Prof Brian Cox and Miranda Hart win twice at RTS Awards

Cox studied at Manchester University while he was in the band D'Ream

Musician turned academic Professor Brian Cox was a double winner at the Royal Television Society Awards.

The physicist won best presenter and took the science and natural history prize for Wonders Of The Solar System.

Also taking two prizes was comedian Miranda Hart, who has won huge acclaim for her BBC sitcom Miranda.

Jim Broadbent was named best actor for his role in Channel 4's Any Human Heart, while Vicky McClure got best actress for C4's This Is England '86.

The series, which continued the story of characters first seen in Shane Meadows' film This Is England, was also the winner of the best drama writer prize, shared by Meadows and Jack Thorne.

The BBC took the lion's share of the awards, on Tuesday evening, with ITV taking two - the best entertainment performance for Ant and Dec and the entertainment title, which went to The X Factor.

Peter Bennett-Jones, the comedy agent and founder of the Tiger Aspect production company, was given the lifetime achievement award.

Cox beat newspaper editor turned CNN talk show host Piers Morgan and BBC Radio 1's Reggie Yates to win best presenter.

Cox began his career as a rock star, when his band Dare signed a deal with A&M records in 1986.

He later joined D:Ream, whose song Things Can Only Get Better was famously used by Tony Blair as the Labour Party election song in 1997.

Cox studied at Manchester University while he was in the band, and in 2009, became a professor of particle physics at the same university.

He has since gone on to become a radio and TV presenter.

Hart collected the prize for best comedy performance and her show landed the award for best scripted comedy.

"I'm really thrilled because I don't really like writing - I find it really hard work," she said as she collected her scriptwriting prize.

The best soap prize went to EastEnders, beating Coronation Street in its 50th year. But a BBC Four film looking at how the soap made it to the screen, The Road To Coronation Street, took the prize for best single drama.

Following huge critical acclaim and audience numbers, ITV1's Downton Abbey was left empty-handed, losing out on the drama series prize to BBC One's Sherlock.

The man behind Sherlock and the creative force on Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, was also given the judges' award for his outstanding contribution to TV.

Miranda Hart has won huge acclaim for her BBC sitcom

BBC One's Five Daughters, which portrayed the real-life stories of a group of women working as prostitutes, who were murdered in Ipswich in 2006, was named best drama serial.

The comedy writer prize was awarded for BBC series Getting On, starring and co-written by Jo Brand, which follows nurses looking after geriatric and terminally ill patients.

Meanwhile, CBBC show Horrible Histories won the children's programme title.