All The Big BAFTAs News, From The 12 Year Old Winner To Netflix Stealing The Show
Yesterday evening was the biggest night in British TV – the coveted BAFTA TV Awards held their 69th annual ceremony, handing out gongs for the best TV shows of the past year. Comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan took on hosting duties, and some big names came away with prizes, from Kate Winslet to Ben Whishaw. Read on for what went on and who won what at the BAFTAs 2023.
Everything You Need To Know About The BAFTAs 2023
Bad Sister and Derry Girls were two big winners
The awards for Best Drama Series and Best Scripted Comedy both went to shows led by women: Bad Sisters, Sharon Horgan’s drama with dark comedy elements, and Derry Girls, which aired its last episodes last May.
Bad Sisters centred around five sisters living in Dublin following the aftermath of the death of one of their husbands, who was abusive. As it turns out, the sisters may have had something to do with it- and the show won acclaim for its dark but often very funny storytelling.
The beloved Derry Girls, following five teens living Derry in the last years of The Troubles, came to an end with an emotional final episode depicting the Good Friday Agreement finally being signed- so it’s no surprise it won Best Scripted Comedy.
Kate Winslet and Ben Wishaw took the top acting prizes
Two of Britain’s best actors, Ben Whishaw and Kate Winslet, won the Best Actor and Best Actress categories respectively. Whishaw won for his performance as doctor Adam Kay in the BBC’s miniseries adaptation of Kay’s hugely successful book on the inner workings of the NHS. This Is Going To Hurt aired early last year, set back in 2006 as a group of junior doctors in an obstetrics and gynaecology ward work tirelessly to deal with patients in a system that largely doesn’t support or reward them enough.
Winslet meanwhile won for her role of Ruth in I Am… Ruth, an episode of the Channel 4 Anthology Series I Am that focuses on the lives of different women. The Ruth in question is a mother who feels that her daughter has become dangerously addicted to social media, and attempts to intervene for her own good.
Other fab performances were recognised
Other acting gongs included Best Supporting Actor, which went to Sherwood’s Adeel Akhtar for his role as Andy Fisher, a man who murders the wife of his own son only days after they wed.
The Best Supporting Actress award was given to Anne-Marie Duff for playing Grace Williams in the aforementioned Bad Sisters, with Grace being the wife of the abusive John before his death. Meanwhile, Siobhán McSweeney took away the Best Female Comedy Performance BAFTA for her much loved portrayal of Sister George Michael, the Derry Girls gang’s headmistress.
Best Male Comedy Performance went to the 12-year-old Lenny Rush, who played Ollie in the Daisy May Cooper-starring series Am I Being Unreasonable?, becoming one of the youngest people to win a BAFTA.
The Traitors won big for a reality show
Reality series The Traitors, which began at the end of last year, took away two big prizes. It saw 22 strangers come together at a castle in the Scottish Highlands, who under the watchful eye of Claudia Winkleman strive to win and share a prize of up to £120,000. The catch is that a small group of these contestants- The Traitors- will have been chosen by the host and be working against the rest to claim that money for their own. It became a massive success as the nation became gripped to the increasingly paranoid drama, and won Best Reality and Constructed Factual show and Best Entertainment Performance for Winkleman, beating out names like Mo Gilligan, Sue Perkins and Lee Mack.
Netflix beat the competition in the international category
Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffery Dahmer Story was one of 2022’s most successful, albeit controversial shows on TV, dramatising the events of the series of murders that made Jeffery Dahmer one of the most infamous killers in history. While the Evan Peters-led drama was criticised for glamourising violence and being insensitive to the family members of the victims, it was a huge ratings hit for Netflix, racking up more hours of viewing than shows like Inventing Anna and Bridgerton and only losing out to the behemoths of Stranger Things and Wednesday.
The BAFTAs gave it Best International Programme, beating competition from Wednesday, Apple TV+’s Pachinko, HBO/Sky Atlantic’s The White Lotus and Disney+’s The Bear.
Coverage of notable events from 2022 was recognised
The Platinum Jubilee celebrations that formed the Party at the Palace, broadcast by the BBC, won two awards in the form of Best Live Event and The P&O Cruises Most Memorable Moment award.
Paddington’s appearance when he met the Queen won the Moment prize, coming out ahead of the much talked about “Running Up That Hill” sequence in Stranger Things. The famous bear even made a quick cameo after winning- with Ben Whishaw accepting two awards on the night. Meanwhile, UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, when the Lionesses triumphed to secure their first major trophy, won Best Sport, Channel 4’s coverage of the invasion of Ukraine got Best News Coverage, and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back episode on David Beckham and his appearance at the World Cup in Qatar won Best Feature.