Oldham actress Sarah Lancashire said she felt "very privileged" as she picked up best leading actress at the BAFTA awards.

Lancashire, 59, received the award for her portrayal of Sergeant Catherine Cawood in the final season of Sally Wainwright’s Yorkshire-set thriller Happy Valley.

Collecting the award on the stage, Lancashire said: “Thank you Bafta, it’s an honour. I would like to acknowledge my fellow nominees and their tremendous work.

“Sally Wainwright, I shall forever be grateful to you for this opportunity,” Lancashire added, praising the writer of the crime drama set in West Yorkshire.

“I feel very, very privileged to have been surrounded by these brilliant actors and I thank each and every one of you.”

She also thanked the BBC’s chief content officer Charlotte Moore and the broadcaster “for giving this very British drama a very British home”.

The BAFTA is Lancashire's third, having previously won a leading actress award for the same role in 2017 and best supporting actress for Last Tango in Halifax in 2014.

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Cawood’s final kitchen showdown with James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce in the series also won the P&O Cruises memorable moment award.

The police drama gripped TV audiences last year, with Lancashire previously picking up a Rose d'Or award and a special recognition award at the National Television Awards last year.

Despite Lancashire's victory and Happy Valley winning the memorable moment award, the show missed out on winning best drama, with the award going to gang drama Top Boy instead.

Looking forward, Lancashire is set to star in a new six-part Netflix spy series called 'Black Doves' alongside A-listers Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw and Tracey Ullman.