BAFTA TV 5/12

Last night the annual BAFTA TV Awards were held at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and broadcast on BBC1… I didn’t have many horses in this particular race, but I’m certainly not going to let that stop me from writing a rambling post about the ceremony!

– The continuity announcer introduced the show by cheerfully raving about how (real life) serial killer Fred West would be squaring off against (fictional) detective Sherlock Holmes, in a hotly anticipated showdown. Technically this was a reference to the Best Leading Actor category, but it seemed in rather bad taste to me.

– Every awards show host(ess) reminds recipients to keep their speeches short so the show doesn’t overrun… then they let the presenters waste everyone’s time with stilted, painfully unfunny banter before every nomination. Gah!

– HUGE SPOILER for season two of The Walking Dead in the “year in television” retrospective clip montage! Hope no one noticed, because Ch5 have only just started showing it!

– Borgen won Best International Series… but at least the guy who picked up their award was nice enough to thank the team behind The Killing for blazing a trail, which meant we still got to see Sofie Gråbøl looking gorgeous in a gown. Hurrah! Shame she didn’t get to take another award back to Denmark with her though… couldn’t her new friends at the palace fix it for her?

– Later, Gråbøl co-presented the Specialist Factual award, and had a bit of trouble opening the results envelope… then the lady who accepted the award (Justine Kershaw, for Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret) admitted to having a “girl crush” on her! Don’t we all…?

– A “Special Award” for Steven Moffat, the much-lauded writer of Sherlock, Doctor Who, Press Gang, Coupling… and Chalk!? I’m pretty sure that’s the first and last time that show will ever be mentioned at the BAFTAs…

– Although it was nice to see Jenny Agutter co-presenting the Best Mini Series award, I was slightly disappointed that The Crimson Petal and the White didn’t win. Romola Garai was also snubbed for Best Leading Actress… and Amanda Hale wasn’t even nominated! Boo!

– Jennifer Saunders rightly won Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme, for Absolutely Fabulous, and gave a short-but-sweet speech expressing her surprise. Bless her.

– After watching Morgana Robinson impersonate her for weeks, I finally got a chance to see the “real” Amy Childs in action, when she co-presented the YouTube Audience Award… meaning I can now appreciate Robinson’s impression (still my favourite part of the show) on a much deeper level.

– Sophie Okonedo looked super-cute as she presented the Best Leading Actor award… and she didn’t even to crack any gags to win the audience over, thanks to her innate adorability!

– In the end credits summation of awards they didn’t have time to televise properly, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins (aka Mel & Sue) collected the Best Features award for The Great British Bake Off… and Comic Strip: The Hunt for Tony Blair lost the Best Comedy Programme award to Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, which is a crime against laughter. Boo and hiss!!

– There are plenty pictures knocking around of Sheridan Smith on the red carpet, but for the life of me I can’t find out what she was actually doing there. Did she present one of the unseen awards… or did she just want to remind everyone that she has boobs? If so, mission accomplished!