
BAFTA TV Awards viewers are all saying the same thing about host Alan Cumming as he kickstarts the ceremony with Traitors-themed sketch
Viewers tuning into the 2025 BAFTA TV Awards blasted host Alan Cumming for his prolonged opening monologue on Sunday, as they begged for him 'to get on with' starting the ceremony.
As the star-studded evening kicked off to celebrate a slew of talented stars, Alan, 60, started the evening with a sketch in honour of The Traitors.
In the sketch, Alan sported one of the famous Traitors cloaks, before being interrogated by DI Barnady from the iconic crime drama Midsomer Murders, before being asked to take an oath to take on the coveted role as BAFTAs host.
Following the skit, Alan then took to the stage at London 's Royal Festival hall in a quirky glittery blue suit.
Looking in top spirits in his exaggerated trousers and blazer which he layered over a silky leopard-print shirt.
And while his outfit caught the eyes of TV buffs, it was Alan's 'boring' introduction which caused fans to spiral in a frenzy as they begged for him 'to get on with it'.
Taking to social media, one viewer penned: 'possibly the worst presenter EVER #baftas'; 'Just get on with it.... #baftas #BAFTA2025'; 'Oh get on with it love #BAFTAS'
'#BAFTAs Get on with the awards and cut out all the nonsense.'; 'This dude is boring me to death #BAFTAS'; 'Get on with it for goodness sake. #baftas'
'The opening sketch for the #BAFTAS tells you all you need to know about the standard of quality you're about to see awarded. #BAFTA #BAFTA2025'
'Is there a reason for these naff intros? #BAFTAs'
The 2025 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises is taking place at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.
The star-studded evening will see a slew of celebrities take home awards celebrating excellence in TV, as well as a line-up of standout performances.
Global music stars Jessie J and Tom Grennan are both set to put on a show at the ceremony, with powerhouse Jessie singing The Award Goes To as her first TV performance in six years.
Meanwhile, multi-platinum popstar Tom will play his brand new track Full Attention, in a TV exclusive.
And while his outfit caught the eyes of TV buffs, it was Alan's 'boring' introduction which caused fans to spiral in a frenzy as they begged for him 'to get on with it'
Both performances will air during the awards ceremony on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 11 May at 7pm.
In addition, BAFTA has confirmed award-winning concert violinist and social media sensation Esther Abrami will be performing Apple Tree for the In Memoriam tribute.
Speaking about her performance, Jessie J said: 'I haven't sung on British television in years. What a way to come back, it's an honour. But who will the award go to, that's the question.'
Meanwhile, Tom added: 'It's a real honour to have been invited by such a prestigious event as BAFTA to perform in front of so many esteemed actors and creatives.'
For the first time, Scottish actor, writer, producer and presenter Alan Cumming will host the glitzy eremony.
Emma Baehr, Executive Director of Awards & Content at BAFTA, said: 'We're delighted that Alan Cumming will be hosting this year's BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises.
'He will definitely bring a playful sense of mischief and fun to the ceremony, so audiences should expect the unexpected at Britain's biggest celebration of TV on Sunday 11 May.'
Elsewhere, the nominations for the BAFTA Television Awards 2025 P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award have been announced.
From Gavin and Stacey, to The Traitors and Bridgerton, six of this year's most acclaimed TV shows are set to battle it out for one of the ceremony's biggest accolades.
The category is the only award in which the public will be able to have their say and vote for their favourite scene.
Last year's BAFTA Television Awards delivered an average audience of 2.7 million on BBC One and iPlayer, whilst social media coverage of the night received over 7 million views.
In terms of other nominations, Strictly Come Dancing has been snubbed of a nomination for the first time in the show's 20-year history.
The BBC favourite had been nominated in the Entertainment Programme category every year since the rebooted version of the show launched in 2004.
Meanwhile, Netflix phenomenon Baby Reindeer led the pack with an incredible eight nominations after it proved a global success following its release last year.
Richard Gadd who wrote and starred in the series about his own experiences of being stalked is up for Leading Actor, while his co-star Jessica Gunning is in the running for the Supporting Actress award.
