It is the most prestigious award in British film and television, and simply for the nominees to be considered in the running is an award in itself. There were some categories so tough to call, such as with the Leading Actor nominees, that it was hard to hedge bets or even pick a favourite!
There were five first-time BAFTA winners presented with an award last night. Daniel Rigby took home the Leading Actor award for his stellar performance as Eric Morecambe in Eric and Ernie, and Vicky McClure was award Leading Actress as Lol in This Is England ‘86. Lauren Socha won the Supporting Actress award for Misfits, which had been last year’s Drama Series winner, and the Supporting Actor award went to Martin Freeman for his performance as Watson in Sherlock, which picked up the award for Drama Series this year. Jo Brand also won her first BAFTA this year in the Female Performance in a Comedy Programme for Getting On.
If I had to nominate someone for the Best Surprised Face Of The Evening Award, it’d have to be a tie between Rigby and Brand for possibly the most perfect blend of shock, awe, and pleasure blended into a singular facial expression. Closely followed by Freeman for his expression of sheer bafflement when The Only Way Is Essex was announced as the winner of the YouTube Audience choice award!
The Male Performance in a Comedy Programme was awarded to Steve Coogan for The Trip. Coogan last won a BAFTA in 1998 for I’m Alan Partridge, which won two awards that year. Whether this will lead to a new series of The Trip, in which Rob Brydon is bitterly resentful of Coogan being nominated for the BAFTA and not him, remains to be seen.
The host of the evening, Graham Norton, also won an award in the Entertainment Performance category for The Graham Norton Show. Norton had previously won in this category for three consecutive years in 2000, 2001 and 2002 for So Graham Norton, but he had not been nominated since then. As an iconic figure of the British chat show scene, Norton’s perfect balance of humour, sociability, and interviewing technique makes him king of the chat show format, and more than deserving of this award.
The Entertainment Programme BAFTA was awarded for the first time to The Cube (a programme I feel could be made immeasurably better by introducing a lethal neurotoxin into the chamber whenever a contestant fails to complete a task successfully). If the Cube has developed sentience, as I’m sure it one day will, it is likely very proud that it’s cruel mind-games with human test subjects have been appreciated.
Channel 4’s Any Human Heart walked away with the BAFTA for Drama Serial, and BBC Four’s The Road to Coronation Street was awarded the Single Drama BAFTA. However, Coronation Street was beaten in the Continuing Drama category by EastEnders for the second year running.
Sky’s Flying Monsters 3D, which was awarded in the Specialist Factual category, was the first 3D television programme to win a BAFTA. It also marks the fourth televisual frontier in which Sir David Attenborough has won an award, as Attenborough has won in black and white, colour, high definition and now 3D. There is not, and likely will never be, another man on Earth who can make such a claim in the medium of television.
The Factual Series award was presented to Welcome to Lagos, a series which explores the life in the capital of Nigeria. Single Documentary and Current Affairs awards were won by undercover documentary Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children. The sheer amount of philanthropy work that went on as a result of this documentary was more than enough to reaffirm even the most hardened cynic’s faith in the good of humanity (even my cold and robotic core was touched!).
However, when it came to the YouTube Audience Choice award, The Only Way Is Essex won the BAFTA, beating Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Downton Abbey, Sherlock The Killing, and Miranda. This particular category firmly reassured me that my cynicism of the voting public was indeed well placed, and any positive emotion I may have had regarding Zimbabwe’s Lost Children’s great work had rapidly been replaced with misanthropy! But clearly, judging by the votes, that’s just me…
The special recognitions of the evening were incredibly well deserved, though. Peter Bennett-Jones was awarded the Special Award for his outstanding work in the industry and his continued dedication to the developing of new talent. Lastly, the Fellowship was presented to Sir Trevor McDonald in recognition for his exceptional work in news broadcasting.
For more on the BAFTAs, including red carpet interviews, backstage with the winners, and a full list of the nominees and winners, please click here.
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