White Lotus’ Steve Coogan shares details on Helena Bonham Carter exit

Steve Coogan has shared details on co-star Helena Bonham Carter’s sudden White Lotus exit at the BAFTA TV Awards at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.

The comedian, 60, shared an insight into the surprise departure ahead of his BAFTA win for Actor In A Comedy for his performance in How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge).

Helena abruptly left the fourth series of the HBO show after three days of filming because of disagreements over her character, which has now been rewritten for Laura Dern, 59.

But a source has suggested the star’s departure may have had more to do with a ‘clash’ with one of her co-stars. 

Speaking on the red carpet to ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, Steve said: ‘It just went in a different direction. It was like, sometimes you find that something isn’t working the way you want it to, in terms of, like, the character and the dynamic of the whole story’. 

Before adding: ‘So that was just a mutual decision … The whole part was rewritten from scratch.’

Steve Coogan has shared details on co-star Helena Bonham Carter’s sudden White Lotus exit at the BAFTA TV Awards at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 

The comedian, 60, shared an insight into the surprise departure ahead of his BAFTA win for Actor In A Comedy for his performance in How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) 

‘The White Lotus’ star Steve Coogan on Helena Bonham Carter’s surprise exit from Season 4: “It just went in a different direction… The whole part was rewritten from scratch” #BAFTATVAwards pic.twitter.com/3CPhuVdanC

— ᴅᴇᴀᴅline (@ᴅᴇᴀᴅLINE) May 10, 2026

Taking to the stage to collect his BAFTA, Steve said in his speech: ‘If anyone wants to know when Alan Partridge is going to die, it’s probably about the same time as I am going to die – I will keep doing it.

‘Doing comedy in times like this is so important and it’s a privilege to make people laugh. I’m not going to be very funny because my comedy writers haven’t written anything funny for me to say.’ 

It comes after a White Lotus source said: ‘The word is Helena left because of a clash with Sandra Bernhard.’ 

However, Helena’s camp denied the claim, insisting the pair had never even met, though they declined to say what had happened.

The hit HBO show follows the antics of a group of disparate characters in a luxury holiday resort, with each series set in a different location and boasting a new cast of characters. The latest series is mainly set at the Airelles Chateau de la Messardiere in Saint-Tropez in the South of France.

Sunday’s ceremony saw Owen Cooper continue his award winning streak at the British Academy Television Awards.

The actor, 16, who has made history by becoming the youngest winner of the Best Supporting Actor award at both the Golden Globes and the Emmy Awards, took home the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.

Steve said: ‘It just went in a different direction. It was like, sometimes you find that something isn’t working the way you want it to, in terms of, like, the character and the dynamic’

Taking to the stage to collect his BAFTA, Steve said in his speech: ‘If anyone wants to know when Alan Partridge is going to die, it’s probably about the same time as I am going to die’

Pictured as Alan Partridge 

Meanwhile, his onscreen mum Christine Tremarco won Best Supporting Actress in a surprise result beating co-star Erin Doherty, who previously took home the Golden Globe and Emmy Award. 

Nominations were announced in March with Stephen Graham leading the way with a total of 11 nominations for his drama, Adolescence and seven for his Disney+ series, A Thousand Blows – for which he is an executive producer.

Adolescence, which was created by actor Stephen, 52, and writer Jack Thorne, tells the story of British teenager Jamie Miller, who is found guilty of murdering a female classmate after being sucked in by the manosphere online. 

Each episode is filmed in one continuous sH๏τ and has been widely praised for addressing topics such as online radicalisation and misogyny. 

It also won in the Limited Drama category, beating the shows; Fought The Law (ITV), Trespᴀsses (Channel 4) and What It Feels Like For A Girl (BBC Three). 

Producer Mark Herbert of Warp films said: ‘Big thanks to Stephen Graham for bringing this gang together. The script ripped our hearts and it punched us in the guts’. He also thanked Netflix boss Anne Mensah who had picked up the project after Amazon Prime Video had pᴀssed on it. 

Amandaland starring Lucy Punch won the BAFTA for scripted comedy.

Writer Holly Walsh said she loved when people said they watched the show with their children. 

She said: ‘We can all enjoy watching a posh woman from Chiswick getting hit in the face with a football.’

However, Lucy missed out on the Actress In A Comedy gong, which went to Katherine Parkinson for her performance in BBC One’s Here We Go. 

BAFTA TV AWARDS 2026: THE WINNERS

Actor in a Comedy

Jim Howick – Here We Go

Jon Pointing – Big Boys

Lenny Rush – Am I Being Unreasonable?