In the Limited Drama category, Baby Reindeer will face ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was based on one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office received a total of six nominations, while Disney series Rivals and Apple TV's Slow Horses also had the same amount of nods.
Ant and Dec, The Traitors and Stacey Solomon's Sort Your Life Out are among the nominees for best entertainment performance.
The best leading actress nominees are Anna Maxwell Martin (Until I Kill You), Billie Piper (Scoop), Lola Petticrew (Say Nothing), Marisa Abela (Industry), Monica Dolan (Mr Bates vs The Post Office) and Sharon D Clarke (Mr Loverman).
David Tennant (Rivals), Gary Oldman (Slow Horses), Lennie James (Mr Loverman), Martin Freeman (The Responder) and Toby Jones (Mr Bates vs The Post Office) take on Gadd for the best actor accolade.
Soap star Danny Dyer is among the group who have received their first Bafta nomination in the best male comedy performance category for his role in Mr Bigstuff
A total of 21 out of 44 nominees in the performance categories have received their first BAFTA Television Awards nomination.
Soap star Danny Dyer is among the group who have received their first Bafta nomination in the best male comedy performance category for his role in Mr Bigstuff.
In the prestigious best drama category, crime dramas Blue Lights and Sherwood will take on superhero series Supacell and acclaimed period drama Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
Jane Millichip, CEO of Bafta, said: '2024 was a standout year for television, testified by the 134 brilliant programmes nominated by BAFTA members.
'The power of television to drive national conversation, to tap into the stories of public interest, and to inspire societal change, is second to none. And to do this through every genre is even more impressive.
'The drama of sport, the truth of fiction, the humanity of documentary, the poignancy of comedy, serious entertainment – this year's nominees reflect every aspect of the human condition.
'UK television is at the top of its game, and it is a privilege at Bafta to showcase the work of our incredibly talented nominees at the Bafta Television Craft Awards and Bafta Television Awards with P&O Cruises. Tune into BBC One and BBC iPlayer on May 11, not only to find out who wins, but to inspire your next watchlist.'
And the official wine sponsor of the evening, Casillero del Diablo, will once again be the drink of choice for winners, nominees, celebrities, and VIP guests alike.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
Competition to design wrap for Herefordshire's Museum on the Move
A competition is being launched to design the wrap for a Museum on the pop-up programme will bring objects, displays and activities to schools, towns and villages in a van while Herefordshire Museum is shut for winner will receive a £200 prize and have their design seen across the county as the van tours Herefordshire later this Etheraads from Herefordshire council said the competition was a brilliant opportunity for local creativity to shine and he could not wait to take the winning design out on the road. The competition is now open and the closing date for entries is 27 July. Entry details, templates and guidance can be requested by emailing herefordmuseums@ Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.


Times
30 minutes ago
- Times
Osip hotel review: a cool restaurant with rooms in bucolic Somerset
The field-to-plate restaurant Osip was one of the star attractions of super-trendy Bruton until last August when it decamped to the nearby low-key village of South Brewham so that the chef and owner Merlin Labron-Johnson could reinvent a traditional 17th-century coaching inn as a minimalist temple to ethical gastronomy. Labron-Johnson's imaginative and thoughtful cooking has won him numerous awards, including a Michelin star, a green Michelin star and The Good Food Guide's Restaurant of the Year for 2025, as well as legions of high-profile fans, so dinner might come with a side order of celebrity, with anyone from former chancellor George Osborne to the fashion designer Stella McCartney at the next table. Like us civilians, they're here for the culinary love letter to the local landscape, with 90 per cent of the produce grown organically on the restaurant's farm or sourced from within a five-mile radius. Now Labron-Johnson has added the ultimate petits fours to his inventive menu: a quartet of small but perfectly formed bedrooms for those who don't want their evening to end. Score 8/10In its former incarnation as the Bull, there were seven bedrooms above the pub, all low-ceilinged and poky. Labron-Johnson has knocked them through, creating four larger rooms that are airy and light-filled. Their style is minimalism at its most beguiling, all milky tones and full of natural goodness. There are exposed beams, beds with eye-catching live-edge English oak headboards (that follow the shape of the tree's natural contours) and chunky bedside tables, made from stumps of trees felled within a ten-mile radius. Handmade