Entertainment
Actor Phil Davis resigns Bafta membership after ‘toe-curling’ awards show: ‘An embarrassing travesty’-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro
He was also upset to not see Bernard Cribbins honoured during the in memorium segment.
The actor slammed the awards as he announced his resignation (Picture: Getty)
Actor Phil Davis has publicly announced that he has resigned his Bafta membership following Sunday’s awards show, which he slammed as ‘an embarrassing travesty’.
He also listed the omission of Bernard Cribbins from the in memoriam section as another reason for his resignation.
The veteran performer, who boasts over 150 acting credits in a career spanning 50 years, is perhaps best known for his roles in Vera Drake, Quadrophenia and the recent Poldark TV series remake, where he played Jud Paynter.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday night, the 69-year-old wrote: ‘The Bafta awards were an embarrassing travesty.
‘Cutting deserving winners speeches for toe curling non interviews. Poor Richard E Grant pretending to arrive in a Batmobile and no Bernard Cribbins in memorium.’
‘I resigned my membership,’ he added.
Dabis boasts an acting career spanning 50 years (Picture: Getty)
It appeared some of the changes that Bafta had made ahead of the 2023 ceremony, in order to make it more audience-friendly to viewers at home, had not gone down well with Davis.
Popular This Morning host Alison Hammond was set up backstage with her own studio in which to interview celebrities and award-winners, like The Banshees of Inisherin’s Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan.
However, this meant some prize recipient’s acceptance speeches were cut from the broadcast – including that of Lesley Patterson, the co-writer of All Quiet on the Western Front, which was the big winner of the night with seven gongs.
Many others were also sorely disappointed to see Cribbins, who died aged 93 last June, missing from the in memorium segment, given his extensive body of acting work includes The Railway Children and Alfred Hitchcock film Frenzy.
Davis did not seem to be a fan of the backstage interviews set-up this year (Picture: Antony Jones/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)
He also mentioned part of presenter Richard E Grant’s routine (Picture: Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)
However, the star was best known for his TV work – including Doctor Who, The Wombles, Fawlty Towers and Jackanory – and a Bafta representative confirmed that he would be ‘honoured at our forthcoming Bafta Television Awards in May 2023’.
There was also a lot of commotion online in reaction to West Side Story actress Ariana DeBose’s show-opening performance, which saw a medley of Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves and We Are Family segue into an original rap verse highlighting the female nominees, which has since gone viral.
At one point, in lyrics which were dubbed by some as ‘painful’ she rapped: ‘Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my ‘Woman King,’ Blanchett Cate you’re a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us.’
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The star later deactivated her Twitter account, but surfaced on Instagram to share her appreciation of the memes that quickly popped up, as everyone wondered which ‘thing’ it was exactly, done by Angela Bassett, that made it into the rap.
However, a Bafta producer came to her defence and branded the criticism ‘incredibly unfair’.
In a statement to Variety, Nick Bullen, who is CEO of Spun Gold, the production company responsible for mounting the show, insisted that everybody in the room ‘loved it’ and that the rap lyrics were ‘celebrating’ what had been ‘a great year for women in film’.
The organisation was also blasted for having no diversity among its winners this year (Picture: Antony Jones/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
Bullen added: ‘There’s a view that the Baftas have to be this slightly stiff, traditional British, middle-England messaging.’
He also pointed to the way ‘American awards shows have much more razzmatazz, much more showbiz and perhaps a broader range of people being involved’, with the razzmatazz element perhaps being what Davis wasn’t so keen on.
‘We felt we’re not about revolution, we’re about evolution. Let’s just evolve, let’s just move forward with some gentle changes that start to lay out the stall of what this show should be and where we should be with it,’ the producer added.
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There was also a resurgence of the ‘BaftasSoWhite’ hashtag online after the awards body failed to give out a single gong to any non-white winners this year, despite the nominations being some of the most diverse in the event’s history.
Despite complaints, ratings didn’t appear to be affected for the Bafta Awards, with an increased audience of 2.6 million viewers on average, and a 3.8 million peak.
When contacted for comment by Metro.co.uk, a spokesperson for Bafta said the organisation does not comment on individual memberships.
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