‘I CAN’T STOP CRYING… THIS MEANS EVERYTHING’ — Emotional Stephen Graham Breaks Down at the BAFTA TV Awards as On-Screen Wife Christine Tremarco Pulls Off Shock Win for Adolescence in One of the Night’s Most Heartbreaking Moments! In a moment that left the Royal Festival Hall and viewers worldwide reeling, Stephen Graham, 52, was spotted openly crying as his on-screen wife Christine Tremarco, 49, took the stage to accept the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Adolescence.

Adolescence star Stephen Graham broke down in tears as his on-screen wife Christine Tremarco won the Best Supporting Actress gong at the TV BAFTAS.

The actor, 52, was spotted wiping away tears from the audience at The Royal Festival Hall as Christine, 49, made her acceptance speech.

Christine couldn’t contain her smile after the shock win as she beat co-star Erin Doherty, who previously took home the Golden Globe and Emmy Award.

‘Oh my goodness, thank you so much BAFTA‘, Christine began. ‘I feel so privileged to be standing up here holding this BAFTA. I feel so honoured to be a part of Adolescence.’

Stephen, who created and starred in the hit series, was visibly emotional during Christine’s speech as she thanked him for ‘believing in her’.

She continued: ‘To Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham thank you so much for believing in me. Thank you for our friendship.’

Adolescence star Stephen Graham broke down in tears as his on-screen wife Christine Tremarco won the Best Supporting Actress gong at the TV BAFTAS

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Adolescence star Stephen Graham broke down in tears as his on-screen wife Christine Tremarco won the Best Supporting Actress gong at the TV BAFTAS

Christine couldn't contain her smile after the shock win as she beat co-star Erin Doherty, who previously took home the Golden Globe and Emmy Award

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Christine couldn’t contain her smile after the shock win as she beat co-star Erin Doherty, who previously took home the Golden Globe and Emmy Award

Christine concluded by thanking the rest of the cast and crew of the hit Netflix series as well as her agent, family and friends for supporting her.

In the four-part Netflix drama Adolescence, filmed in a single-take style, Stephen and Christine portrayed Owen Cooper’s character’s parents Eddie and Manda.

Elsewhere during the night, Owen continued his award-winning streak as he took home the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.

The actor, 16, who has made history by becoming the youngest winner of the Best Supporting Actor award at both the Golden Globes and the Emmy Awards, added another gong to his name.

Nominations were announced in March with Stephen leading the way with a total of 11 nominations for the drama as well as seven for his Disney+ series, A Thousand Blows – for which he is an executive producer.

Adolescence, which was created by actor Stephen and writer Jack Thorne, tells the story of British teenager Jamie Miller, who is found guilty of murdering a female classmate after being sucked in by the manosphere online.

Each episode is filmed in one continuous shot and has been widely praised for addressing topics such as online radicalisation and misogyny.

The Netflix series also won in the Limited Drama category, beating the shows; Fought The Law (ITV), Trespasses (Channel 4) and What It Feels Like For A Girl (BBC Three).

Owen said of his win: ‘Every time we are at these events and your name gets called out your mind flashes back to your first audition, the first time on set, the first time you met the cast, it’s been an unreal two years. I’m just grateful to everyone who is here today.’

BAFTA TV Awards

Steve Coogan – How Are You? Its Alan (Partridge)

Actress in a Comedy

Katherine Parkinson – Here We Go

Daytime

Scam Interceptors

Drama Series

Code of Silence – WINNER

Entertainment

Last One Laughing

International

The Studio

Leading Actor

Stephen Graham – Adolescence

Leading Actress

Narges Rashidi – Prisoner 951

Limited Drama

Adolescence (Netflix)

Reality

The Celebrity Traitors

Scripted Comedy

Amandaland

Single Documentary

Grenfell: Uncovered

Entertainment Performance

 Bob Mortimer – Last One Laughing

Soap

EastEnders

Sports Coverage

The FA Cup Final UEFA Women’s Euro 2025

Supporting Actor

Owen Cooper – Adolescence

Supporting Actress

Christine Tremarco – Adolescence

Specialist Factual 

Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz (BBC Two)

Short Form 

Hustle and Run (Channel 4)

Factual Series 

See No Evil (Channel 4)

Children’s Non-Scripted

World.War.Me (Sky Kids Investigates)

Children’s Scripted

Crongton (BBC iPlayer)

Live Event 

VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember (BBC One)

P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award (Voted for by the Public)

The Celebrity Traitors – Alan Carr wins The Celebrity Traitors – Studio Lambert Scotland / BBC One

The actor, 52, was spotted wiping away tears from the audience at The Royal Festival Hall as Christine, 49, made her acceptance speech

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The actor, 52, was spotted wiping away tears from the audience at The Royal Festival Hall as Christine, 49, made her acceptance speech

She said: 'Oh my goodness, thank you so much BAFTA. I feel so privileged to be standing up here. To Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham thank you so much for believing in me'

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She said: ‘Oh my goodness, thank you so much BAFTA. I feel so privileged to be standing up here. To Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham thank you so much for believing in me’

Stephen, who created and starred in the hit series, was visibly emotional during Christine's speech as she thanked him for 'believing in her'

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Stephen, who created and starred in the hit series, was visibly emotional during Christine’s speech as she thanked him for ‘believing in her’

When asked how it’s changed his life and what he wants to do next he said: ‘I don’t know what I want to do next. It’s changed my life because I’ve met all these beautiful people, me and my family have travelled the world, so it’s just amazing.

‘Erin [Doherty] was the first person that I ever worked with so it was a dream to film. It was hard to do, I’m not doing to stand here and say it was easy, it was hard to do that in front of a stranger I have never met but Erin and the crew were so kind.’

Producer Mark Herbert of Warp films said: ‘Big thanks to Stephen Graham for bringing this gang together. The script ripped our hearts and it punched us in the guts’. He also thanked Netflix boss Anne Mensah who had picked up the project after Amazon Prime Video had passed on it.’

Code Of Silence scooped Best Drama while the Lead Actress BAFTA went to Narges Rashidi for Passenger 951.

Amandaland starring Lucy Punch won the BAFTA for Scripted Comedy. However, Lucy and her co-star Philippa Dunne missed out on the Actress In A Comedy gong, which went to Katherine Parkinson for her performance in BBC One’s Here We Go.

Meanwhile, The Celebrity Traitors won Best Reality, days after the BBC announced the celebrity line-up for the second series of the hit spin-off, with comedian Alan Carr being recognised in the public-voted memorable moment category after breaking down in tears during the series.

Elsewhere during the ceremony, the documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack won the Current Affairs category after becoming embroiled in controversy surrounding the BBC’s decision not to broadcast the film over impartiality concerns. The documentary was later picked up by Channel 4.

Journalist Ramita Navai criticised the BBC while accepting the award.

Channel 4 additionally received recognition for its reporting on the Iran conflict, while historian Simon Schama won for his BBC Two documentary The Road to Auschwitz.

The factual series category went to Channel 4’s See No Evil, which examined the Church of England abuse scandal surrounding serial abuser John Smyth and contributed to renewed scrutiny surrounding safeguarding failures within the institution.