Sunday 11 September 2016

491 The BAFTA Awards


First  viewed :  Early  1981

I  recall  watching  the  "British  Oscars"  for  the  first  time  in  1981  which  of  course looked  back  to  the  films  and  TV  of  1980. Many  of  the  films  had  featured  in  the  Film  80  Review  of  the  Year  so  there  were  more  clips  of  The  Elephant  Man  and  Being  There. I   do  recall  that  the  Best  Actress  Award  went  to  someone I'd  never  heard  of,  Judy  Davis  for  My  Brilliant  Career  and   her  being  linked  up  by  satellite  while  sitting  in  front  of  Sydney  Opera  House  ( 'cause  she's  Australian  you  see ).  I  was  happy  that  Not  The  Nine  O  Clock  News  won  Best  Light  Entertainment  Programme  and  Rowan  Atkinson  got  Best  Light  Entertainment  Performance.

The  other  thing  I  recall  from  that  first  show  was  the  ambush  job  on  Barry  Norman. He  came  on  stage  to  present  an  Award  to  someone  else.  then,  while  he  was  up  there,  David  Frost  announced  he  himself  was  the  winner  of  the  Richard  Dimbleby  Award  for  services  to  broadcasting. Bazza  accepted  it  with  becoming  modesty.

After  that  I  watched  the  annual  ceremony  regularly,  mainly  for  the  clips. As  the  TV  section  was   an   invaluable  guide  to  what  was  likely  to  be  repeated  over  the  next  year  it  was  useful  to  see  tasters  for  things  you  might  have  missed  first  time  round. With  the  films  the  main  interest  was  to  see  which  U.S.  stars  thought  it  was  worth  their  while   flying  in  to  attend  the  ceremony.  You  also  sometimes  watched  it  to  see  justice  being  done  such  as  the  1983  show  where  Bernard  Hill  was  an  absolute  shoe-in  for  Best   TV  Actor.  Sometimes  I  did  get  a  bit  bored  when  something  I  hadn't  watched  got   multiple  nominations  , the  best  example  being  The  Jewel  In  The  Crown .

In  recent  years  my  interest  has  waned  , mainly  due  to  not  seeing  as  much  film  or  TV  and  I  don't  think  I've  watched  it  for  quite  a  while  now.

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