The Crown reigned supreme at Sunday night’s 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards, sweeping the board as it picked up four major trophies at the virtual ceremony.

The Netflix series’ Emma Corrin, who portrayed the late Princess Diana, scooped the coveted Best Actress trophy, while her co-star Josh O’Connor, who won acclaim for his portrayal of Prince Charles, won Best Actor. 

Hollywood’s debut soirée of the awards season saw the show, which chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II from the 1940s onwards, also pick up Best Drama Series – the same accolade it won in 2017. 

Actress Emma, 25, appeared virtually at the ceremony and was left almost speechless when her name was announced as Best Television Actress in a Drama Series, as costar Olivia Coleman cheered her on.

Somewhat speechless after her win, Emma thanked her ‘incredible cast’ and her ‘Prince Charming’ Josh, 30.

‘I could not have done this without you,’ she gushed. The final person Emma thanked was the late Princess Diana.

‘Most of all, thank you so much to Diana,’ Emma said, with her eyes raised to the sky.

‘You have taught me compassion and empathy beyond any measure that I could ever imagine,’ she added, ‘and on behalf of everyone who remembers you so fondly and passionately, thank you.’ 

Emma beat costar Olivia Colman, Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer, Ozark’s Laura Linney and Ratched’s Sarah Paulson in the best actress in a TV drama category.

After Emma’s name was announced, Olivia was cheering for her and stood up to give her a round of applause. 

Brits dominated the night as The Crown came away with multiple awards during the night, including Best Actor in a TV Series which went to The Crown’s Josh.

Following that, Gillian Anderson, who portrays former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the drama, scooped Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series.

Season four of The Crown follows the beginning of Prince Charles’ relationship with Princess Diana. 

When accepting his award, Josh gave a sweet shoutout to his onscreen love, saying: ‘To Emma Corrin, best actress winner, you’re extraordinary, talented, funny and brilliant player of rock paper scissors. I love you to bits.’

The actor concluded his speech with a message about the importance of mental health amid the pandemic.

‘I’m very lucky to be able to work in this period and there are so many people who are unable to work and are alone and isolated,’ he said. ‘And I hope that we can all collectively put mental health at the forefront of our mind. Thank you so much.’

Meanwhile, Rosamund Pike, who stars in Netflix hit I Care A Lot, took home the gong for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical.

Rosamund, 42, who plays a corrupt legal guardian in the film, was presented her award by Ben Stiller.

The actress gave a jokey speech as she thanked the ‘broken American legal system’ for helping to make the movie. 

She also skewered Rudy Giuliani as she referenced the infamous scene from the Borat sequel starring Maria Bakalova.

She quipped: ‘In my movie, I had to swim up from a sinking car… I think I still would rather do that than be in a room with Rudy Giuliani. So, Maria, I salute your brilliance and your bravery.’

At the start of the ceremony, Daniel Kaluuya, 32, took home the first award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for his role as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.

That was quickly followed by John Boyega who received the gong for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role as Leroy Logan in Small Axe.  

Laura Dern presented the first award of the night and Daniel’s moment was almost ruined when he experienced technical difficulties during his win.

The camera cut back to Laura as Daniel’s audio seemed to not be working before he was then immediately shown back on the broadcast. 

Daniel became teary eyed during his acceptance speech as he said: ‘Man this took it out of me – I gave it everything.

He said: ‘Can you hear me now? All right, cool. We got this. Thank you for the accolade, thank you to my mom, my sister, my niece. Yo, I used to listen to a song, I used to listen to a song before every speech. Thank you for “The game is mine.’

‘I want to thank, it takes a village to raise a film, I would like to thank our leader, for your vision and collaboration, and Ryan — and Charles King, everyone at macro, like to thank Warner Bros., and I like to thank the incredible cast, you know, I stand with you, my bro. 

‘All the crew, all the cast, the rest of the cast and my comrades, all the crew in Cleveland, we have done it.’

Daniel was nominated alongside Sacha Baron Cohen, Jared Leto, Bill Murray and Leslie Odom Jr. 

Meanwhile, John Boyega thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press for the honour and joked he was wearing his tracksuit bottoms for the virtual ceremony.

He said: ‘Thank you so much to HFPA this is such a shock…. I got trakkie bottoms on! I am so excited,’ before adding that he thought he was just going to go to bed for the evening. 

John was nominated alongside Daniel Levy, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Parsons and Donald Sutherland. 

Rounding out the Brit wins was Argentine-British actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who won Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series for The Queen’s Gambit and Sacha Baron Cohen, who took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

Cohen also took the award for Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical. 

The 78th Golden Globe Awards was originally due to take place in early January but was postponed until Sunday February 28 as Hollywood continues to adjust to the coronavirus pandemic and new safety guidelines.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have returned as hosts for the fourth time after previously doing the honour in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

The Golden Globes 2021 is the first time the awards show has been broadcast from two separate coasts with the nominees announced virtually.

Fey, 50, is broadcasting from atop New York City’s Rockefeller Center in the Rainbow Room and Poehler, 49, in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the ceremony is usually held annually.

Nominees will be tuning into the ceremony remotely but presenters have been asked to appear in person.

The impressive list of presenters this year includes Joaquin Phoenix, Kristen Wiig, Renee Zellweger, Awkwafina, Cynthia Erivo and Annie Mumolo.

While Kevin Bacon, Sterling K. Brown, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Margot Robbie, Tiffany Haddish, Anthony Anderson, Kate Hudson and Kenan Thompson also make up the star-studded line-up.

Jane Fonda, 83, is receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award, an accolade for film. The iconic actress has previously won Golden Globes for her roles in Klute, Julia and Coming Home – to name a few.

Norman Lear, best known for All In the Family and Sanford And Son, will be honoured with the Carol Burnett Award, a counterpart to the DeMille Award that focuses on life achievement in television.