John Thaw, the late actor who is probably best known for his part as grumpy Oxford detective Inspector Morse, was honoured at the BAFTA TV ceremony in London on Sunday evening with viewers awarding him a posthumous prize. John's widow the actress Sheila Hancock was close to tears as she collected the Lew Grade Audience Award for his role as a hard-nosed businessman whose heart is melted by a granddaughter in ITV1’s Buried Treasure. Sheila, who was making her first public appearance since John's death from cancer of the oesophagus in February, attended the gala ceremony with their two daughters. Collecting the award, she said: "I was asked to accept this on behalf of John – I'm happy, no not happy, proud to do it. John always said the most important thing was the audience. Getting the BAFTA Fellowship last year was the greatest award of his life." Sheila, 69, also spoke of the "great wave of love" she and her daughters had felt since her husband's death at the age of 60. The actress missed out on scooping the Best Actress title, however, which went to Julie Waters for her role in ITV1’s My Beautiful Son. Sheila had been nominated for her part in the ITV1 drama The Russian Bride. Hundreds of stars attended the gala ceremony at London's Drury Lane Theatre, including Sex And The City's Kim Cattrall, Joan Collin and new husband Percy Gibson, and veteran British actor Michael Gambon. Michael picked up his third successive Best Actor award for BBC2's Perfect Strangers. Other winners included Pop Idol which was named Best Entertainment Programme and the BBC2 comedy The Office, which took two gongs – one for the performance of actor and series creator Ricky Gervais and one for best situation comedy. Channel 4’s Graham Norton won the accolade for Best Entertainment Performance for the third year in a row, beating Pop Idol hosts Ant and Dec, and EastEnders was named Best Soap. The BAFTA Television Awards will be screened on ITV1 on Monday, April 22, at 8.30pm.
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