SARA PUTT: Good evening, everyone.
It’s an honour to welcome you all to the Royal Festival Hall where the creative force of the British television industry is proudly on display tonight.
The work of tonight’s talented nominees spans 85 nominated programmes that demonstrate television’s ability to entertain, to speak truth to power, to connect, and to effect positive societal and cultural change.
There is so much to be proud of. Congratulations to you all – it is an honour to highlight your work.
It’s been a really tough year for so many in our industry. For freelancers, indies, PSBs and broadcasters alike.
At BAFTA we exist to bring your brilliant work to new audiences, to showcase the skill and ingenuity of making great TV, the benefits of creative risk-taking and the value in promoting diversity of thought.
It’s a mission that feels especially important at the moment.
BAFTA is an academy and a community. A unique community of over 12,000 working in film, games and television. I hope tonight you can all feel the strength of that community.
It is a community of dedicated people who volunteer their time and expertise to enable our Awards to be fair, robust and representative. More than 500 industry colleagues took part in our juries – and they collectively spent well over 120 hours discussing and debating great television to decide tonight’s nominees and winners. Huge thanks to them for their commitment and diligence.
BAFTA promotes best practice across our three industry sectors, to create environments where regardless of background everyone can maximise their potential and tell their stories.
Together we can break down the silos between film, TV and games and foster career agility in these challenging times.
This year BAFTA has awarded close to half a million pounds in scholarships and bursaries for new entrants. BAFTA Connect, our entry level membership which supports emerging and mid-level creatives to build their networks now has over 2000 people signed up right across the country. And our BAFTA Breakthrough talent initiative recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary.
This is just a glimpse of our work, and none of it would be possible without our generous network of donors and partners, many of whom are in the room tonight. Thank you.
One of the joys of chairing BAFTA is meeting extraordinary people who are fighting to make our industry more sustainable, fairer and representative. And there is still a long way to go on all three counts.
One person in particular, has fought tooth and nail over fifty years for the rights of children, the children’s media industry, and to make the TV industry more diverse.
Baroness Floella Benjamin, you have effected a truly tremendous amount of industry and legislative change. So many of us are proudly your Playschool babies. It’s an honour to present you with the BAFTA Fellowship tonight.
And Lorraine Kelly, tonight’s BAFTA Special Award recipient. You are an icon of daytime television. You are fearless, frank and funny. You raise awareness of issues that really matter, and it’s no understatement to say you have saved lives in the process.
Our industry is inherently optimistic. We believe television can change the world.
There are promising green shoots of change taking place within our industry too. With organisations coming together to tackle the challenges we still face.
Standing in front of you tonight I am hopeful for our industry’s future, and certain of our industry’s value.
Finally, let’s not forget the millions of people watching at home tonight. Awards demonstrate that TV is truly welcoming of all voices and all stories, and nights like tonight can inspire a belief that a career in our brilliant industry is possible.
Huge thanks to CEO Jane Millichip and the BAFTA team, to Hilary Rosen our brilliant TV Chair and all the TV Committee and our wonderful partners including P&O Cruises, the BBC and co-producers Penny Lane.
We’re now going to show you some of the highlights from last month’s BAFTA Television Craft Awards, an equally important celebration of all the brilliant talent working behind the camera.
Have a fantastic evening.
Thank you.
