Adolescence wins best drama at the Edinburgh TV Festival awards

Hit Netflix drama Adolescence has triumphed at the Edinburgh TV Festival awards and taken home two prizes.

The four-part series, which follows a young boy who stands accused of murdering his school peer, prompted a national conversation about misogyny and online safety when it was released in March.

Newcomer Owen Cooper, who plays 13-year-old protagonist Jamie Miller, won best breakthrough performance, with the series also winning best drama at the Scottish awards.

The programme took months of preparation and rehearsals so that each episode could be filmed in one continuous shot, which was praised by viewers.

Created by writer Jack Thorne and actor Stephen Graham, the series has received a slew of award nods this year, including 13 Emmy nominations.

The Edinburgh TV Festival awards, held at the city’s International Conference Centre and hosted by the comedian Nick Mohammed, also saw Netflix win streamer of the year.

To add to their success, the platform’s romance drama, Bridgerton, received TV moment of the year for a scene in series three, which sees a steamy moment between Nicola Coughlan’s character, Penelope Featherington, and Luke Newton’s Colin Bridgerton.

Among the other award winners were Scottish star Jessica Gunning, who picked up best TV actor in a drama for her role playing Martha in stalking mini-series Baby Reindeer, and The Traitors host Claudia Winkleman, who received the award for best TV presenter in entertainment.

Elsewhere, Prime Video comedy series Last One Laughing picked up the best entertainment series prize and Jack Rooke’s Big Boys won best comedy series.

Best popular factual series was given to the BBC’s Rob And Rylan’s Grand Tour and best documentary was awarded to ITV’s Our Land: Israel’s Other War.

A day before the awards, veteran comedian Sir Lenny Henry picked up his outstanding achievement award, recognising his decades-long career in the industry, and spoke about some of his highlights while in conversation with comedian and actor Ben Bailey Smith, professionally known as Doc Brown.

The Edinburgh TV Festival’s head of awards Bianca Newby said:

“This year’s awards celebrate the extraordinary imagination and innovation driving our industry forward.

“Each nominee and winner has shown remarkable resilience and originality in discovering new ways to tell impactful stories.

“It’s such a privilege to honour and celebrate the teams and individuals whose talent continues to define and reimagine the future of television.”

Watch Adolescence on Netflix here.

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