Double Bafta win for Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’

I May Destroy You

I May Destroy You was one of the biggest winners at the British Academy Television Awards (Bafta) TV Awards 2021 yesterday, with the show picking up two awards; one for best mini-series as well as the leading actress prize for Michaela Coel.

Coel created, wrote, co-directed and exec-produced the incredibly personal drama for BBC One and HBO inspired by her own experience of being sexually assaulted.

The annual awards ceremony celebrates the best of small-screen programming on British screens over the past 12 months.

World Productions-produced Sky thriller Save Me Too, the second season of Lennie James-fronted crime thriller Save Me, won the prize for best drama series, while Sitting In Limbo, Left Bank Pictures’ dramatised exploration of the Windrush scandal for the BBC, took home the single drama accolade.

Leading actor, meanwhile, went to Paul Mescal for his role in Element Pictures’ BBC Three and Hulu drama Normal People.

BBC Two’s Once Upon A Time In Iraq took the prize for best factual series, while Sky Arts’ Life & Rhymes was named best entertainment programme.

Welcome To Chechnya: The Gay Purge for BBC Four’s Storyville strand was awarded as the best international programme, while another Storyville production, Locked In: Breaking The Silence was named best single documentary.

BBC one medical drama staple Casualty won the accolade for best soap & continuing drama, while BBC Two’s Inside No 9 was the best scripted comedy and Channel 4’s The Great House Giveaway won the new Daytime category.

Virgin Media’s Must-See Moment, which is voted for by the public, meanwhile went to ITV entertainment show Britain’s Got Talent, for Diversity’s routine inspired by events of 2020.