The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Actor O’Byrne dedicates Bafta to murdered boy
Portrayal of Rhys Jones’ father earned him Best Supporting Actor
Actor Brian F O’Byrne dedicated his Bafta TV award to murdered schoolboy Rhys Jones, whose father he played in ITV drama Little Boy Blue.
Rhys, 11, was gunned down on his way home from football practice in Croxteth, Liverpool, in 2007.
O’Byrne won the best supporting actor prize at last night’s ceremony for his powerful portrayal of Steve Jones in the moving series.
Looking stunned as he collected the award, the actor said: “It’s kind of difficult to get an award, to play somebody who is living and who is at home tonight, like the nights of the last 10 years, suffering grief at the loss of their child.”
He thanked Steve Jones and Rhys’s mother Melanie and said: “I would like to dedicate this to your young child Rhys, who was tragically lost.”
The actor said he had not prepared a speech, adding: “I’m in shock.”
Sean Bean won the leading actor category for his role in BBC’s Broken.
Accepting his award, Bean said the accolade meant a great deal to him.
He thanked the show’s creator Jimmy McGovern and hailed him as an “incredible man who shines a light on some of the darker aspects of our society”.
Bean ended with a thank you to his wife, Ashley.
Journalist Kate Adie was presented with the Bafta Fellowship award.
Adie reminisced about being the “only woman with 43,000 British troops, no facilities, no bushes, no trees,” but added: “A woman just gets on with it.
“You remember when you’re on your way to war to put in your earrings.”
Britain’s Got Talent scooped the Best Entertainment Programme award.
Judge David Walliams congratulated the team on their Bafta win.
He tweeted: “Huge congratulations to the amazing @BGT team for their @ BAFTA award. It is the runners, researchers, producers, editors, directors & huge technical staff who truly make the show the success it is, not us judges & presenters who mainly just turn up & mess about.”
A scene from Blue Planet II – of the mother pilot whale grieving her baby – won the Virgin TV must-see moment prize at the Baftas.
Presenter Sir David Attenborough said: “I speak for all of us when I say we set out to try and show the seas, the oceans for what they are, their beauty, their wonder, their splendour and intricacy but also the truth about what we are doing to them.
“And the fact that one particular moment rang a bell in the minds and consciousness of people in this country is something that pleases all of us more than I can say.”