Christopher Eccleston and Julie Walters took the main acting awards as British TV productions won five International Emmys, including two for the BBC crime drama Accused.
Accused, written and created by Jimmy McGovern, received the Emmy for best drama series at the 39th Annual International Emmy Awards ceremony at the Hilton New York Hotel.
The ceremony kicked off with a surprise appearance by Lady Gaga, wearing a tattooed thigh-revealing, floor-length black gown and oversize sunglasses, who presented the honorary International Emmy Founders Award to Britain's Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance?
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Former Doctor Who star Eccleston won the best actor award for his role in an episode of Accused, in which he played a financially stressed, lapsed Catholic plumber who's struggling with an adulterous relationship and coming up with the money to pay for his daughter's wedding.
Walters, who earlier won a Bafta for the same role, was chosen best actress for the TV film Mo, in which she portrayed the late Mo Mowlam.
The other British winners included Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne won in the arts programming category for its account of the staging of a new opera by untrained teenagers at the renowned British opera house.
The Emmy for non-scripted entertainment went to The World's Strictest Parents, which takes unruly British teenagers and sends them abroad to spend 10 days living with a strict host family.
Forty nominees from a record 20 countries were competing in 10 categories for International Emmys, honouring excellence in television programming outside the US, at the ceremony hosted for the second straight year by former Beverly Hills 90210 star Jason Priestley.
See Lady Gaga and an eclectic gathering of other stars in our Slideshow below...