Melvyn Bragg: Academy Fellow in 2010

Lord Melvyn Bragg, respected presenter and arts commentator, received a prestigious BAFTA Fellowship at The British Academy Television Awards 2010.

The renowned presenter and author is best-known for fronting The South Bank Show. A show that has received more than 30 BAFTA nominations and nine wins. He’s written 21 novels too, plus non-fiction and children’s books, and wrote the screenplay for Jesus Christ Superstar.

Bragg estimates that the ITV arts programme, launched in 1978, has generated around 800 films on the arts and artists, with himself as editor and presenter.

Sadly, the show ended its run last year. However, it has just completed a lap of honour with Lord Bragg revisiting some of the show’s greatest names, like Judi Dench and David Hockney, in ten special programmes.

In receiving the BAFTA Fellowship, he joins a handful of esteemed TV names on the Academy’s prestigious honours board, including Sir Huw Weldon, one of his old mentors from the BBC’s Monitor days. It was in Weldon’s name that Lord Bragg received a BAFTA for an unforgettable interview with a dying Dennis Potter for Channel Four’s WithoutWalls series in 1994.

“It’s the best award I’ve ever won. It’s bound to be.” – Lord Melvyn Bragg

“BAFTA is the biggest thing in British broadcasting. Membership means you can influence affairs in the industry. You look at the list and think Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, David Puttnam – idols and heroes and colleagues of mine throughout the years.”

Prince Charles described the show’s demise as “a sad loss.”

He added it was “the very end of one of the most important beacons of the arts this country has been lucky enough to enjoy. The South Bank Show has been much admired, along with Melvyn Bragg’s steadfast determination to force so many serious artists and their work into the midst of the popular agenda.”

Lord Bragg says he’s been grateful for BAFTA’s support over the years.

“Just to know it’s there is a great thing, like an unwritten constitution,” he says.

“It’s always around, is reliable and feels very supportive. It’s what our industry needs: a place of assembly, of celebration, where work can be shown. There’s something about it that’s almost an emotional underpinning, a unifying thing, for our industry.”

Awarded every year by the Academy, the BAFTA Fellowship is the highest accolade given to an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, games or TV.

Previous Fellows include Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier and Judi Dench.

For more inspiring stories from the world of film, games and TV explore our BAFTA Award Stories section.