Little Britain wins Bafta double

Little Britain has been one of the BBC's biggest recent hits

Hit sketch show Little Britain has cemented its status as one of the UK's favourite programmes with two prizes at the Bafta TV Awards in London.

It was named best comedy series and its stars, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, won best comedy performance.

Channel 4's Sex Traffic also picked up two awards - best drama serial and best actress for its star Anamaria Marinca.

In other awards, Rhys Ifans won best actor and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here won best entertainment show.

But its hosts Ant and Dec lost out in the entertainment performance category to Paul O'Grady for his ITV1 afternoon chat show.

Coronation Street was named best continuing drama for the third year in a row, while Channel 4's Shameless won best drama series.

Winning is a relief - being nominated is the award Rhys Ifans pictured with Anamaria Marinca

Little Britain also won best comedy series last year - but on that occasion, Lucas and Walliams lost out in the comedy performance category to The Office's Ricky Gervais.

"We are really lucky that Ricky Gervais wasn't eligible this year," Walliams said. "The Bafta is the big one in terms of the amount of talent that is in that room."

Collecting the second award, he added: "We'd really like to thank the BBC who have believed in us for many years, even when we were rubbish."

Lucas agreed: "We were really mediocre. Now we're brilliant, aren't we, so we've made up for it now."

Sex Traffic, shown last October, was a two-part drama following two Moldovan sisters who were kidnapped and trafficked to London.

Coronation Street knows how to balance comedy and tragedy without one killing the other Bill Roache Coronation Street actor

It was the TV debut of Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca, who beat established stars including Brenda Blethyn to the Bafta title.

"I feel a lot of things but I can't put it into words," she said afterwards.

"I thought it was important to tell the story and necessary to tell it especially as I'm from a country which deals with such problems."

Rhys Ifans, who has appeared in films including Notting Hill and Enduring Love, was named best actor for portraying late comedian Peter Cook in Not Only But Always.

"Winning is a relief," he said. "Being nominated is the award.

In pictures: Bafta TV Awards

"I was a fan of Peter Cook, I was frightened of doing this role, I turned it down several times, but was finally persuaded by the writer and director of the film."

Of Coronation Street's award, actor Bill Roache, who plays Ken Barlow, said: "Coronation Street knows how to balance comedy and tragedy without one killing the other. I like to think we set the pace."

And producer Tony Wood added: "This feels rather lovely. Two and a half hours of drama each week is virtually impossible. It's an incredible effort by an awful lot of people."

Omagh, about the 1998 Omagh bomb, was named best single drama while Black Books, starring Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey, won best sitcom.

I'd love to do 100 years but they might sack me David Tennant on Doctor Who

The Green Wing, the hospital-based comedy sketch drama, won the only award voted for by the public, The Pioneer Award.

Special awards for outstanding achievements went to Michael Palin, Jon Snow, Sir David Frost, Paul Greengrass and Alan Plater.

New Doctor Who actor David Tennant was not nominated but was at the ceremony. Speaking about his new role, he said: "The expectations are fierce."

Asked how long he had signed up for, he said: "Let's get through one at a time. I'd love to do 100 years but they might sack me."