Tim Bradbeer discusses the ten things we all learnt at the 2013 BAFTA awards
1. Olivia Colman is the new Queen of TV. End of. She managed to leap from relative obscurity with her tour de force performance in Broadchurch and thoroughly deserved her double win. Both speeches were heartfelt, emotional and endearing. You could almost hear a sigh as the entire nation mutually fell in love with her.
2. Claire Balding confirmed her status as a national treasure, accepting a special award for her work for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics. Her speech was the best of the night, dedicating it to the entire team and ending with a just held together sob and a beautiful, “we won a Bafta…”
3. Michael Palin officially IS the nicest guy in Britain… who knew?
4. Made in Chelsea is now BAFTA worthy. As Graham Norton pointed out, “they were insufferable before, but what’ll they be like now!”
5. The BBC is amazing, but apparently the Olympics weren’t so well thought of. Whilst Game of Thrones and the Paralympics were deserved winners, I do find it a little odd that the BBC’s coverage of last summer’s sports-fest failed to win anything. The gold medals may have outshone the coverage itself but it was no small achievement what the BBC achieved.
6. Old people can have fun too. In her speech for Last Tango in Halifax‘s Best Drama win, Anne Reid made a brilliant swipe at the BBC for previous occasions of ageism, but praised them for Tango’s octogenarian love story.
7. It was very refreshing to see a large gay presence at the winner’s podium at a time of debate about gay marriage and homophobia. TV greats including Claire Balding, Graham Norton, and even Sean Bean’s nomination for his performance as a transsexual played a big part of the evening. As Caitlin Moran tweeted after, “BAFTAS were wonderfully gay weren’t they?”
8. Ben Whishaw may be a fabulous actor, but boy is he a bad public speaker. Who would’ve guessed that Richard II himself would squeal, flap his hands and generally sound like Gok Wan on acid when accepting an award? Stick to acting, Ben.
9. Sheridan Smith came a close second to Olivia for most adorable winner of the night. Swearing when accepting an award is always great, and her announcement to the audience of celebrities and TV bigwigs that “you shouldn’t cry, you’ll look like a knob” was hilarious, and, wonderfully, would never happen in similar ceremonies across the pond.
10. Last but not least, the funniest moment of the night goes to Romola Garai, who when presenting the award for best comedy, gave a brief but detailed description of her post-natal surgery, including the gasp-inducing “after the birth of my son, I had the misfortune of having 23 stitches in my vagina”. Take that Daily Mail, and goodnight.
Tim Bradbeer
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