jute rugs, wicker baskets, vases with sprays of wildflowers and botanical artworks add texture. Avon and Brue have freestanding bathtubs, Somer and Pitt have only smart showers and all have sweet-smelling Maison Osip toiletries that use British plants and herbs with formulations that change with the seasons. There are no TVs or minibars and, as Labron-Johnson expects guests to stay only one night, storage space is as minimal as the decor. You do get freshly baked canelé pastries though, with a wondrous caramelised crust and gooey custard centre, rosy apples and homemade cider to whet your appetite for the gastronomic treat to come. • Somerset's most luxurious hotels Score 9/10Evenings start with snacks beside the inglenook fireplace in the stripped-back sitting room where the squishy sofas add cosiness to the white and wood moodboard. Ask for a table in the main dining room, which now has a spectacular glass-box kitchen bolted on to it. From here, Labron-Johnson calmly directs his team of young chefs, watched by diners on one side and on the other by curious cows in the field beyond Osip's wildflower garden. The ten-course tasting menu is obligatory, with enthusiastic waiters delivering a story with each course. Standout dishes included the lovage broth, a heavenly blast of summer sunshine, accompanied by a moreish fermented potato brioche and cultured butter topped with a dehydrated nettle. Meat tends to play second fiddle to vegetables but when it does put in an appearance it's wickedly good, such as the satisfyingly rich pork, deftly countered by the grassiness of yet more nettles (grilled this time) and asparagus. The rocket sorbet manages the same clever balancing act, being both bitter and sweet while the chocolate and apricot macaron is a full-on fudgy sugar high. • More great restaurants with rooms In contrast to the incredible dinners, breakfasts are more pared-back affairs. Forget any thoughts of a fry-up — there's homemade granola, fruit and yoghurt, ham, cheese, butter and sourdough bread (but no toast), with boiled eggs the only cooked option. It's a bit too minimalist. There are complimentary transfers for guests who travel by train to Bruton or Castle Cary and you can take a tour of Dreamers Farm, a short drive from the restaurant, to check out the produce that will be on your plate later. • UK's best pubs with rooms Score 9/10South Brewham is a roses-round-the-door rustic idyll, sitting at the foot of a pine forest and surrounded by rolling hills. The romantic Palladian mansion and parklands of the Stourhead estate is a few minutes up the road, while Bruton is ten minutes in a car. It is home to a Hauser & Wirth art gallery, independent shops including Smouk, which sells stylish homeware, and several pubs and places to eat, including the Old Pharmacy, Labron-Johnson's more affordable bistro where you can get octopus with Jersey royal potatoes and aïoli for £15. Price B&B doubles from £240Restaurant tasting menu £125Accessible NDog-friendly NFamily-friendly N Susan d'Arcy was a guest of Osip (


BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
Sir David Amess and Jimmy Greaves feature in new biography book
The lives of prominent Essex people - including MP Sir David Amess, footballer Jimmy Greaves and Labour politician Stan Newens - are to be detailed in a long-running reference book of noteworthy British Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) is updated each year to reflect the lives of historical figures who have died in a certain who died in 2021 and whose biographies are to be featured also include Prince Philip, actress Helen McCrory, drummer Charlie Watts and charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom ODNB started in 2004, but the original Dictionary of National Biography was first published in 1885 and featured thousands of notable people. Other Essex names among the 238 being added are writer, actress and former model Clare Dunkel and Conservative MP James Brokenshire, who was born in total, more than 5,000 people with Essex connections feature in the David, who was fatally stabbed at his constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea in October 2021, was the the Conservative MP for Basildon from 1983 to 1997 and Southend West from 1997 until his who still holds the record for the most goals scored in top-flight English football, played as a striker for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham over the course of his later became a newspaper columnist and television personality and died at his home in Little Baddow, Essex, in September of the Essex figures, Stan Newens, was the Labour MP for Epping from 1964 to 1970 and later served as an family moved to Epping when he was a child following the outbreak of World War Dunkel, who used the pen name Mo Hayder for her numerous successful crime and thriller novels, starred in Are You Being Served? in her younger years and grew up in latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography includes biographies of more than 63,000 individuals. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.