The late Dermot Morgan won the award for Best Comedy Performance in the series Father Ted at the British Academy Television Awards in London last night. The Channel 4 sitcom also won Best Comedy.
The Irish actor's award was collected by his long-time girlfriend, Ms Fiona Clark, and his sister, Denise, who said: "More than anything in the whole world, we wish that Dermot was here. He would have been so proud. He was a beautiful, brave and brilliant man."
The murdered TV presenter, Jill Dando, was honoured with a minute's silence at the ceremony, which she was to have presented.
The host at the Grosvenor House Hotel ceremony, Michael Parkinson, who should have been joined on stage by Ms Dando, extended his sympathy to her family, saying: "Jill was a nice-natured, good-humoured, warm person."
Meanwhile, her close friend, Sir Cliff Richard, was helping detectives to track her killer. Officers are convinced Ms Dando knew the gunman, and the singer provided them with vital information on her friends, lovers and relationships during a two-hour visit to his mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, on Friday.
Officers are reported to be concentrating on the 37-year-old CrimeWatch presenter's love life, studying diaries kept by Ms Dando for any clues to her killer's identity. One report suggests police discovered that Ms Dando had relationships with two men that she managed to keep from the media and the public.