Lena Dunham's 'Girls' Wins a Royal Television Society Nod

4:51 PM PDT 3/19/2013 by Stuart Kemp

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The show rose above "Homeland" and "Borgen" at the awards dished out by the world's oldest TV society.

LONDON – HBO's Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning show Girls, created by and starring Lena Dunham, secured this year's Royal Television Society international TV program award Tuesday, March 19.

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The program faced down strong competition for the nod from another multi-Golden Globe winner, spy thriller Homeland (season one), and the BAFTA TV-winning Danish political drama Borgen.

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Sean Bean secured the evening's best actor (male) award for his turn in Accused II while his co-star Olivia Colman picked up the best actor (female) nod for her turn in the drama.

Bean emerged ahead of the challenges of Lennie James (Line of Duty) and Oliver Lansley (Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story) while Colman saw off Anne Marie Duff, who also worked in Accused II, and Sheridan Smith for her turn in Mrs Biggs.

Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the detective and Martin Freeman as his sidekick Doctor Watson, saw off stiff competition from Call the Midwife and Line of Duty to secure the evening's best drama series gong.

Good Cop, another show for the BBC, won the best drama serial plaudit, beating the ratings-winner Parade's End and Room At The Top to the podium.

This year's RTS best entertainment nod went to Celebrity Juice for ITV 2, beating Simon Cowell's Britain's Got Talent for commercial web ITV and Dynamo: Magician Impossible (Series 2), which airs on UKTV, the Entertainment, the multi-channel operator owned by BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive.

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Held annually, the RTS program awards aim to recognize the work of exceptional actors, presenters, writers and production teams, as well as celebrating the programs themselves.

Dished out at a black-tie event in central London Tuesday evening, one of the night's earliest prizes went to presenter Clare Balding for her work hosting the BBC's coverage of the London Olympics 2012, with the sporting jamboree winning the evening's live-event RTS crown, seeing off the London Paralympics 2012 and The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert programming.

This year's shindig was hosted by comedian, writer and actress Jo Brand.

In one of the evening's surprises Long Long Family (season 2) secured the popular factual and features award, rising above the ratings and critical hit The Great British Bake Off and the controversial northern town factual show Make Bradford British.

In total, programming on the BBC walked off with 18 of the 25 awards on offer.

The RTS is the oldest TV society in the world and is chaired by David Liddiment.

Two judges awards were dished out also, one for Channel 4's coverage of the London Paraylmpics 2012 and one to Danny Boyle, for masterminding the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.

Full winners:

Actor (Female)

Olivia Colman - Accused II RSJ Films for BBC One

Actor (Male)

Sean Bean- Accused II RSJ Films for BBC One

Arts

Lucian Freud: Painted Life Blakeway for BBC Two

Children's Drama

Wolfblood CBBC Productions for CBBC

Children's Program

Room on the Broom Magic Lights Pictures for BBC Two

Comedy Performance