Luke Evans, a well-known actor, said that he was “ecstatic” after winning an honour at the Bafta Cymru film and television awards.
The actor, born in Pontypool, was recognised for Luke Evans: Showtime!, his BBC 2 musical extravaganza that aired on Christmas Day.
Best actor was to Aberystwyth native Taron Egerton, and the Siân Phillips Special Award went to Cardiff native Rakie Ayola.
Alex Jones, host of the BBC One Show, hosted the event at the International Convention Centre Wales.
“This is an award that goes to all of us,” said Evans. “You don’t just do this on your own, even though it was my name on that title.”
“It took an army to put it on that stage and everybody invested so much time and energy and passion – we knew what we wanted to do and we knew that we could bring that together.”
The award went to Taron Egerton for the true-crime drama Black Bird on Apple TV+.
Y Sŵn, which had seven nominations, won the night’s top honour for best feature/television film.
It is a story of the 1980s Welsh language TV channel campaign and Gwynfor Evans, whose threat to go on a hunger strike ultimately resulted in the founding of S4C.
One of BAFTA Cymru’s greatest honours, the Siân Phillips Special Award, was given to Rakie Ayola, who has appeared in Doctor Who and Black Mirror.
She joins a group of winners that also includes Russell T. Davies, Michael Sheen, and Ruth Jones.
In addition, she is the first person of colour to get the honour, which she characterised as “a huge thing for me, it’s wonderful.”
She shared her sentiments saying that to have your work appreciated is huge, and even though I know it shouldn’t matter, you keep working—just like hundreds of other performers and producers do.
“But you kind of melt when someone says, ‘We’ve kind of loved what you’ve done.
“Now I can relax a little bit – until next week at least.”
She said that she felt “Wales has kind of wrapped its arms around me lately, and I’m loving it” after winning best actress for The Pact.
Dame Siân Phillips expressed her happiness at taking part in the event.
She smiled when asked if she had any advice for budding actresses, saying, “No, they could probably give me advice at this point — I think they are much more savvy than I was when I was young.”
“Indelible… the language and everything is a part of you,” she said of being Welsh.
The miniseries Nolly, which is based on the life of Crossroads actress Noele Gordon, earned the best writer award for ITVX, however Russell T Davies was not present to accept the prize.
Presenter Hywel Gwynfryn of BBC Radio Cymru called getting his prize for excellent contribution a “great honour.”
His favourite career memory was when Muhammad Ali was sitting in the corner of a dressing room when he opened the door in 1966.
“There are images of myself and him talking, and I was in his company for around four to five minutes.
“I’ve got those at home now and I really cherish them.”
Produced in assosciation with dataminr
Edited by Maham Javaid and Newsdesk Manager
