The television Baftas are supposed to be a celebration of the best British dramas, comedies and everything in between that we’ve been glued to over the past year. But there was no sign of Stephen Graham’s Adolescence or Motherland spin-off Amandaland – two of the programmes I haven’t been able to stop talking about recently – in tonight’s list of winners. Instead, all the attention was on Mr Bates vs The Post Office which beat out Baby Reindeer to win Best Limited Drama and received a special recognition. A series that was on television in January… 2024.
The ITV drama told the story of the beleaguered sub-postmasters and mistresses who were falsely accused of – and in some cases imprisoned over – stealing theft, fraud and false due to a computing error. It deserves recognition for its storytelling, its acting (particularly in the case of Toby Jones) and the sheer impact it had in the real world. But you already know all that. For months, Mr Bates vs The Post Office was inescapable and over 9 million of us watched.
The fuss over a drama that we’ve all already watched made tonight’s Baftas feel curiously – frustratingly – out of date. The ceremony isn’t just a closed -door knees up for the television industry, it’s broadcast for the nation on BBC One. That means it has to provide some sort of service to those of us who spend our Sunday nights watching actors sob and pat one another on the back. It should be giving us recommendations of what to watch – not just reminding us of series that we’ve already had our fill of.
Toby Jones as Alan Bates in Mr Bates vs The Post Office (Photo: ITV)Mr Bates vs The Post Office wasn’t the only series that made the Baftas feel hopelessly dated. Jessica Gunning won the Best Supporting Actress for her role in Baby Reindeer, Netflix’s stalking drama, which shook the world until we all – quite frankly – got sick of discussing who the “real” Martha was. The second series of Northern Irish police procedural Blue Lights won Best Drama, despite premiering over a year ago. Even the musical performance – from early 2010s has-been Jessie J – was obsolescent.
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It doesn’t have to be this way. The Emmys – which are the American equivalent of the TV Baftas – celebrated Baby Reindeer and Shōgun (which won the International award) all the way back in September. Both won Golden Globes in January, too. To be handing out nominations to the same programmes months and months later not only makes the Baftas look out of date – but it makes them obsolete.
TV moves far too quickly for the Baftas to keep up. The series of The Traitors that was nominated wasn’t the most recent third series, but the one before that – the one with Diane’s “Ross is” revelation and won by ultimate Traitor Harry. That was on BBC One in January 2024 – a year and five months ago in normal terms, but a decade in TV time. Not only do we not remember it, but we certainly don’t care if it wins a Bafta or not.
Tonight’s awards weren’t a complete waste of time. Both Lennie James and Ariyon Bakari won acting awards for their parts in the wonderful, tender adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo’s Mr Loverman. Now that is a series that didn’t quite get the attention it deserved at the time – which, by the way, was only last October.
A Bafta is the highest accolade a British television show can hope to achieve. But if it insists on continuing to recognise the programmes that we all grew tired of a year ago, a win will soon become meaningless.
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