English Entertainment
‘Broadchurch’ wins Best Drama BAFTA, ‘Breaking Bad’ wins Best Foreign Drama
MUMBAI: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the winners of this evening’s Arqiva British Academy Television Awards, celebrating and rewarding the very best programmes and performances of the past year. The ceremony was hosted by Graham Norton at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. The presenters included Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Davina McCall (The Jump), Hugh Dancy (Hannibal), Jeremy Piven (Mr. Selfridge), Marvin Humes (The X Factor), Martin Freeman (Sherlock), Mel & Sue (The Great British Bake-Off), Olympiad Mo Farah, Naomi Campbell (The Face), legendary television presenter Paul O’Grady, Ross Kemp (Eastenders), Sam Neill (Peaky Blinders) and Sheridan Smith (The Widower).
Crime drama Broadchurch was recognised in three categories: Olivia Colman won the BAFTA for Leading Actress for her performance as DS Ellie Miller, whilst co-star David Bradley received his first BAFTA for Supporting Actor. Colman’s win takes her career tally to three; she has now won a BAFTA in each of the performance categories. The programme also won a BAFTA in the highly competitive Drama Series category.
The IT Crowd was rewarded in both comedy performance categories, with Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson winning their first BAFTAs for Male and Female Performance in a Comedy Programme respectively. The BAFTA for Situation Comedy went to Him & Her: The Wedding, the first of two awards won by BBC Three.
The BAFTA for Leading Actor went to first-time nominee Sean Harris for his performance as Stephen Morton in Southcliffe, the drama about a small town’s shootings. Sarah Lancashire, another first-time BAFTA winner, took home the award for Supporting Actress, her second nomination in as many years for her performance in BBC One’s popular drama, Last Tango in Halifax.
Ant and Dec, one of the nation’s most popular double-acts, fended off stiff competition from Charlie Brooker, Sarah Millican and ceremony host Graham Norton to take home the BAFTA in the Entertainment Performance category for Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, which also won the Entertainment Programme category. The award for Soap & Continuing Drama returned to Weatherfield as Coronation Street added a tenth BAFTA to its collection.
In its first year at the BAFTAs, Netflix took home the International award for Breaking Bad, the global television phenomenon that follows a terminally ill man on his journey from chemistry teacher to drug lord.
The award for Mini-Series went to BBC Three hit In The Flesh, written by BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and Television Craft Award-winner Dominic Mitchell. The BAFTA for Single Drama was won by domestic terrorism thriller Complicit.
Channel 4 fared well in factual: Bedlam won for Factual Series; The Murder Trial, which saw cameras placed inside a British court for the entirety of a trial, won for Single Documentary; and Syria: Across the Lines (Dispatches) received the BAFTA for Current Affairs, the tenth BAFTA (across Television and Television Craft) for a Dispatches film. Gogglebox, in its first series, was successful in the Reality & Constructed Factual category.
Bringing ITV’s tally to eight BAFTAs, Long Lost Family won in Features and ITV News at Ten: Woolwich Attacks in News Coverage.
Sky achieved success across a range of programming with its three nominations converting to wins in factual, sport and comedy: David Attenborough’s Natural History Museum Alive 3D received the BAFTA for Specialist Factual; The Ashes 2013 – 1st Test, Day 5 took home the award for Sport & Live Event; and A League of Their Own won the BAFTA for Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme.
The Radio Times Audience Award, the only award voted for by the public, was won by Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor, beating Breaking Bad, Broadchurch, Educating Yorkshire, Gogglebox and The Great British Bake Off.
The Special Award was presented to Cilla Black, the entertainer, actress and singer, for her 50-year contribution to British television entertainment.
The Fellowship, the highest accolade the Academy bestows, was presented to actress Julie Walters (Harry Potter films) in recognition of an exceptional contribution to television over 30 years and her ground-breaking work across a range of genres, from serious drama to comedy.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
