It was the Bafta Television Awards on Sunday, that annual ceremony in which a bunch of right-on, self-righteous, Left-wing actors slap each other on the back, attack "the Tories" and pick up awards, not for making the best television, but for making the most PC television.
Actress Jessica Hynes set the tone with her attack on benefit reforms. After collecting her award for best comedy actress (for her part in the BBC comedy W1A), she began a blatantly political diatribe. Naturally, it was rapturously received by the audience of performers, D-Listers and TV execs.
Although it has nothing to do with her role as a jargon-spouting PR consultant in the drama, she said: 'I'm really worried about the cuts that are coming in state education and to people in low‑income families.'
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Never mind great telly. The Baftas dish out gongs for being PC
By Christopher Stevens for the Daily Mail
12 May 2015
Daily Mail
Actress Jessica Hynes set the tone for Cameron-baiting at the Baftas when she rattled off a blatantly political diatribe
What is the opposite of a Shy Tory? How about a Loud Luvvie? Or someone who makes a great display, after an election is safely over, of just how fiercely right-on they are.
A typical example was the two-hour display of self-indulgent back-slapping and Cameron-baiting at the British Academy Television Awards, where actress Jessica Hynes set the tone with her attack on benefit reforms.
After collecting her award for best comedy actress (for her part in the BBC comedy W1A), she began a blatantly political diatribe. Naturally, it was rapturously received by the audience of performers, D-Listers and TV execs.
The BBC pokes fun at itself in its comedy series W1A. A follow up to Twenty Twelve, former London Olympics head of deliverance Ian Fletcher begins his new job as the BBC's head of values
Although it has nothing to do with her role as a jargon-spouting PR consultant in the drama, she said: 'I'm really worried about the cuts that are coming in state education and to people in low‑income families.'
Hynes's award appeared odd considering the other nominations. She had merely reprised her role as crashingly insensitive image guru Siobhan Sharpe, who was hilarious when she appeared four years ago in the Olympics sitcom Twenty-Twelve but who has become repetitive and mechanical now its sequel, W1A, is in its second series.
In every scene, Siobhan will say, 'It's like, you know, totally . . .' ten times, mangle a few brand names and parrot a meaningless buzzphrase.
There were better contenders in her category, notably Olivia Colman who played an exhausted vicar's wife whose husband is having a breakdown in the painfully sad comedy Rev, but W1A fits Bafta's political agenda better.
It is set in the corridors of Broadcasting House and, while it pokes fun at BBC bureaucracy, it remains an ideal platform for the Corporation to highlight all its much-vaunted 'values'.
Hynes's win exposes the mindset of Bafta, which is determined to set out its battle lines with new Culture Secretary John Whittingdale (whose responsibilities include the BBC) who is expected to challenge the way the BBC is funded, having once described the £145.50 licence fee as 'worse than a poll tax'.
If Baftas cease to be an accolade for great acting and writing and become a prize for the most politically correct television, they will be worthless.
On Sunday night there were signs that this process has already become irrevocable.
The choice of Georgina Campbell as best leading actress (for Murdered By My Boyfriend, the BBC3 drama about domestic violence) was inexplicable. Even she looked stunned.
She was up against brilliant actresses who had all turned in fantastic performances — Sarah Lancashire in the superb kidnap drama Happy Valley, Keeley Hawes as a corrupt policewoman in Line Of Duty and Sheridan Smith breaking the nation's hearts in Cilla.
New Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, who has called the BBC's compulsory £145.50 annual licence fee "worse than a poll tax" and has attacked it for its Left-wing bias, has the Corporation in his sights
Keeley Hawes turned in a brilliant performance as a corrupt policewoman in Line Of Duty, but was snubbed for the Bafta
Murdered By My Boyfriend was a one-off drama about a young woman who was beaten to death by her abusive partner.
It attracted 718,000 viewers, which was about 100,000 fewer than those who watched a repeat of the documentary 24 Hours In A&E at the same time on C4.
Happy Valley was regularly watched by more than seven million throughout its six-week run, but Bafta's judges were clearly more impressed by the BBC3 show's politically correct storyline, with its female victim ignored by a male chauvinist world.
I suggest they also wanted to pay tribute to BBC3, a channel scheduled to move off the airwaves and on to the internet in a cost-cutting exercise. To the Loud Luvvies, this is a travesty, despite the station's small audiences.
Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley
Political correctness was to the fore in the Specialist Factual award, too. The contenders for this included David Attenborough (for his 3D spectacular Conquest Of The Skies) and The Great War: The People's Story, in which extracts from diaries and personal letters were used to create a mosaic narrative of World War I.
