British Academy Television Awards
Encyclopedia
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
(BAFTA). They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.
From 1968 until 1997, the BAFTA Film and Television awards were presented in one joint ceremony known simply as the BAFTA Awards, but in order to streamline the ceremonies from 1998 onwards they were split in two. The Television Awards are usually presented in April, with a separate ceremony for the Television Craft Awards on a different date. The Craft Awards are presented for more technical areas of the industry, such as special effects, production design, or costumes.
The Awards are only open to British programmes — with the exception of the audience-voted Audience Award and the International Award (this is for a single programme or series acquired from the international marketplace, covering all genres) — but any cable
, satellite
, terrestrial or digital television
stations broadcasting in the UK are eligible to submit entries, as are independent production companies who have produced programming for the channels. Individual performances, such as from actors, can either be entered by the performers themselves or by the broadcasters. The programmes being entered must have been broadcast on or between 1 January and 31 December of the year preceding the Awards ceremony (so, between 1 January and 31 December 2004, for the 2005 Awards). Entry is free, and entry forms are made available between October and December each year.
After all the entries have been received, they are voted for online
by all eligible members of the Academy. The programmes and performances attracting the most votes, usually four in each category, are shortlisted as the nominees for each award. The winner is chosen from the four nominees by a special jury of nine academy members for each award, the members of each jury selected by the Academy's Television Committee. Each jury is designed to have a balance in areas such as sex, age and experience, and have experience related to the categories concerned but no direct connections to the short-listed programmes or performers.
There are also a number of non-competitive honorary Awards — the Dennis Potter
Award for Outstanding Writing for Television; the Alan Clarke
Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television; the Richard Dimbleby
Award for Outstanding Presenter in the Factual Arena; the Fellowship for individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to television across their careers, and various Special Awards given on an ad hoc
basis. These Awards are suggested by the Television Committee and awarded by the Academy's Council. They are not necessarily always given every year, but as and when appropriate.
The Awards ceremony is broadcast on British television, usually the day after it has taken place. Transmission alternates each year between the two main UK television channels, BBC One and ITV1
.
, who as chairman did not cast a vote, refused to comment publicly on the affair, but BAFTA Chairman Richard Price stated that the ballot papers passed on to him by Shubik had shown four votes for Prime Suspect and three for G.B.H.. Price claimed that the ballot papers could not be recounted as they had subsequently been destroyed. No blame was ever attached to Shubik by the four judges, and it was to her that they had initially turned to raise the apparent discrepancy with BAFTA.
In 2010 the YouTube Audience Award was added.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
(BAFTA). They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.
Background
The first ever Awards, given in 1954, consisted of six categories. Until 1958, they were awarded by the Guild of Television Producers and Directors. From 1958 onwards, after the Guild had merged with the British Film Academy, the organisation was known as the Society of Film and Television Arts. In 1976, this became the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the name the organisation goes under still as of 2007.From 1968 until 1997, the BAFTA Film and Television awards were presented in one joint ceremony known simply as the BAFTA Awards, but in order to streamline the ceremonies from 1998 onwards they were split in two. The Television Awards are usually presented in April, with a separate ceremony for the Television Craft Awards on a different date. The Craft Awards are presented for more technical areas of the industry, such as special effects, production design, or costumes.
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, satellite
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
, terrestrial or digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
stations broadcasting in the UK are eligible to submit entries, as are independent production companies who have produced programming for the channels. Individual performances, such as from actors, can either be entered by the performers themselves or by the broadcasters. The programmes being entered must have been broadcast on or between 1 January and 31 December of the year preceding the Awards ceremony (so, between 1 January and 31 December 2004, for the 2005 Awards). Entry is free, and entry forms are made available between October and December each year.
After all the entries have been received, they are voted for online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
by all eligible members of the Academy. The programmes and performances attracting the most votes, usually four in each category, are shortlisted as the nominees for each award. The winner is chosen from the four nominees by a special jury of nine academy members for each award, the members of each jury selected by the Academy's Television Committee. Each jury is designed to have a balance in areas such as sex, age and experience, and have experience related to the categories concerned but no direct connections to the short-listed programmes or performers.
There are also a number of non-competitive honorary Awards — the Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
Award for Outstanding Writing for Television; the Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke
Alan Clarke was a television and film director, producer and writer, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, including work for the famous play strands The Wednesday Play and Play for Today...
Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television; the Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby CBE was an English journalist and broadcaster widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in British broadcasting history.-Early life:...
Award for Outstanding Presenter in the Factual Arena; the Fellowship for individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to television across their careers, and various Special Awards given on an ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
basis. These Awards are suggested by the Television Committee and awarded by the Academy's Council. They are not necessarily always given every year, but as and when appropriate.
The Awards ceremony is broadcast on British television, usually the day after it has taken place. Transmission alternates each year between the two main UK television channels, BBC One and ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
.
