Normal? The BAFTAs: Award Shows in the ‘New Normal’ Lifestyle

Lockdown, what a time it’s been for us all. Nothing has been unaffected by the Coronavirus pandemic. It seems bizarre to me that this time last year, we were living our lives, completely oblivious to what would happen this year.

As the UK has come out of lockdown, some things have begun to get back to a somewhat normality but the majority of life has had to adapt in different ways in order to get back on track.

One notable example of adapting to the “new normal” was the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTAS) that were hosted virtually on the 17th July 2020. It was an interesting evening to say the least. First of all, it was held at Television Centre rather than the usual London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Secondly, it was a lot later than normal. The BAFTAs were supposed to be in March, but were cancelled due to the UK going into lockdown. It was hosted by Richard Ayoade who was in the Television Centre and was socially distanced from everybody.

There was no crowd and all of the nominees who won awards accepted them virtually which of as we all know that technology is never fully reliable. One particular moment was when Stacey Dooley attempted to present the Must-See TV Moment Award to

course brought some issues Ruth Jones and James Cordon for the proposal scene in the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special.

All was well until the sound cut off to the videocall to the pair

Photograph / London Entertainment

Illustration / Megan Beattie

and Dooley wasn’t sure if they could hear her or not. Despite this the show went on, there were some shocks along the way with what awards went to what.

The big award winners were Chernobyl, The End of the F*****g World and Idris Elba. Whereas shockingly, The Crown and Jodie Comer of Killing Eve went home empty handed. Chernobyl won the most awards with 7 prizes and the BBC adaptions of His Dark Materials also performed well at the BAFTAs.

Despite the few technical errors and the awkwardness of there being no audience to laugh at the guest presenters’ jokes, the BAFTAS were important as it showed a semi sort of normality and it showed that despite the circumstances that is the pandemic, the show must go on. Emma Gilmour

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