Jonathan Ross missed out on a TV Bafta, while Sir David Attenborough picked up an award for the first time in ten years and nearly half a century after winning his first.

The controversial chat show host was shortlisted in the entertainment performance category - which was won by Harry Hill for his TV Burp for the second year in a row.

Ross, 48, was nominated for his Friday night show despite being taken off the air for 12 weeks last year for his part in the Andrew Sachs obscene phone calls scandal.

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The Bafta jury instead went for 44-year-old Hill's weekly madcap recap of TV highlights and lowlights.

Accepting the award, Hill said: "I never thought I would win three Baftas for a clips show."

Beating Ross gave him no extra satisfaction, he said, and he had no objection to his nomination.

"I'm a huge fan of his show so I don't have any Schadenfreude about that," he said.

"Somebody's got to be in the running and he's got a very popular entertainment show."

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The X Factor won the entertainment programme Bafta, beating Hill's show, QI and the Friday and Sunday Night Projects.

X Factor compere Dermot O'Leary paid tribute to judge Cheryl Cole, saying she had made an "immeasurable" contribution to the show.

Sir David walked off with the specialist factual Bafta for Life in Cold Blood - the eighth time he and his wildlife programmes have been honoured at the awards.

The 82-year-old naturalist's first Bafta came in 1961, though today's award is his first since Wildlife Special: Tiger won in 1999.

Sir David said he had "the best job going", and being able to go round the world seeing amazing things kept him going.

Asked if he was considering retirement, the veteran broadcaster replied: "No, certainly not. I'm going off to Antarctica next to look at penguins, that sort of thing."

The awards, hosted by Graham Norton at London's Royal Festival Hall, saw EastEnders' June Brown miss out on the best actress award to Anna Maxwell Martin, who won for her part in Poppy Shakespeare.

Dot Cotton actress Brown was nominated for a special edition of the Albert Square soap in which she delivered a half-hour monologue.

It was the first time a soap performer had been nominated in the category since Coronation Street's Jean Alexander, in 1987.

The best actor gong went to Stephen Dillane for The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, the Channel 4 drama about the death of a British peace activist in Israel.

Harry Enfield scooped his first Bafta alongside four-time winner Paul Whitehouse as their sketch show Harry & Paul took the comedy programme award.

In the features category the battle of the egos between Sir Alan Sugar and Jeremy Clarkson fizzled out as both The Apprentice and Top Gear missed out to The Choir: Boys Don't Sing, the sequel to Bafta-winner The Choir.

David Mitchell, who won a Bafta in 2007 for That Mitchell and Webb Look, took the award for comedy performance for Peep Show.

Wallander, the sombre detective thrillers set in Sweden and based on Henning Mankell's best-selling novels, won the drama series award, beating Doctor Who, Shameless and Spooks.

The win is producer and lead actor Kenneth Branagh's first TV Bafta win, and comes 20 years after he won a film Bafta for Henry V.

News at Ten took the Bafta for news coverage for its work on the Chinese earthquake, while ITV1's broadcast of Lewis Hamilton's dramatic triumph in last year's Brazilian Grand Prix beat the BBC's Wimbledon and Olympics coverage and Channel 4's work on the Cheltenham Gold Cup to take the sport award.

The BBC won the battle of the broadcasters, winning eight Baftas across all its channels, though Channel 4 won the most for an individual channel with seven. ITV won five.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders were jointly given the academy fellowship.

"This is a huge honour and after 30 years it's kind of like the cherry on the icing on the cake," Saunders said.

After accepting the award from Dame Helen Mirren, Saunders joked that though she and French were retired as a comedy duo, they were available for work in her "award-winning films".