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Although it remains a modern masterpiece in terms of intention, execution and impact, Adolescence has been ruinous for those of us who have to write about awards show surprises. Because, ever since it first hit screens, it has won everything in sight. And because Adolescence is very good, that isn’t a surprise, and where’s the fun in that?
However, at last night’s television Baftas, the impossible happened: Adolescence actually managed to surprise me. Not purely because it keeps winning things a full 14 months after it debuted, but because of who won what.
Until now, the wins have been easy to predict. If there was a limited series category, Adolescence would win it. If there was a best actor category, Stephen Graham would win it. If there was a best supporting actor category, Owen Cooper would win it. If there was a best supporting actress category, Erin Doherty would win it. Not so at the Baftas. For last night, for the first time since it debuted, Christine Tremarco got her flowers.
This is huge. You can see why Doherty has won so many times, because her role was a true actor’s showcase. She came in for one episode, and that episode only starred two actors, and she had to convey the full sweep of emotion from warmth to anger to horror. But Tremarco had an even more challenging role. As Cooper’s mother – and Stephen Graham’s wife – she had to play the emotional backstop, the one who had to absorb and contain the household’s emotion. It’s such a tricky tone to get right, and Tremarco’s mastery of it helped to deepen the show. Her win is a fitting way for the Adolescence awards show juggernaut to come to an end.
Still, the Baftas has always delighted in these curveball victories, and there were no end of them last night. One of the biggest shocks was Katherine Parkinson’s best comedy actress win for Here We Go. Not because she wasn’t good – she’s always good – but because this was lined up to be Amandaland’s night. Amandaland, after all, won best scripted comedy, and the show absolutely relies on Lucy Punch’s performance. And yet Punch lost the acting award.
A possible explanation for this is the weird category structure of the Baftas themselves. The awards for comedy performance begin and end with lead acting; supporting trophies are for drama only. As a result of this, Amandaland stuffed everybody it could into one category. Punch was nominated, but so were Jennifer Saunders and Philippa Dunne. There is a very strong likelihood that this split the vote. Amandaland will be nominated again next year; if it is to win then, either the BBC needs to be more discerning about who to put up for nomination, or Bafta should shell out for a couple of new categories.
Elsewhere Code of Silence caused a minor upset by winning best drama. This is something surely no one saw coming, with most predictions guessing that Blue Lights (arguably more popular) or A Thousand Blows (essentially the cast of Adolescence in period costume) would triumph. Still, you could argue that Code of Silence was utterly dependent on Rose Ayling-Ellis’s performance, so questions should be asked about her lack of a nomination.
Also, this probably doesn’t count as a surprise, because it was one of the best things on television over the last year, but the makers of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack deserve everyone’s congratulations. This was a film, remember, that ended up being broadcast on Channel 4 after the BBC (its original broadcaster) got cold feet over it. An extra surprise is that the makers repeated some of the film’s most shocking statistics in their acceptance speech, mentioning that Israel has bombed all of Gaza’s hospitals, then dared the BBC not to edit it out of the ceremony’s broadcast. To its credit, the BBC did not.
We should also mention Last One Laughing, which walked away with two awards; best entertainment and entertainment performance. This is quite a breakthrough for the 32nd international remake of a decade-old Japanese format, not to mention one that only requires six hours of its participants’ lives, but it looks like the show is here to stay. This will be the one to beat in the years to come.
And finally, perhaps the biggest surprise of all. Bafta got through an entire ceremony without anyone calling it racist. This is unprecedented. May wonders never cease.
