Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror takes two Emmys

admin Sep 18, 2017

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The Handmaid’s Tale, an episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror and Veep have won the top prizes at the Emmy awards on a night dominated by jokes about President Donald Trump.

Reading-born Brooker scooped two accolades – the writing for a limited series and outstanding television movie awards – for the San Junipero episode of his sci-fi series Black Mirror.

The 46-year-old thanked his colleagues and his wife, the presenter Konnie Huq, from the stage at the Los Angeles ceremony on Sunday.

The episode of the Netflix anthology, which examines how new technologies could affect us in the near future, focused on a pair who fall in love in a simulated reality.

The Handmaid’s Tale picked up a total of five statuettes including best drama series and best actress for its star Elisabeth Moss.

Veep was named best comedy for the third time and Julia Louis-Dreyfus was honoured for a sixth time for her role as a self-absorbed politician in the comedy.

Alec Baldwin won outstanding supporting actor for Saturday Night Live, in which he has scathingly portrayed US President Donald Trump.

“I suppose I should say at long last, Mr President, here is your Emmy,” he joked, in a dig at Mr Trump’s often-stated annoyance at never having won a statuette for NBC reality show The Apprentice.

Kate McKinnon, who played Hillary Clinton last season, was also honoured as best comedy series supporting actress for Saturday Night Live.

She told reporters backstage that the role had been “the greatest honour of my life” and talked of the “special kind of electricity” on set every week.

John Lithgow received the best supporting drama actor for his role as Winston Churchill in The Crown.

The 71-year-old actor said: “Most of all I have to thank Winston Churchill. In these crazy times his life, even as an old man, reminds us what courage and leadership in government really looks like.”

Host Stephen Colbert, as expected, broke into jokes on the night about President Trump, who he called the “biggest TV star of the last year” for influencing shows’ plot-lines.

He mocked Mr Trump’s previous allegations of the Emmys being rigged and said if he had won an award for his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice he may never have run for office.

The President’s fired press secretary Sean Spicer also made a surprise appearance on stage and joked “this will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys – period”, in a reference to the debacle over numbers attending Mr Trump’s inauguration speech.