The 2026 BAFTA Television Awards landed at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 10 May, hosted by Greg Davies. Adolescence<\/em> took the drama headlines with four wins. But the comedy and entertainment categories were where working performers, bookers and writers will find the most useful signals. Prime Video’s LOL: Last One Laughing UK<\/em> picked up two trophies. Steve Coogan won Actor in a Comedy for the Alan Partridge revival. Katherine Parkinson won Actress in a Comedy for the BBC’s Here We Go<\/em>. Jennifer Saunders’ Amandaland<\/em> took Scripted Comedy. The BAFTA comedy slate this year is unusually instructive. A streamer, a legacy character, a family BBC sitcom and a spin-off all won on the same night.<\/p>\n Bob Mortimer won Entertainment Performance for LOL: Last One Laughing UK<\/em>. The show itself won Entertainment, beating The Graham Norton Show<\/em>, Michael McIntyre’s Big Show<\/em> and Would I Lie to You<\/em>. The format, hosted by Jimmy Carr and Roisin Conaty, locks ten comedians in a room and bans them from laughing. The viral speed-date scene between Mortimer and Richard Ayoade had already been shortlisted for the P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award. Two BAFTAs for a Prime Video improv show says something blunt about mainstream British comedy in 2026. It now lives behind a streaming paywall as comfortably as it does on BBC One or Channel 4. Bookers who still treat streaming credits as second-tier to broadcast are reading the market wrong.<\/p>\n Steve Coogan won Actor in a Comedy for How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)<\/em>. He beat Mawaan Rizwan, Lenny Rush, Jon Pointing, Jim Howick and Oliver Savell. Coogan’s acceptance line, captured in Hello magazine’s live ceremony updates, was not the usual thank-you:<\/p>\n Doing comedy in these troubled times is so important. It’s a privilege to make people laugh after all these years.<\/p>\n – Steve Coogan, Actor in a Comedy winner<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Partridge first appeared on Radio 4’s On The Hour<\/em> in 1991. Thirty-five years later he is still beating fresh-faced contemporaries to category wins. That is the strongest argument going for sticking with a single comic character past the point most writers would quit. Compare it to Lenny Henry’s 16-year return to stand-up<\/a>: the audience reward for staying recognisable, then resurfacing, is real and measurable.<\/p>\n Jennifer Saunders’ Amandaland<\/em>, a Motherland<\/em> spin-off, took Scripted Comedy against Big Boys<\/em>, How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)<\/em> and Things You Should Have Done<\/em>. Katherine Parkinson won Actress in a Comedy for BBC One’s Here We Go<\/em>. She beat Diane Morgan, Saunders herself, Lucy Punch, Philippa Dunne and Rosie Jones. Parkinson told the room she was “delighted to do a show for the BBC”. She added it was a show “that people sit down and watch as a family”. That sentence is worth pinning to a booker’s wall. Pre-watershed, multi-generational comedy still wins major awards, and the appetite is there, even as streaming dominates the entertainment category.<\/p>\n The BAFTA comedy results split cleanly across the platform divide. Prime Video took Entertainment Performance and Entertainment. BBC took Scripted Comedy, Actor in a Comedy and Actress in a Comedy. Neither side flattened the other. For touring stand-ups deciding where to spend their TV development hours, this is the clearest picture in years. Improvisational panel and game formats are now reliably Amazon territory. Scripted character comedy stays with the public broadcasters. The Sky renewal of SNL UK<\/a> sits between those two camps and only widens the addressable market. Diversification beats betting on one strand.<\/p>\n For club bookers, the practical read is simpler. Mortimer, Coogan, Parkinson and Saunders are all hard tickets the moment they announce live dates. Watch for tour activity in the next eight weeks and lock in support slots before agents push fees up. Indie rooms tend to lose access first when a name wins a BAFTA.<\/p>\n The lazy story tonight was “Adolescence cleans up”. The useful story is that BAFTA comedy in 2026 quietly stopped pretending streaming and broadcast are rivals. The academy started judging them by the same yardstick. Mortimer’s win is not a fluke of one viral clip. It is a vote for a format (improvised, communal, no fourth wall) that has been on stage in Edinburgh and Soho for twenty years. Coogan winning for a character he created in 1991 is not nostalgia. It is the academy saying durable comic identity beats topical sketch every year that ends in 6.<\/p>\n Two contrarian reads. First, the absence of Mock The Week, the panel show stalwart, from the Entertainment shortlist is louder than the wins. The format that ruled BBC Two for years is now being tested in summer specials. We noted this in our Mock The Week TLC bonus piece<\/a>. Panel shows still book comics in volume; they no longer trophy. Second, Rosie Holt was nominated for the P&O Memorable Moment for her work elsewhere. Her Churchill’s Urinal play<\/a> opens this week at the King’s Head. Political character comedy is having a moment that the BAFTA categories have not yet caught up with. Expect that to change next year.<\/p>\n If you write character comedy, watch the Amandaland<\/em> opener and study how Saunders carries a spin-off without it feeling like a leftover. If you work panel and improv, study the editing of LOL: Last One Laughing UK<\/em> series two on Prime. The show wins because the room reads like a real green room, not a set. If you tour the clubs, build a five-minute set you could perform inside the LOL format – small physicality, no callbacks, lines that work cold. Producers will be casting from that template through autumn.<\/p>\n Bookers running independent rooms should treat this week as a recruitment window. Acts who placed in the BAFTA comedy nominations but did not win are the most reachable they will be all year. Their agents take the call; their fee has not jumped yet. The pattern matches what we saw after the BBC Comedy Festival announcement for Liverpool<\/a>. There was a short window of access before the next ladder rung was in place.<\/p>\n Who won Entertainment Performance at the 2026 BAFTAs?<\/strong> What did Last One Laughing win in total?<\/strong> Did Steve Coogan win for Alan Partridge?<\/strong> What won Scripted Comedy at the 2026 BAFTAs?<\/strong> What does the result mean for working comedians?<\/strong>Bob Mortimer’s double for Last One Laughing<\/h2>\n
Alan Partridge proves the legacy character is not tired<\/h2>\n
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Amandaland and Here We Go: the family BBC sitcom is not finished<\/h2>\n
Streaming, broadcast and the booking implications<\/h2>\n
Open Comedy’s take<\/h2>\n
Key takeaways for performers and bookers<\/h2>\n
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What working comics should do this week<\/h2>\n
Sources<\/h2>\n
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FAQ<\/h2>\n
Bob Mortimer won Entertainment Performance for LOL: Last One Laughing UK<\/em>. The ceremony was on 10 May 2026 at London’s Royal Festival Hall, hosted by Greg Davies.<\/p>\n
The Prime Video format won two awards in the BAFTA comedy and entertainment slate. Bob Mortimer took Entertainment Performance and the programme itself won Entertainment, beating Graham Norton<\/em>, Michael McIntyre’s Big Show<\/em> and Would I Lie to You<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Yes. Coogan took Actor in a Comedy for How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)<\/em>. This was his first BAFTA win in the category for the character since the show’s recent BBC revival.<\/p>\n
Amandaland<\/em>, the Motherland<\/em> spin-off starring Lucy Punch with Jennifer Saunders, won Scripted Comedy. It beat Big Boys<\/em>, Things You Should Have Done<\/em> and How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Streaming credits now count as much as broadcast for major UK awards. Character longevity is rewarded above novelty, and family-friendly BBC sitcoms are still winning categories. Build acts that play to all three lanes rather than picking one.<\/p>\n