British television talent wipes the board at International Emmys

The US ceremony saw UK productions scoop five awards, including best drama series for Accused, penned and created by Jimmy McGovern, and best actor for one of its stars, Christopher Eccleston.

Nigel Lythgoe, the British executive producer of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance?, was presented with the Founders Award, with a surprise appearance from Lady Gaga.

Julie Walters, 61, won best actress for her portrayal of the late Mo Mowlam in the Channel 4 biopic Mo.

The actress scooped the gong despite asking her agent to get her out of the role in the ITV Studios production because she feared she would not be able to play the Northern Ireland Secretary, who was battling a brain tumour.

Eccleston, 47, who has appeared in several McGovern dramas, has previously said of his award-winning role as an adulterous plumber in Accused: “Scripts like this are ‘actor-proof’ .... Any actor with half a brain would get it, all us actors have to do is not get in the way of the words”.

Each episode of the BBC1 series followed a different character who finds themselves in the dock for a crime they may or may not have committed.

Another British winner, in the arts category, was Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne, a BBC2 show which followed untrained teenagers appearing at the opera house.

X Factor boss Simon Cowell picked up the Founders Award last year, and was the butt of Lythgoe’s jokes this time around.

“I now call Simon Lord Voldemort because he must not be named because every time I name him the press say that we’re enemies and we’re fighting each other,” Lythgoe said.

“That’s not true at all. Simon has no enemies whatsoever in the world. He just has a lot of friends who hate him,” he quipped..

The Emmy for non-scripted entertainment went to The World’s Strictest Parents, which was broadcast on BBC3, and sees unruly British teenagers sent abroad to spend 10 days with strict families.