A Jewish actress has triumphed at the Bafta awards.

Rebecca Front won Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme for her role in political satire "The Thick of It".

In the programme, which also won two other awards, she plays ambitious but inept government minister Nicola Murray.

She received cheers and applause when she confided that her parents still helped her learn her lines for the notoriously foul-mouthed comedy - particularly that her mother took the part of Malcolm Tucker, whose language is almost entirely blue.

Ms Front, who grew up in a Reform family in Gants Hill, is a member of the South West Essex & Settlement Reform Synagogue and attends the synagogue with her husband and children.

She has also appeared in “The Day Today” and in 1994 was nominated as best female comedy performer in the British Comedy Awards.

Other Jewish stars nominated for Baftas were Sophie Okenedo, for her role as Nelson Mandela’s wife Winnie in a TV biopic, and actor Stephen Fry for ‘QI’.

Derek Wax won for Best Drama Serial for Occupation. Screened last June, it tells the story of three British soldiers in Iraq.