Helen Mirren, Bafta Best Actress for "The Queen"

A dramatic film about some of the most difficult times in recent history for Britain's royal family has won The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award (Bafta) for Best Film. 'The Queen', tells the story of what happened after the death in 1997 of Diana, Princess of Wales. The BBC's Vincent Dowd was at the awards ceremony:

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QUEEN: What are you going to do about the boys?

PRINCE CHARLES: Let them sleep until we know more.

QUEEN: Yes, that's sensible.

PRINCE CHARLES: I should go to Paris. I told my people to start organising a jet.

QUEEN: What? A private one?

The Baftas are by no means exclusively for UK films but in this case it was never likely Bafta voters would neglect the merits of the film 'The Queen' -- or of Helen Mirren, who plays the UK monarch and who was named Best Actress. Dame Helen is also nominated for the Oscars in two weeks' time. There she's against tough competition such as Meryl Streep but this award will give her extra momentum towards what's undoubtedly the bigger prize in movies. After the ceremony in London, Dame Helen said it had been a very strong year for female acting talent on screen.

HELEN MIRREN:

It was an amazing year for female performances and to be nominated amongst them was really incredible. I was very, very proud to see actresses being allowed to be themselves, be the age they are, and give incredible performances.

The award for Best Director went to Paul Greengrass who made 'United 93'. It's a well-crafted account of what happened to one of the four planes hijacked on 9/11 over east-coast America. Before its release, some people suggested it was too early to tell so painful a story -- but after it came out almost everyone was won over by its sober approach.

The Best Actor award went to the US actor Forest Whitaker for his much-praised performance as Idi Amin in 'The Last King of Scotland'. That meant the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, lost out. Some had thought this might be the year 007 finally won a major Bafta. But it would be surprising if Craig, credited with having revived the 007 franchise, isn't in consideration for the next Bond movie due out late next year.

Vincent Dowd, BBC News

Listen to the words

exclusively for
only for, shared only amongst a particular group of people

neglect the merits of
ignore, pay no attention to the value of

monarch
king or queen

extra momentum
an additional push, increasing force or strength

incredible
extremely good, amazing, wonderful

a well-crafted account
a well-told story, a good description of what happened

release
making a film generally availabile for people to see in the cinemas

won over
convinced, pleased, satisfied

sober approach
serious, balanced, carefully thought out way of dealing with something, here, a topic that is upsetting for many people

the 007 franchise
the films, products and business which operate under the 007 (James Bond) brand name

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