Gleeson wins Emmy as Churchill

Irish actor Brendan Gleeson has won an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie, for his portrayal of Winston…

Irish actor Brendan Gleeson has won an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a miniseries or movie, for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Into The Storm.

He prevailed over a short list that included Sir Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branagh and Kiefer Sutherland at the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles, California.

Accepting the award, Gleeson said: "Now there's a turn-up for the books."

He went on to give an emotional speech, thanking the production team for giving his parents the chance to see an early cut of the film. His mother died shortly afterwards.

Success was to come for BBC series Little Dorritas the evening progressed, with Dearbhla Walsh taking home the gong for outstanding directing of a miniseries, movie or a dramatic special.

Writer Andrew Davis also won an award for penning the script for the BBC series.

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen congratulated both Brendan Gleeson and Dearbhla Walsh on their awards.

"Brendan is one of Ireland's finest actors and Dearbhla one of our most accomplished directors," he said.

"It is wonderful to see these gifted artists recognised and acknowledged in this way and to see both Irish acting and directing talent once again taking centre stage at a high profile industry event. Irish artistic talent whether in front of or behind the camera, continues to garner a consistently positive response internationally and Irish arts and culture is one of our most important national assets."

The joint BBC/HBO venture House of Saddamyielded success with a best supporting actress in a miniseries or movie award going to Iranian-born Shohreh Aghdashloo.

In the accompanying male category, British actors Sir Tom Courtenay and Andy Serkis lost out to Grey Gardens' Ken Howard. Both had been nominated for roles in Little Dorrit.

Alec Baldwin and Australian actress Toni Collette both won acting comedy Emmys in last night's ceremony. Collette beat favourite Tina Fey, the creator and star of the satire 30 Rock, as best comic actress for her role in the Showtime's United States of Tara.

"I don't think there's competition in art," Collette told reporters backstage of her victory over Fey.

Baldwin, who plays Fey's egotistical boss in NBC's self- parody of network TV, won his second best comic actor Emmy for the role.

30 Rockwent into last night's 61st Primetime Emmy Awards - television's highest honours - with a leading 22 nominations including best comedy series.

There were no surprises in the reality competition show category. Amazing Race, won for a 7th straight year, beating rivals American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chefand Project Runway.

Host Neil Patrick Harris, star of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, kicked off the live telecast with a comic song and dance routine called "Put down the Remote" that urged viewers to resist the urge to switch channels or go online.

Last year's Emmy telecast attracted the smallest audience in the awards show's history, with just 12.2 million viewers.

Harris later interrupted the show with a skit based on the hit Internet sketch "Dr Horrible's Singalong blog," quipping that "television is dead".

In a bid to give viewers a bigger voice in a ceremony that mostly rewards shows with modest audiences rather than popular favorites, the Academy yesterday asked viewers to vote online during the telecast for the "breakthrough moment of the year".

Kristin Chenoweth won best supporting comic actress for Pushing Daisies, a show cancelled earlier this year by ABC.

"I'm unemployed now, so I'd like to be on Mad Men, Chenoweth joked, adding "Thank you so much to the Academy for recognising a show that's no longer on the air."

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences expanded the number of nominees this year in a bid to acknowledge the range of offerings on more than 120 network and cable channels available to American viewers.

The move brought in fresh faces like Fox's irreverent cartoon series Family Guyand HBO's polygamy drama Big Love.

Family Guy, which was rescued by fans from cancellation in 2005, is the first animated series to be nominated for an Emmy comedy award since The Flintstonesin 1961.

Agencies