NEW YORK (AP) ― Christopher Eccleston and Julie Walters garnered the main acting awards as British TV productions won five International Emmys on Monday, including two for the BBC crime anthology “Accused.”
“Accused,” written and created by Jimmy McGovern, received the Emmy for best drama series at the 39th Annual International Emmy Awards ceremony at the Hilton New York Hotel. The anthology tells the stories of people accused of crimes as they sit in holding cells beneath the courtroom awaiting the verdict in their trials.
The ceremony kicked off with a surprise appearance by Lady Gaga, wearing a tattooed thigh-revealing, floor-length black gown and oversize sunglasses, who presented the honorary International Emmy Founders Award to Britain’s Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance?”
Gaga praised Lythgoe as her favorite producer and expressed gratitude for “all of the early opportunities he gave me to perform on TV.” She also cited the more than $140 million he has raised for charity through “Idol Gives Back” and his Dizzy Feet Foundation that provides scholarships to young dancers.
“He has always helped to nurture and foster my ideas no matter how crazy or demographic-unfriendly they may have been,” said Gaga, who appeared on last season’s “Idol” finals. “He always spoke poetically about the pursuit of widening the boundaries of love and acceptance in TV.”
Lythgoe returned the favor by calling Gaga “the most creatively talented woman in the world of show business right now.” But he couldn’t resist taking a few good-natured jabs at former “Idol” judge Simon Cowell, who received the Founders Award last year.
“I now call Simon Lord Voldemort because he must not be named because every time I name him the press thinks we’re enemies and we’re fighting each other,” Lythgoe said. “That’s not true at all. Simon has no enemies whatsover in the world. He just has a lot of friends who hate him.”
