Some of you may recall the blog I wrote a few weeks back with some of my predictions of who I wanted to win at The British Comedy Awards 2012. Well, that night came and went last night and here is what actually happened, whether I picked any of the winners right and what I felt about those who did win.
The evening began with Jonathan Ross and some jokes about Jack Whitehall, Ricky Gervais, Rev and a dig at Ant & Dec's Red & Black, Justin Lee Collins, Jimmy Carr and yep, he went there... Jimmy Savile.
Once Jonathan was done it was time for the first award, Best Comedy Entertainment Personality, presented by Cuba Gooding Junior. The nominees were Harry Hill for TV Burp, Charlie Brooker for his 2011 Wipe, Stephen Fry for QI and Graham Norton for his chat show.
The winner was Charlie Brooker. I have to say I thought Harry Hill would win this, not because he necessarily deserved it, but what with it being his last year of Burp and all that. I'm pleased Charlie won and look forward to his full series of Screenwipe in 2013.
Next up was a big one, Best Sitcom, which this year was presented by Joan Collins. Those nominated were my choice The Thick Of It, Twenty Twelve, Hunderby and Rev.
In somewhat of a shock win, the award didn't go to Hunderby instead. As I said in my previous blog, whilst I'm a fan of Julia Davis I wasn't too keen on Hunderby but it's great for a Sky Atlantic comedy to be recognised in such a way. I dint think much of her speech though.
Next up to present the award for Best TV Comic was Facejacker's Augustine (Kayvan Novak) and Mr Mohammed. The nominees were David Mitchell, Harry Hill, Lee Mack and Sean Lock.
Perhaps not an obvious choice, again that would have been Harry Hill, but the winner was in fact Lee Mack, who would have got my vote as I'm a big fan of his on screen work, especially Not Going Out.
The fourth award for the night was for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme, presented by the stunning Kelly Brook and Episodes star, Stephen Mangan. The nominees were, surprise surprise, Harry Hill's TV Burp, The Graham Norton Show, that other camp chat show Alan Carr Chatty Man and my personal favourite Celebrity Juice.
Finally, this was the award that Harry Hill did win but didn't turn up for... Awkward. Keith Lemon though, was in attendance and he decided to storm the stage saying "if he ain't here I'll have it" before running of rather sheepishly.
Next up were Rizzle Kicks and Paralympics comedy star Adam Hills who presented the Best Comedy Breakthrough Artist award. Those nominated were David Rawle for Moone Boy, Nina Conti for Make Me Happy, Morgana Robinson for Very Important People, and Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns for E4 sketch show Cardinal Burns.
Beating a 12 year old boy to the award was Morgana Robinson who began her speech with a Natalie Cassidy, aka Sonia from EastEnders impression I feel she deserved the award as after a few false starts, she's finally found her feet in doing impressions of Fearne Cotton, Frankie Boyle and Danny Dyer to name a few.
Best TV Comedy Actress was up next and to present the award was Dexter star John Lithgow who ripped into Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Anne Robinson and called for us to send some real talent over to America.
Olivia Colman for her role in Twenty Twelve, Rebecca Front for The Thick Of It, Jessica Hynes for Twenty Twelve, and making her second appearance in the same category was Olivia Colman, this time for her role in Rev.
Despite being up against herself, Olivia Colman lost out to Rebecca Front who in her speech thanked the BBC who she acknowledged were having a difficult time of it recently.
For the next award, for reasons unknown to us Jonathan Ross found himself shouting over the audience unable to quieten the audience down. Angeles Epithemiou then rocked up on stage with his Sainsbury's bag to present The Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award to his Shooting Stars co-stars, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.
I along with much of the UK was sad to see Shooting Stars, which began in 1993, axed by the BBC and hope they find their way to another channel, with a very similar show soon. And yes believe it or not, they did WRITE Shooting Stars... apparently, which even they had made a joke about when accepting their award. Obviously a bit worse for wear, and having had too much to drink, Bob Mortimer went on to thank "several dealers", before composing himself and thanking who they were meant to thank.
