Bafta TV winner Georgina Campbell says domestic abuse victims came forward after seeing her show

 
Drama: Georgina Campbell with Murdered By My Boyfriend co-star Royce Pierreson (Picture: Dave Benett)
Alistair Foster11 May 2015
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Georgina Campbell — the surprise winner at the Baftas for her portrayal of a domestic violence victim — has revealed that the role has encouraged women to report abuse.

The actress, 22, saw off Sheridan Smith, Keeley Hawes and Sarah Lancashire to take the best actress award for her performance in BBC3 drama Murdered By My Boyfriend.

After her win, the London-based newcomer said: “It’s insane. I didn’t expect to win for a second — I don’t think anyone else did either.

“We were told that a police officer had contacted us and said that a girl had come in with her phone smashed up and it was obvious she had been hit — she had watched the show and wanted to meet. People who are in abusive relationships often don’t realise it but it slowly seems to build until you’re trapped. The show has been good for showing the telltale signs.

Stars arrive for the BAFTA TV awards

1/22

“Within the media, the way that women are portrayed — especially young women — sometimes there is a lot of sexual objectification — and I would say ‘lad culture’ — these are all things that connect with domestic abuse.” Best comedy actress Jessica Hynes used her speech to criticise arts funding cuts and spoke of her passion for giving “low-income families more access to the arts”. The W1A star, 42, said she was working with organisations supporting arts in state education “and encourage others to do the same”.

Sherlock co-writer Steven Moffat revealed filming for the fourth series of the hit show starring Benedict Cumberbatch will start next spring. After Sherlock won the Radio Times Audience Award, voted for by the public, he said: “[Series four] is going to be... consequences. Chickens come to roost.” Cumberbatch was beaten in the best actor category by Jason Watkins for ITV’s The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies.

At the ceremony at Theatre Royal Drury Lane — attended by a host of stars including Pixie Lott and Anna Friel, left — Ant and Dec continued their success by winning two Baftas for entertainment performance and entertainment programme.

Modestly claiming they were the “luckiest guys in showbiz”, the pair, who are both 39, said they now planned to take it easy for the next two years.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in