Veteran actor Phil Davis has stated he has resigned his Bafta membership in protest at quite a few features of Sunday’s televised awards ceremony, together with the omission of Bernard Cribbins from the In Memoriam part.
Describing the present as “an embarrassing travesty”, Davis – finest identified for a string of movies and TV exhibits together with Quadrophenia, Vera Drake, and Whitechapel – announced his resignation on social media. He added: “Reducing deserving winners speeches for toe-curling non-interviews. Poor Richard E Grant pretending to reach in a Batmobile and no Bernard Cribbens [sic] in memorium.”
Davis’s complaints seem to revolve round quite a few points. In an attempt to make the awards show more audience-friendly, Bafta arrange an interview studio hosted by Free Ladies’s Alison Hammond, the place celebrities and award-winners have been interviewed; in consequence, recipient speeches have been minimize for broadcast, together with one by Lesley Paterson, the British co-writer of All Quiet on the Western Entrance (which led the awards count on the night, winning seven).
Davis additionally joined a refrain of disapproval over Cribbins’ absence from the section honouring distinguished movie trade figures who died within the earlier yr. Cribbins appeared in a string of movies, together with Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD, The Railway Youngsters and Alfred Hitchock’s Frenzy, although is arguably higher identified for his TV work, which included Jackanory, The Wombles and Physician Who. In response to earlier criticism, together with from Cribbins’ Railway Children co-star Sally Thomsett, a consultant for Bafta stated that Cribbins “shall be remembered within the TV Awards in Might”.
The modifications to the TV format for the awards present didn’t seem to have an effect on scores considerably, with Broadcast reporting the present achieved a median of two.6m and a 16.6% viewers share (and hitting a peak of three.8m in its closing phases) for its transmission on BBC One, a part of which was reside for the primary time. That is barely larger than the 2022 present, which scored 2.5m and 16%, however a large enchancment on 2021’s “digital” version, which pulled in 1.9m and 11%. Nevertheless, it compares unfavourably with the 2020 present, which averaged 3m and 19%, at that time the bottom scores since 2006.
A consultant for Bafta stated the organisation doesn’t touch upon particular person memberships.