And yet the winner was transvestite potter Grayson Perry for his series Who Are You? which included an interview with disgraced Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne and showed Perry daubing a pot with images of the jailed politician's pe nis.
Never mind honouring Britain's greatest wildlife broadcaster, or acknowledging the sacrifice of a generation in which millions fought and died for freedom, the Bafta judges bowed down before a Left-wing poster boy in a dress who has made a mint from clumsy Freudian symbolism.
Another victim of this warped thinking was Benedict Cumberbatch, who, wisely, did not attend the ceremony.
He said he was at home looking after his wife, who is expecting their first child, but it can hardly be a coincidence that he has already been overlooked twice for Sherlock and has never won a TV Bafta.
Although snubbed by Bafta's panel, Sherlock (which is loved by viewers) won the audience award.
Meanwhile, Bafta judges took another swipe at critics of the BBC by honouring The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies, ITV's two-part true-life drama about a former teacher wrongly accused of murdering one of his tenants.
Rather than giving a deserved Specialist Factual award to veteran naturalist and wildlife presenter David Attenborough...
.... they instead gave it to ludicrous, dress-wearing Left-winger Grayson Perry
The script was critical of newspapers for their reports about Jefferies being a suspect, when the fault lay mostly with the police who had arrested the eccentric bachelor.
The most politically correct and nauseating award was the Fellowship Bafta given to C4 newsreader Jon Snow, darling of the Islington Lefties.
Bafta panel chairwoman Anne Morrison said he was 'an inspiration across the industry' and 'one of the most iconic and successful broadcasters of our time'.
This would be the same Jon Snow who was accused of Pro-Palestinian bias in a Channel 4 news report last summer and got into a blazing row with Tory MP Philip Davies about Left-wing bias.
The same Jon Snow who refused to wear a Remembrance Day poppy on air in protest at 'poppy fascism' and who, last Friday, bemoaned the election result saying: 'There's a lot of pain in the country.'
To underline his leftist credentials, Snow paid sarcastic tribute to Mrs Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the inception of C4 in 1982, as he accepted his trophy. The audience chuckled knowingly.
Bafta says this man is 'iconic'. The dictionary defines icon as 'the image of some sacred personage, honoured with worship' — just like the golden mask on a stick that is awarded to every winner.
If Bafta continues to devalue itself with political correctness, its shiny awards will be as useful as the ridiculous monument Ed Miliband planned for the Downing Street garden.
Actress Jessica Hynes set the tone with her attack on benefit reforms. After collecting her award for best comedy actress (for her part in the BBC comedy W1A), she began a blatantly political diatribe. Naturally, it was rapturously received by the audience of performers, D-Listers and TV execs.
Although it has nothing to do with her role as a jargon-spouting PR consultant in the drama, she said: 'I'm really worried about the cuts that are coming in state education and to people in low‑income families.'
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: Never mind great telly. The Baftas dish out gongs for being PC
By Christopher Stevens for the Daily Mail
12 May 2015
Daily Mail
Actress Jessica Hynes set the tone for Cameron-baiting at the Baftas when she rattled off a blatantly political diatribe
What is the opposite of a Shy Tory? How about a Loud Luvvie? Or someone who makes a great display, after an election is safely over, of just how fiercely right-on they are.
A typical example was the two-hour display of self-indulgent back-slapping and Cameron-baiting at the British Academy Television Awards, where actress Jessica Hynes set the tone with her attack on benefit reforms.
After collecting her award for best comedy actress (for her part in the BBC comedy W1A), she began a blatantly political diatribe. Naturally, it was rapturously received by the audience of performers, D-Listers and TV execs.
The BBC pokes fun at itself in its comedy series W1A. A follow up to Twenty Twelve, former London Olympics head of deliverance Ian Fletcher begins his new job as the BBC's head of values
Although it has nothing to do with her role as a jargon-spouting PR consultant in the drama, she said: 'I'm really worried about the cuts that are coming in state education and to people in low‑income families.'
Hynes's award appeared odd considering the other nominations. She had merely reprised her role as crashingly insensitive image guru Siobhan Sharpe, who was hilarious when she appeared four years ago in the Olympics sitcom Twenty-Twelve but who has become repetitive and mechanical now its sequel, W1A, is in its second series.
In every scene, Siobhan will say, 'It's like, you know, totally . . .' ten times, mangle a few brand names and parrot a meaningless buzzphrase.
There were better contenders in her category, notably Olivia Colman who played an exhausted vicar's wife whose husband is having a breakdown in the painfully sad comedy Rev, but W1A fits Bafta's political agenda better.
