Ahead of this Sunday’s awards night, we remember Joanna Lumley’s humourless stint at hosting, acrobats dressed as astronauts and the rage of Russell Crowe
Typically, the Baftas have fewer memorable moments than, say, the Oscars. This is partly because the ceremony isn’t broadcast live, so viewers are essentially treated to edited highlights. However, when Russell Crowe won for A Beautiful Mind in 2002, it was his speech that got edited out. That was because he decided to recite the Patrick Kavanagh poem Sanctity, and it went on and on. When Crowe realised what had happened, he tracked down the show’s director at the afterparty, pinned him against a wall, called him a “cunt” and then allegedly kicked three chairs across the room.
In 1989, though, the awards were broadcast live. The most noteworthy moment came in the bar afterwards when John Hurt, apparently quite the worse for wear, screamed “Fuck off or I’ll kill you” at a pack of 30 photographers, who he then attempted to fight. It resulted in some spectacular photographs. Hurt himself was unrepentant, telling the Daily Express the following morning: “I’m a bad, bad boy, and I love it.”
Being called out for lack of diversity is par for the course for awards shows, but the Baftas seem to get called out more than most. In 2017 (the year of Moonlight and Fences), only white people were nominated in the best actor, best actress and best director categories, causing the hashtag #BaftaSoWhite to trend on Twitter (as it was then called). It trended again in 2020, which led Bafta to undertake a formal review of its processes, widening membership to more people from underrepresented backgrounds, implementing unconscious bias training for members and scores of other measures. But guess what? It trended again in 2023.
