A good day for the BBC as Brits sweep International Emmys

Stephen Fry's The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive won the best documentary award at the International Emmys in New York last night as the BBC finally found something to cheer about at the end of its annus horribilis - from Michael Grade's departure in January to the row over the Queen's photoshoot, to the Blue Peter cat debacle.

The Beeb virtually swept the board at the international event, not to be confused with the commercially more critical US primetime Emmys announced in September.

Apart from Fry, other BBC awards included Jim Broadbent sharing the best actor award (with Dutch actor Pierre Bokma) for his role in the BBC's The Street, which was also named best drama series.

Power of Art: Bernini, the BBC co-production about the Baroque sculptor, hosted by Simon Schama, was named best arts programming while at the other end of the arts spectrum How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria scooped best non-scripted entertainment series (ie best reality show). Finally, the 2006 one-off Little Britain Abroad was named best comedy.
The only non-BBC winner from Britain was More4, which won the best TV movie/miniseries category for the controversial film Death of a President, which centres around the fictionalised assassination of George Bush.

Of course, no awards event is complete this year without an appearance by Al Gore. He received the Founders Award from Robert De Niro, who said the future of democracy depended "to a surprising degree on democratising television". ·