Hoyo Films, the indie whose BBC doc Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone was recently pulled from iPlayer pending an editorial review, secured a Bafta win at last night’s TV Awards.
The indie’s BBC2 film Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods beat Expectation’s fellow BBC2 doc Hell Jumper, Mindhouse’s Sky single Tell Them You Love Me and Marking Inc/Tigerlily Productions C4 doc Undercover: Exposing the Far Right to the single doc award.
The BBC has said it identified “serious flaws” in Hoyo’s Gaza doc and is currently investigating why the doc did not make it clear that the 13 year-old Gazan narrator was the son of a Hamas government minister.
The review appears to have delayed the broadcast of another Gaza doc, Gaza: Medics Under Fire, to the disappointment of producer Basement Films.
Elsewhere at the Baftas, Studio Lambert hits The Traitors and Race Across the World lost out to Screendog Productions’ C4 series The Jury: The Murder Trial and Rex TV’s BBC1 series Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour respectively in the reality and factual entertainment categories.
Story Films’ C4 series To Catch a Copper was named best factual series, with Duskwater Films’ C4 doc State of Rage picking up the current affairs award and Minnow Films scooping best specialist factual for its BBC2 film Atomic People.
Zeppotron's long-running BBC1 panel game Would I Lie To You? won its first Bafta, picking up the entertainment award, having been nominated six times, primarily in the comedy entertainment category, including both 2023 and 2024.
Clerkenwell Films’ Netflix hit Baby Reindeer continued its awards run with a best supporting actress award for Jessica Gunning.
However, it lost out to ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office in the limited drama series category, with the ITV Studios/Little Gem five-parter also receiving a special award.
Happy Prince’s Disney series Rivals went home empty-handed with David Tennant losing out in the best actor category to Lennie James, star of Fable Pictures' BBC1 drama Mr Loverman, with co-star Ariyon Bakare named best supporting actor.
Broadcaster Clive Myrie, who received the daytime award for Alleycats TV’s BBC2 series Clive Myrie’s Caribbean Adventure, banged the gong for the “little indies” in his acceptance speech.
“For all that we’ve been celebrating here when it comes to television, so much of what has been made is by little indies.
“And it’s a tough industry at the moment, we know that, it’s really, really tough.
“So I just want to put out a plea to the studios, the big publishers and to the producers: be kind to our indies.”
For a full list of winners, click here
