BAME nominees take giant strides at awards as Glenda Jackson wins a first gong aged 84
“No one’s stronger than an artist in a crisis”: so sang Tim Minchin in a satirical number to open the 2020 Bafta television awards, which took place on Friday following a 10-week delay due to the
Coronavirus pandemic. Host Richard Ayoade promised that the event would be “very much showbusiness as usual”, however – as well as a pared-back format, with winners joining Ayoade via video link and the ceremony clocking in at just 90 minutes – it bore other signs of change, with much diversity among the winners, and major accolades for cult series like The End of The F***ng World and Stath Lets Flats.
The ceremony rewarded programmes which aired between 1 January and 31 December 2019. Unlike last year when Killing Eve swept the top categories, it was not a particularly big night for Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While her smash hit
comedy Fleabag, which ended with its second series last year, won in the female performance in a comedy programme, it was Sian Clifford rather than Waller-Bridge who was awarded for her role as Claire, Fleabag’s chronically uptight sister. The show also lost out in the scripted comedy category to Channel 4’s inept estate agent comedy, Stath Lets Flats, which also beat two other ratings hits in the form of Derry Girls and Catastrophe.