International Emmy Awards Honour British Talent

ITV Studios for Channel 4, Twenty Twenty Television and RJS Films for BBC One were among the success stories at the International Emmy Awards held in New York.
UK-based Twenty Twenty Television bagged ten Emmys; one for Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne for arts programming and another for non-scripted entertainment with The World's Strictest Parents.
Accused, the drama created by RJS for BBC One won two awards. The first was for best drama series while the second was awarded to Christopher Eccleston, who plays the role of Willy Houlihan in the first film of the series- he scooped the award for best performance by an actor.
Julie Walter’s was awarded an Emmy for the best performance by an actress for her performance in MO, made by ITV Studios for Channel 4. Walters portrayed an unorthodox British politician who battled a brain tumor which she concealed from Prime Minister Tony Blair while working to forge the 1998 Northern Ireland peace accord. She earlier won a British BAFTA TV award for the same role.
Meanwhile the ceremony kicked off with a surprise appearance by Lady Gaga, wearing a tattooed-thigh-revealing, floor-length black gown and oversized sunglasses. She presented the honorary International Emmy Founders Award to Britain’s Nigel Lythgoe, Executive Producer of "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance."
Lythgoe, a former UK TV choreographer and controller of entertainment and comedy at the now defunct LWT, responsible for ITV shows including Blind Date and Gladiators, moved to the US nearly a decade ago to help launch American Idol, one of the most successful US programmes of the past 10 years.
Other winners this year came from Chile, Belgium, Canada, Portugal and Sweden.
(LB)