Two Baftas for Derry Girls

Joe Lycett, Friday Night Live and Bad Sisters also winners

Derry Girls won two Bafta awards last night.

The final series of Lisa McGee’s Channel 4 sitcom was named best scripted comedy, while Siobhán McSweeney, who plays playing Sister Michael won the best female performance in a comedy.

Lenny Rush scooped the equivalent male award for his breakout role as Ollie alongside Daisy May Cooper in Am I Being Unreasonable?

The revival of Friday Night Live hosted by Ben Elton won best comedy entertainment programme. The show notably featured trans comic Jordan Gray stripping to play her keyboard naked – prompting 1,500 complaints to Ofcom, that were later rejected.

Elton, picking up the award on what was his 29th wedding anniversary, said: ‘Well, this is very nice. Something of a surprise. Last time I got a nod from "Baft" was 1989. And the good news, this is the same suit I was wearing then, just saying.’

Turning to those he shared the stage with, he said: ‘Thank you this brilliant, brilliant team, which I'm so honoured and proud to be a part.

‘I also have to make a very heartfelt and very personal thank you to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng for gifting me unquestionably the best week to do a topical comedy show since Edwina Currie single-handedly tanked the egg industry in 1988. We've had some good years, on Friday and Saturday Live.’

After thanking the team behind the show, Elton pair tribute to original producer Geoffrey Perkins, who died in 2008, ‘with whom I had so many fights over so many Thatcher gags’, adding: ‘We lost him far too young and British comedy arts lost a true guiding light.’

He concluded: ‘And finally, a very personal thank you to a man who starred in the first season of Saturday Live. Another one who died stupidly ridiculously, criminally too young. A quasar of comedy and inspiration. A genius who's whose bright light shone with such a searing, searing light and the darkness that he left behind left us all or blinking back tears. I'm dedicating this – apart from my wife – to the late great, Rick Mayall.'

Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back special in which he took on David Beckham for his hypocrisy in taking Qatar’s millions to promote the World Cup was named best feature.

Sharon Horgan’s Apple TV comedy-drama Bad Sisters took best drama, while Anne-Marie Duff won the supporting actress gong for her performance in the show.

In the best mini-series category, BBC Three’s Mood pulled off a surprise victory, beating Adam Kay’s This is Going to Hurt – whose star Ben Whishaw won the best actor category.

McGee previously picked up the comedy writing trophy at the Bafta craft awards last month.

Picking up the show’s award last night, she praised fellow nominees Ghosts, Have I Been Unreasonable and Big Boys, saying ‘you've kept the standard of comedy annoyingly high’.

She also thanked Derry’s ‘unbreakable spirit, and hilarious characters – what a muse you’ve been. When we started making Derry Girls, we’d tell people we were making a comedy about teenagers navigating TheTroubles and the standard response was, "that's not funny. It doesn't have runaway had to run all over it."

‘But what we found is in the specific there is always the universal, always the ordinary and the extraordinary. And if you really look hard enough, there's always light in the dark. What an amazing end to our Derry Girls journey.

‘It’s been a privilege making the show and thank you for watching.’

McSweeney said of her award: ‘I've been warned to not do a political statement or to be really, really boring or sad. So I'm going to start with a funny bit. As my mother lay dying in the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, one of the very last things she said to me was "would I not consider retraining as a teacher?" If he could see me now, getting a Bafta for playing the teacher. Joke’s on you, ma!’

She thanked McGee, saying: ‘Who knew that getting drunk and making each other laugh for decades would pay off? Thank you for giving me Sister Michael and not listening to me when I said I could play all the girls’ parts.’

As well as cast and crew she thanked the people of her home town of Cork ‘who supported me, despite the fact I'm not Cillian Murphy. I know that has been very difficult for you.’

The ceremony, at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was hosted by comics Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett and aired on BBC One.

Here's the full list of winners:

Female Performance in a Comedy Programme - Siobhan Mcsweeney - Derry Girls
Reality and Constructed Factual - The Traitors
Male Performance in a Comedy Programme - Lenny Rush - Am I Being Unreasonable?
Entertainment Programme - The Masked Singer
Supporting Actress - Anne-Marie Duff - Bad Sisters
Single Drama - I Am Ruth
Features - Joe Lycett vs Beckham: Got Your Back at Xmas
Drama Series - Bad Sisters
Soap and Continuing Drama - Casualty
Entertainment Performance - Claudia Winkleman - The Traitors
P&O Cruises Memorable Moment - Platinum Jubilee - Party at the Palace Paddington Meets the Queen
Supporting Actor - Adeel Akhtar - Sherwood
Leading Actor - Ben Whishaw - This Is Going to Hurt
Leading Actress - Kate Winslet - I Am Ruth
Scripted Comedy - Derry Girls
Special Award - David Olusoga
Fellowship - Meera Syal