Suburban thriller Durham County was the big winner on Nov. 28, taking another three trophies at the Gemini Awards, while it was a disappointing night for Murdoch Mysteries, which was ignored despite scoring the most nominations.

Durham County, which airs on The Movie Network and Movie Central, picked up a directing prize for Holly Dale and acting nods in a drama for leads Justin Louis and Australian-born Helene Joy as the 23rd annual TV awards wrapped up in Toronto.

The series ‘was treated like art, not television, and I felt like I was on a film set working with people who are prepared to go deep,’ said Joy, in describing the filming experience to reporters backstage.

The series, from Muse Productions and Back Alley Films, won five Geminis in all, having scored writing and sound trophies at earlier galas in October.

In the competitive best drama category, Durham was bested by Chris Haddock’s defunct series Intelligence, which also beat out fellow CBC shows The Border and The Tudors and Citytv’s Murdoch.

The Englishman’s Boy was honored with two trophies: for best dramatic mini, and lead actor for Nicholas Campbell, who was not on hand to accept the award. The CBC mini was the big winner over all four nights of the Geminis, taking six trophies.

‘[Englishman’s Boy] was a labor of love for me personally,’ said Regina-based producer Kevin DeWalt, noting that after he optioned the rights to the Guy Vanderhaeghe novel, his biggest challenge was ‘convincing someone in this country to do an historical miniseries.’

Meanwhile, the Showcase rock mockumentary Cock’d Gunns nabbed a pair of surprise Geminis, getting the nod for its writing team of Brooks Gray, Andy King, Leo Scherman and Morgan Waters, while its cast won for ensemble performance in a comedy program.

CBC stalwart This Hour Has 22 Minutes pulled off a surprise win for best comedy over fan favorite Corner Gas, while George Stroumboulopoulos nabbed his third win for hosting duties on talk show The Hour.

Other winners included Natasha Henstridge for her performance in the CTV mini Would Be Kings, while Project Runway Canada pulled off the win for best reality program.

In news and sports categories, Vancouver-based Ian Hanomansing scored his first trophy for best news anchor for CBC News at Six, while Ron MacLean nabbed his tenth Gemini, this time for hosting duties on Hockey Day in Canada.

The hour-long live-to-tape broadcast, hosted by former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Jason Priestley, drew 100,000 viewers to cable channel Showcase and the E! network combined, while 650,000 Canadians tuned in at some point during the broadcast. (All numbers 2+.)

Canwest took over broadcasting duties from CBC with a two-year commitment that will see the caster return as the Gemini Awards’ broadcast partner in 2009.