Mawaan Rizwan – Juice

Oliver Savell – Changing Ends

Steve Coogan – How Are You? Its Alan (Partridge) – WINNER 

Actress in a Comedy

Diane Morgan – Mandy

Jennifer Saunders – Amandaland

Katherine Parkinson – Here We Go – WINNER 

Lucy Punch – Amandaland

Philippa Dunne – Amandaland

Rosie Jones – Pushers

Daytime

The Chase

Lorraine

Richard Osman’s House of Games

Scam Interceptors – WINNER 

Drama Series

A Thousand Blows

Blue Lights

Code of Silence – WINNER 

This City is Ours

Entertainment

The Graham Norton Show

Last One Laughing – WINNER

Michael McIntyre’s Big Show

Would I Lie to You

Entertainment Performance

Amanda Holden – Alan Carr Amanda & Alan’s Spanish Job 

Bob Mortimer – Last One Laughing – WINNER 

Claudia Winkleman – The Celebrity Traitors

Lee Mack – The 1% Club

Rob Beckett – Romesh Ranganathan Rob & Romesh vs…

Romesh Ranganathan – Romesh: Can’t Knock the Hustle

International

The Bear

The Diplomat

Pluribus

Severance

The Studio – WINNER 

The White Lotus

Leading Actor

Colin Firth – Lockerbie: A Search for Truth

Ellis Howard – What It Feels Like for a Girl

James Nelson-Joyce – This City is Ours

Matt Smith – The Death of Bunny Munro

Stephen Graham – Adolescence – WINNER 

Taron Egerton – Smoke

Leading Actress

Aimee Lou Wood – Film Club

Erin Doherty – A Thousand Blows

Jodie Whittaker – Toxic Town

Narges Rashidi – Prisoner 951 – WINNER 

Sheridan Smith – I Fought The Law

Siân Brooke – Blue Lights

Limited Drama

Adolescence (Netflix) – WINNER

Fought The Law (ITV)

Trespᴀsses (Channel 4) 

What It Feels Like for a Girl (BBC Three) 

News Coverage 

BBC Newsnight – Grooming Survivors Speak 

Production Team Channel 4 News – Israel-iran: The Twelve Day War – WINNER 

Production Team Sky News: Gaza – Fight for Survival Production Team

Reality

The Celebrity Traitors – WINNER 

The Jury: Murder Trial

Squid Game: The Challenge

Virgin Island

Scripted Comedy

Amandaland – WINNER

Big Boys

How Are You? Its Alan (Partridge)

Things You Should Have Done

Single Documentary

Grenfell: Uncovered – WINNER 

Louis Theroux: The Settlers

One Day in Southport

Unforgotten: The Bradford City Fire

Soap

Casualty

Coronation Street

EastEnders – WINNER 

Sports Coverage

The 2025 Ryder Cup Production Team

The FA Cup Final UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 – WINNER

Wimbledon 2025

Supporting Actor

Ashley Walters – Adolescence

Fehinti Balogun – Down Cemetery Road

Joshua Mcguire – The Gold

Owen Cooper – Adolescence – WINNER 

Paddy Considine – Mobland

Rafael Mathé – The Death of Bunny Munro

Supporting Actress

Aimee Lou Wood – The White Lotus

Christine Tremarco – Adolescence – WINNER 

Chyna Mcqueen – Get Millie Black

Emilia Jones – Task

Erin Doherty – Adolescence

Rose Ayling-Ellis – Reunion

Specialist Factual 

Belsen: What They Found (BBC Two)

Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz (BBC Two) – WINNER 

Surviving Black Hawk Down (Netflix)

Vietnam: The War That Changed America (Apple TV)

Short Form 

Donkey (BBC Three)

Hustle and Run (Channel 4) – WINNER 

Rocket Fuel (BBC Three)

Zoners (BBC Three)

Factual Series 

Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park (Sky Documentaries)

Educating Yorkshire (Channel 4)

See No Evil (Channel 4) – WINNER

The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed (ITV1)

Children’s Non-Scripted

A Real Bug’s Life (Disney+)

BooSnoo! (Sky Kids)

ᴅᴇᴀᴅly 60: Saving Sharks (CBBC)

World.War.Me (Sky Kids Investigates) – WINNER

Children’s Scripted

Crongton (BBC iPlayer) – WINNER 

Horrible Science (BBC iPlayer)

Shaun the Sheep (CBBC)

The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball (Cartoon Network)

Live Event 

Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 (BBC One)

Last Night of the Proms: Finale (BBC One)

VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember (BBC One) – WINNER 

P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award (Voted for by the Public)

Adolescence – Jamie snaps at the psychologist

Big Boys – I didn’t make it, did I?

Blue Lights – The police are warned of an ambush to plot to silence a key witness 

The Celebrity Traitors – Alan Carr wins The Celebrity Traitors – Studio Lambert Scotland / BBC One – WINNER 

Last One Laughing – Bob Mortimer and Richard Ayoade’s speed date

What It Feels Like for a Girl – Byron leaves for Brighton to start Uni, where she introduces herself as Paris