Jason Watkins saw off Benedict Cumberbatch to take the Leading Actor honour at Britain’s top television awards on Sunday, while Georgina Campbell was named Leading Actress by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock in the hit series of the same name, has been nominated more times than anyone else in the top categories of the Bafta television awards, but had to go home empty-handed once again, as Watkins won for his portrayal of the title character in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies.
The drama, which tells the true story of the title character’s false accusation of murder and the media vilification that followed, also received the award for best mini-series.
Sherlock did pick up the Radio Times Audience Award, which is based on viewer votes.
Campbell won for her portrayal of a victim of domestic abuse in the BBC Three drama Murdered by My Boyfriend.
Stephen Rea won the Supporting Actor award for his role in the political thriller The Honourable Woman.
Gemma Jones, who was last nominated in 1977, received her first Bafta for her supporting role in Marvellous, a biopic about Neil Baldwin, who was diagnosed with learning difficulties but went on to become a successful circus clown.
Marvellous also won in the Single Drama category.
The winner in the International category was True Detective, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana detectives in their 17-year pursuit of a killer.
In other categories, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly won the Entertainment Performance award for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, while Matt Berry and Jessica Hynes won the awards for comedy performance, for their roles in Toast of London, about an eccentric actor with a chequered past, and W1A, the follow-up to the spoof Olympics documentary Twenty Twelve, respectively.
The Drama Series award went to Happy Valley, while ITV's long-running Coronation Street took home the award for best Soap and Continuing Drama.
The Graham Norton Show won the comedy entertainment prize, while Detectorists, about metal detector-obsessed treasure hunters, won the award for Scripted Comedy.
Veteran Channel 4 journalist Jon Snow received the prestigious Bafta Fellowship honour.