"Baftagate"
In 1991, a controversial selection was made in the Best Drama Serial category, when Prime Suspect beat G.B.H. to win the award. Following the ceremony, four of the seven voting members of the jury signed a public statement declaring that they had voted for G.B.H. to win. Irene ShubikIrene Shubik
Irene Shubik is a British television producer, notable for her contribution to the development of the single play in British television drama. Beginning her television career at ABC Television, she worked on Armchair Theatre as a story editor where she devised the science fiction anthology series...
, who as chairman did not cast a vote, refused to comment publicly on the affair, but BAFTA Chairman Richard Price stated that the ballot papers passed on to him by Shubik had shown four votes for Prime Suspect and three for G.B.H.. Price claimed that the ballot papers could not be recounted as they had subsequently been destroyed. No blame was ever attached to Shubik by the four judges, and it was to her that they had initially turned to raise the apparent discrepancy with BAFTA.
Categories
As of 2007, the main competitive Award categories presented every year are:- Best ActorBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actor- 1950s :*1955 Paul Rogers — *1956 Peter Cushing — *1957 Michael Gough — *1958 Michael Hordern — *1959 Donald Pleasence — - 1960s :*1960 Patrick McGoohan — *1961 Lee Montague —...
- Best ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...
- Best Supporting ActorBritish Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor- 2010s :*2010 Matthew Macfadyen in Criminal Justice**Gary Lewis in Mo**Tom Hollander in Gracie!**Benedict Cumberbatch in Small Island*2011 Martin Freeman in Sherlock**Robert Sheehan in Misfits**Johnny Harris in This Is England '86...
- Best Supporting ActressBritish Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress- 2010s :*2010 Rebecca Hall in Red Riding 1974*2011 Lauren Socha in Misfits...
- Best Comedy (Programme or Series)British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series)- 1980s :*1981 Yes Minister*1982 Yes Minister*1983 Yes Minister*1984 Hi-de-Hi!*1985 The Young Ones*1986 Only Fools and Horses*1987 Just Good Friends*1988 Blackadder the Third*1989 Only Fools and Horses- 1990s :...
- Includes stand-up comedyStand-up comedyStand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
and sketch shows. Judged on the basis of a single episode.
- Includes stand-up comedy
- Best Comedy PerformanceBritish Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Performance-See also:* British Academy Television Awards* British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy -External links:* * , Internet Movie Database...
- Best Drama Serial
- A drama where one main story is told across more than one episode, and the story is resolved in the final episode.
- Best Drama SeriesBritish Academy Television Award for Best Drama SeriesThe British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards , the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry...
- A drama which consists of several episodes, but each episode tells a self-contained story, with the same characters continuing across the episodes.
- Best Single Drama
- A drama where one self-contained story is told in a single one-off episode, equivalent to a television movieTelevision movieA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
. The minimum length is five minutes.
- A drama where one self-contained story is told in a single one-off episode, equivalent to a television movie
- Best Continuing Drama
- A drama which transmits a minimum of twenty episodes per year. The nominees are typically soap operas.
- Best Current Affairs - replaced
- The entered programme can be a one-off or part of a series, but if part of a series the same episode may not also be entered in another category. This category was ceased in 2007 due to lack of entrants for the award . However, current affairs programmes can still qualify, but under the category of either Best Single Documentary or Best Factual Series, depending on the genre of the programme. Longlist and nominations for these two categories are expected to expand.
- Best Entertainment Performance
- Best Factual Series or Strand
- Best Feature
- For programmes not included in any other category, for example cookery, gardening, lifestyle or discussion programmes.
- Flaherty Award for Single Documentary
- For a one-off documentary not presented as part of a regular series. Entered programmes cannot also be entered in any other category.
- Huw Wheldon Award for Specialist Factual
- Awarded to Arts, History, Natural History or Science one-offs or series, either factual or performance-based. Entered programmes cannot also be entered in any other category.
- Lew Grade Entertainment Programme or Series
- Includes variety shows, game shows, quizzes, chat shows and other similar programming.
- News Coverage
- For an individual news programme in its entirety, or up to one hour's unedited. material from a rolling news channel.
- Situation Comedy Award
- For sitcoms.
- Sport
- For a sports programme, as transmitted.
- The Pioneer Award
- Given to programme makers who have achieved success by novel or pioneering approaches. The short-list for this award is prepared by a vote of national television critics, and the winner voted for by the general public, the only BAFTA Television Award given in such a manner.
- International Prize
- For programmes made outside the United Kingdom and/or IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. The award was originally handed out in the 1990s but was ceased in 1998. It returned in 2007 replacing the "Current Affairs" category which absorbed to either Best Factual Series and Best Single Documentary.
- For programmes made outside the United Kingdom and/or Ireland
In 2010 the YouTube Audience Award was added.