The Little Baftas

It was a choice of dress his comedy alter-ego would have been proud of.

David Walliams turned up at last night's Bafta TV awards wearing brown nail polish - as if he had just stepped off the Little Britain set as 'laydee' transvestite Emily Howard.

It proved lucky for him - the cult series won both its nominations.

It beat competition from Rory Bremner, Julia Davis and Tamsin Greig to land the comedy performance award.

It also won best comedy series, despite the Catherine Tate show, Harry Hill's TV Burp and The Mark Steel Lectures being in the running.

'It's just shame the series didn't scoop an award for best actress,' Walliams joked afterwards with fellow star and creator Matt Lucas.

'We've just finished writing a new series - we're very excited,' he added.

Asked if he was bored with receiving awards, he added: 'No, you can never get bored. The Bafta is the big one in terms of the amount of talent that is in that room. We are really lucky that Ricky Gervais wasn't eligible this year because he won best comedy performance last year.'

The show had been a hit because of the characters that people recognise in their own lives, he said.

'People say I know a Vicky Pollard, or there's someone just like her who lives down my road; people can identify with the characters, athough they are eclectic-Some people like the vomiting, some people like the surreal stuff, some people like the campness of it and some people like the satirical stuff.'

Little Britain has previously won a clutch of gongs, including the British Comedy Award, Television Award and Royal Television Society Award.

Other winners last night included Rhys Ifans for best actor and Paul O'Grady for best entertainment.

It was a good night for Coronation Street, with an award for continuing drama. Channel 4's Shameless won one of its nominations for best drama series.