It is set in the corridors of Broadcasting House and, while it pokes fun at BBC bureaucracy, it remains an ideal platform for the Corporation to highlight all its much-vaunted 'values'.
Hynes's win exposes the mindset of Bafta, which is determined to set out its battle lines with new Culture Secretary John Whittingdale (whose responsibilities include the BBC) who is expected to challenge the way the BBC is funded, having once described the £145.50 licence fee as 'worse than a poll tax'.
If Baftas cease to be an accolade for great acting and writing and become a prize for the most politically correct television, they will be worthless.
On Sunday night there were signs that this process has already become irrevocable.
The choice of Georgina Campbell as best leading actress (for Murdered By My Boyfriend, the BBC3 drama about domestic violence) was inexplicable. Even she looked stunned.
She was up against brilliant actresses who had all turned in fantastic performances — Sarah Lancashire in the superb kidnap drama Happy Valley, Keeley Hawes as a corrupt policewoman in Line Of Duty and Sheridan Smith breaking the nation's hearts in Cilla.
New Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, who has called the BBC's compulsory £145.50 annual licence fee "worse than a poll tax" and has attacked it for its Left-wing bias, has the Corporation in his sights
Keeley Hawes turned in a brilliant performance as a corrupt policewoman in Line Of Duty, but was snubbed for the Bafta
Murdered By My Boyfriend was a one-off drama about a young woman who was beaten to death by her abusive partner.
It attracted 718,000 viewers, which was about 100,000 fewer than those who watched a repeat of the documentary 24 Hours In A&E at the same time on C4.
Happy Valley was regularly watched by more than seven million throughout its six-week run, but Bafta's judges were clearly more impressed by the BBC3 show's politically correct storyline, with its female victim ignored by a male chauvinist world.
I suggest they also wanted to pay tribute to BBC3, a channel scheduled to move off the airwaves and on to the internet in a cost-cutting exercise. To the Loud Luvvies, this is a travesty, despite the station's small audiences.
Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley
Political correctness was to the fore in the Specialist Factual award, too. The contenders for this included David Attenborough (for his 3D spectacular Conquest Of The Skies) and The Great War: The People's Story, in which extracts from diaries and personal letters were used to create a mosaic narrative of World War I.
And yet the winner was transvestite potter Grayson Perry for his series Who Are You? which included an interview with disgraced Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne and showed Perry daubing a pot with images of the jailed politician's pe nis.
Never mind honouring Britain's greatest wildlife broadcaster, or acknowledging the sacrifice of a generation in which millions fought and died for freedom, the Bafta judges bowed down before a Left-wing poster boy in a dress who has made a mint from clumsy Freudian symbolism.
Another victim of this warped thinking was Benedict Cumberbatch, who, wisely, did not attend the ceremony.
He said he was at home looking after his wife, who is expecting their first child, but it can hardly be a coincidence that he has already been overlooked twice for Sherlock and has never won a TV Bafta.
Although snubbed by Bafta's panel, Sherlock (which is loved by viewers) won the audience award.
Meanwhile, Bafta judges took another swipe at critics of the BBC by honouring The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies, ITV's two-part true-life drama about a former teacher wrongly accused of murdering one of his tenants.
Rather than giving a deserved Specialist Factual award to veteran naturalist and wildlife presenter David Attenborough...
.... they instead gave it to ludicrous, dress-wearing Left-winger Grayson Perry
The script was critical of newspapers for their reports about Jefferies being a suspect, when the fault lay mostly with the police who had arrested the eccentric bachelor.
The most politically correct and nauseating award was the Fellowship Bafta given to C4 newsreader Jon Snow, darling of the Islington Lefties.
Bafta panel chairwoman Anne Morrison said he was 'an inspiration across the industry' and 'one of the most iconic and successful broadcasters of our time'.
This would be the same Jon Snow who was accused of Pro-Palestinian bias in a Channel 4 news report last summer and got into a blazing row with Tory MP Philip Davies about Left-wing bias.
The same Jon Snow who refused to wear a Remembrance Day poppy on air in protest at 'poppy fascism' and who, last Friday, bemoaned the election result saying: 'There's a lot of pain in the country.'
To underline his leftist credentials, Snow paid sarcastic tribute to Mrs Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the inception of C4 in 1982, as he accepted his trophy. The audience chuckled knowingly.
Bafta says this man is 'iconic'. The dictionary defines icon as 'the image of some sacred personage, honoured with worship' — just like the golden mask on a stick that is awarded to every winner.
If Bafta continues to devalue itself with political correctness, its shiny awards will be as useful as the ridiculous monument Ed Miliband planned for the Downing Street garden.
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