy. It’s just that it has ‘Hollywood’, ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in the title.”
Meanwhile, The Crown beat shows including Game of Thrones and Stranger Things to win the best TV drama series title.
Netflix’s regal epic tells the story of the British royal family from the 1950s onwards and has a reported budget of £100m.
Accepting her best TV drama actress award, Claire Foy paid tribute to the Queen, saying: “She has been at the centre of the world for the past 63 years and I think the world could do with a few more women at the centre of it if you ask me.”
Elsewhere, The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story won two awards from its five nominations – best mini-series or TV movie, and best mini-series or TV movie actress for Sarah Paulson.
And hip-hop comedy Atlanta was named comedy or musical series, while its creator Donald Glover won best actor in a comedy or musical series.
