Emmys 2012 bring lean times for Team GB

In time-honoured fashion, hope sprang eternal for the British contenders in the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, held last night in Los Angeles. Downton Abbey had picked up seven major nominations (and 16 in all, including various behind-the-scenes categories), while there were also high hopes for the multi-nominated Sherlock and gongtastic possibilities for the BBC detective series Luther and its star Idris Elba. 

Clive Owen was in the running for his portrayal of Ernest Hemingway in the HBO mini-series Hemingway & Gellhorn, while Jared Harris had a shout for Best Supporting Actor in Mad Men, in which he appeared as the doomed Lane Pryce. However, in the event pickings proved to be disappointingly thin, though Damian Lewis stormed heroically to the finishing tape by taking Best Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Marine sergeant Nicholas Brody in the war-on-terror drama Homeland.

Despite having feverishly curried favour with the US market, Downton didn't give the scorers much trouble, with Maggie Smith clocking up a Supporting Actress award for her performance as the Dowager Countess, but Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery failing to score as Lead Actor / Lead Actress. Noms for Joanne Froggatt, Jim Carter and Brendan Coyle similarly went unrewarded.

Armando Ianuncci's satire on American politics, Veep, failed to make its bid for Outstanding Comedy Series, but there was some consolation when its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (pictured above), took Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Vice-President Selina Meyer. The BBC's Sherlock, nominated in the Outstanding Miniseries or TV Movie category with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in contention for Lead Actor and Supporting Actor respectively, was left empty-handed. Perhaps the US voters wanted to leave the door open for CBS's new incarnation of Conan Doyle's perennially popular detective, Elementary, which transplants the sleuth from Edwardian Baker Street to contemporary New York and stars Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr Jane Watson. It debuts on Thursday this week in the States.