Actor Danny Dyer won a Broadcasting Press Guild gong for his role in Rivals and gave a shout out to co-star Katherine Parkinson who plays his mistress in the show

Danny Dyer was so surprised by his “really nice” best actor gong at the BPG awards that he thought it must be a mistake. Collecting his prize for his role as Freddie Jones in the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, the actor paid tribute to the show’s creator and his co-star Katherine Parkinson.

The Broadcasting Press Guild awards are voted for by UK journalists and critics who write about TV and radio. Danny joked: “That’s got to be a f***ing typo? Are you sure BPG? Usually I avoid journalists like the plague, so it’s really nice to get this.”

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He said he was overwhelmed to have beaten Toby Jones, Eddie Redmayne and Lennie James in the category – plus Wolf Hall’s Mark Rylance. Referring to the discovery about his ancestry made on Who Do You Think You Are in 2016, he quipped: “I find it slightly ironic that I just beat Mark Rylance to an award when he’s playing my 15x great grandfather Thomas Cromwell. That’s a true story.”

He dedicated his honour – the first he’s won since leaving soap EastEnders – to Rivals writer and executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who was also the boss of EastEnders when Danny was hired to play Mick Carter in 2013. “He’s a wonderful man, leader and storyteller, who has changed my career and elevated it in ways I never could have imagined, “ the actor said.

“He brought me to EastEnders 13 years ago as Mick Carter, an alpha male in a pink dressing gown. And he gave me the opportunity in Rivals to play Freddie Jones, an incredibly warm, loving, kind character.” He laughed: “There’s a part of me wishes I was gay because I think we’d have made a lovely couple Dom, I really do.”

He ended with a shout out to his Rivals co-star Katherine, who played the downtrodden wife Lizzie Vereker, said to have been based on author Jilly Cooper. “Without her Lizzie, Freddie would be f*** all,” he declared. “That’s the truth.” In the story the down-to-earth electronics millionaire and Lizzie, a writer, had a slow-burn romance which built up to a saucy al fresco love scene.

Speaking outside the ceremony, Danny said the award for his role in Rivals had come as “a surprise”. He added: “I watched it as a viewer as well, because as much as Fred is in it, and he’s an important part of it, there was a lot when he’s not. So when I watched the whole series, I was so proud, choked up, to be part of something so brilliant and surrounded by such incredible actors.”

Danny’s Rivals co-star Bella McClean took the breakthrough award for her standout performance as Agatha ‘Taggie’ O’Hara. But despite doing the double, Rivals was beaten in the best drama category by ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office while Gwyneth Hughes took home best writer for the dramatisation of the Horizon IT scandal.