News / Arts
Joanna Yeates drama cleans up at Bafta awards
Jason Watkins has trumped fan-girl favourite Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock in the hit television series, to take home the prize for best actor at Sunday night’s Bafta TV awards.
Watkins was given the accolade for his role as the title character in the ITV drama The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, which follows the disappearance of Bristol landscape architect Joanna Yeates in 2010, and subsequent vilification of her landlord, who was falsely accused of her murder.
The drama, which was filmed in locations around Bristol in late 2013 including Clifton Village and the Bottle Yard Studios in Hengrove (where the interiors of the former Clifton College teacher’s flat were recreated and police interview room built), also took home the Bafta award for best mini series.
Watkins gave an emotional acceptance speech, acknowledging the grief of Joanna Yeates’ parents, and also the loss of his own daughter, Maudie.
He said: “I’d like to thank David and Teresa Yeates for letting us have their daughter Joanna at the emotional heart of our piece and I hope that this has not been too painful a process for them although I hope that we can now share in the memory of their daughter.
“But there is one person that I am going to dedicate this to and along with my family…I’m going to share this with our daughter who we lost just a few days funnily enough after Joanna Yeates’ death. If there is a reason why I’m standing here it is because of our Maudie, so thank you.”
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