Dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale won ‘Best drama series’ at last night’s Emmy awards with stars Elisabeth Moss and Ann Dowd earning a ‘Best lead actress’ and ‘Best supporting actress in a drama series’ respectively.
Hulu commissioned ten episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale in 2016, which made its UK premiere on Channel 4 earlier this year. The show, adapted from Canadian writer Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, picked up awards in each of the four categories it was nominated in.
Elsewhere, Veep picked up the top comedy gong whilst Charlie Brooker collected a ‘Best TV movie’ Emmy for the Netflix Original Black Mirror: San Junipero. Other Brit winners include a ‘Best actor in a limited series or movie’ for Riz Ahmed’s role in HBO’s The Night Of, who beat off competition from heavyweights Robert De Niro, Benedict Cumberbatch, Geoffery Rush, John Turturro and Ewan McGregor.
John Oliver’s variety talk series Last Week Tonight, also for HBO, ran out winner in its category. Although the network’s top show, Game of Thrones, which has been back-to-back winner for the past two years, was ineligible for this year’s competition.
The 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards was a politically charged show, with host Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue predictably mentioning President Trump.
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who publicly defended the crowd numbers at Trump’s inauguration speech, made a surprise appearance and joked that “this will be the largest audience to witness the Emmys, period”.