Hosted by Richard Ayoade in a void, it was the best possible argument for scrapping in-person awards ceremoniesBafta TV awards 2020: full list of winnersBy all accounts, the results of this year’s television Bafta awards would always be secondary to its delivery method. Hosted by Richard Ayoade in a silent black void, with winners either accepting their awards via Zoom or prerecorded
iPhone videos, the ceremony had the potential to be a complete disaster. However, it was a refreshingly brisk and unfussily banged-out highlights reel of a show, with none of the bloated self-congratulation that usually renders this sort of thing unwatchable.
And yet the results nevertheless managed to throw up a volley of surprises. Since the Baftas effectively marked the finishing line of its global awards marathon, Fleabag was always expected to be the big winner of the night. But things didn’t completely go to plan. The first surprise of the night came during the best female performance in a
comedy category. To be clear, Fleabag won this award. But Phoebe Waller-Bridge did not. Instead, it went to her onscreen sister Sian Clifford. It was a result that nobody could have predicted; not least Clifford herself, whose acceptance speech was so punctuated with moments of such shock that she almost dropped the phone she was filming herself on.