“Our War,” “Choosing to Die” triumph at BAFTA TV awards

May 27, 2012 by Adam Benzine

UK pubcaster the BBC was the big non-fiction winner at the 2012 BAFTA Television Awards in London, with BBC3 title Our War taking the prize for factual series, and BBC2 title Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die taking the award for single documentary.

Our War marked the 10-year anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, telling the story of the conflict through the words and pictures of the young soldiers themselves; while Choosing to Die saw Sir Pratchett, best known for his Discworld series of novels, exploring the issue of assisted suicide.

Elsewhere, BBC2’s The Great British Bake-Off was the winner in the Features category, while the Reality and Constructed Factual prize went to BBC1’s The Young Apprentice. The Current Affairs award went to BBC1’s ‘Panorama’ special Undercover Care – the Abuse Exposed.

The night also brought acclaim to UK terrestrial Channel 4 (C4), with the network scooping the Specialist Factual prize for Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret, in which a team of scientists attempt to mummify a specially-donated body in order to explore Ancient Egyptian mummification techniques; and the Entertainment Program award, for Derren Brown: The Experiments.

Channel 4 News also picked up the prize for best News Coverage, for its reporting on the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disasters. The Sport and Live Event category was won by BBC1 for its coverage of last year’s Royal Wedding.

Finally, the BAFTA Fellowship was awarded to antipodean artist Rolf Harris, whose non-fiction work has included presenting the BBC series Rolf on Art and narrating the six-part Australian doc series Penguin Island.

The awards took place at London’s Royal Festival Hall today (May 27).

Tags: BAFTA, BBC, Channel 4, Derren Brown: The Experiments, Our War, Panorama, Penguin Island, Sir Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die, The Great British Bake Off, The Young Apprentice, Undercover Care - the Abuse Exposed