Long gone is the era of wobbly sets and monsters made of tinfoil and bubble wrap. In fact, so good are the special effects on Doctor Who these days, that they’re winning awards.


Series eight of the BBC1 sci-fi show picked up the Bafta for Special, Visual and Graphic Effects at the 2015 Bafta Craft Awards on Sunday night, with effects companies Milk VFX and Real SFX taking home their second in a row for Doctor Who after winning it last year for 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor.

Peter Capaldi’s debut series of Doctor Who featured such spectacles as a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Thames and a giant alien creature hatching from the moon, effects which helped beat off competition from BBC dramas Atlantis and Ripper Street and Sky’s David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies 3D.


Other winners on the night included BBC1 police drama Happy Valley, Mackenzie Crook’s BBC4 comedy Detectorists and Sky Atlantic’s gothic horror series Penny Dreadful, which collected three awards for its atmospheric portrayal of Victorian London – Production Design, Make Up and Hair Design and Original Music for composer Abel Korzeniowski.