Best New Comedy Programme was up next and to present the award was one half of Peep Show, Robert Webb who revealed he was there in place of someone who pulled out "with the shits" and referred to himself as "shit blocker". Having already won one award the first nominee was Hunderby followed by Moone Boy, Cardinal Burns and Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of my Life which made a triumphant return to our screens this year.
Winning their second award of the night was Hunderby, and as they said in their acceptance speech I perhaps should "buy the DVD".
Next up on stage was Lee Mack to present the award for Best Female TV Comic, where the choices were Sue Perkins for Have I Got News For You, Nina Conti for Make Me Happy, Sarah Millican for her Television Programme and Jo Brand for Have I Got News For You.
Jo Brand won the award but couldn't make the evening as she has organ practice with Father Ray to attend. She did however record one of those acceptance speech VT's that are very rarely well received.
After yet another ad break was a tribute to the late Michael Hurli, TV Producer and creator of The British Comedy Awards. The tribute featured a great montage of the past 23 years of the awards and the crazy moments that have featured across the years.
Armstrong and Milller were up next, not to collect an award, but to hand one out, the Best Sketch Show. The nominees were Cardinal Burns, my choice Facejacker, Very Important People and Horrible Histories.
The award went to Cardinal Burns. Whilst I enjoyed the show I felt Kayvan Novak deserved the award more for what was a classic series of Facejacker hence it was my choice in this blog I wrote a few weeks back. That's not to say these two didn't deserve it though, they of course did, but perhaps not just yet.
And then the time arrived to crown our King or Queen of Comedy. We the British public had a choice of Alan Carr, Lee Mack, reigning Queen Sarah Millican, David Mitchell, Graham Norton and my choice for this year Mr Jack Whitehall.
After much build-up, Sean Lock and Ashley Roberts who was there to present the award announced the winner as... JACK WHITEHALL.
Finally. It may have taken all evening but one of my predictions came true and Jack Whitehall was crowned The King of Comedy 2012. In his speech he thanked his Fresh Meat crew, his Bad Education crew and then ran back on stage to thank his mum and dad and his girlfriend.
The penultimate award was for Best TV Comedy Actor presented by Sarah Alexander and star of Homeland David Harewood. The nominees were Tom Hollander for his lead in Rev, Hugh Bonneville for his role in Twenty Twelve, Peter Capaldi for his legendary role as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It and Steve Coogan for his portrayal of Alan Partridge.
It may not have won Best Sitcom but The Thick Of It didn't go home empty handed with Peter Capaldi winning his second British Comedy Award, for Best TV Comedy Actor who in his speech went on to embarrass his daughter.
Sir Ben Kingsley then took to the stage to present the final award of the night, Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. And after a "booyakasha" impression it was clear who had won this award. It was of course Sacha Baron Cohen who after 10 years on the telly, his credits include The 11 O'Clock Show, The Ali G Show, Borat, Brüno and more recently, The Dictator. When accepting the award Cohen arrived on stage in the only way he can, in character, this time Ali G and a joke about his Julie maybe not being able to have another abortion.
And so two hours came to an end rather quickly. The big success story of the night? Has to be Hunderby who picked up two awards, Best Sitcom and Best New Comedy Programme.
The surprise win of the night? For me, that has to be Cardinal Burns, which as I've said before is a good sketch show but I don't feel deserved to win an award before Facejacker, and for those of you who switched over to E4 straight after the awards, you would have seen Lauren Laverne interview a rather deflated Kayvan Novak who was clearly upset not to have won.
The loser I felt most sorry for? Has to be Olivia Colman. I'm gutted that despite two nominations in the same category she walked away empty handed. She doesn't have a great track record when it comes to awards and leaves me wondering what she has to do to finally win one.
Other surprises? I genuinely thought Celebrity Juice would have won an award above TV Burp and I thought The Thick Of It and Alan Partridge would have done better than they did.
So that's it for another year. Next year I plan to be down there covering the event and grabbing a few people for some interviews. So until next year...