Sitcom's double award win

Nighty Night has triumphed at the Royal Television Society Awards, garnering two accolades.

Julia Davis’  jet-black comedy about a suburban femme fatale was named best sitcom, with Davis being named best comedy writer.

Judges said the show was “a brave and brilliantly dark piece of television”, adding: “The winning writer has created a brilliant suburban nightmare that is both black and farcical, revelatory and hilarious, and has also brought us one of the scariest, funniest lead characters in British comedy.”

The BBC show, made by Steve Coogan’s company Baby Cow, triumphed in both categories over Channel 4’s Green Wing and Peep Show.

However, the hospital-based comedy did scoop an award for star Tamsin Greig for best comedy performance.

She triumphed over fellow nominees Peter Kay, for Max and Paddy’s Road To Nowhere and David Walliams and Matt Lucas – making this a rare awards show in which Little Britain went away with nothing.

The jury said her performance was “comically flawless yet totally believable” and that Greig “inhabits the character entirely, managing to achieve a wonderful balance of cartoon-like slapstick and genuine emotional depth”.

Comic Catherine Tate was named best newcomer for her BBC sketch show, ahead of Coronation Street’s Sam Aston, who plays Chesney, and Thomas Morrison from the comedy-drama Blackpool.

Judges praised her “subtlety of observation as well as the originality and diversity of her characters”.

Published: 16 Mar 2005