The Bafta TV awards' biggest shocks and surprises

Yahoo

12-05-2025

The Bafta TV awards last night was a battle between Baby Reindeer and Mr Bates Vs. The Post Office aka a battle between the originality of shows offered by the likes of streaming services, versus the ongoing resonance and power of public service broadcasting.
Baby Reindeer had the most nominations, and Richard Gadd had already won in the writing category at last month's Craft Awards. Yet, the Post Office scandal had created a rarity in televisual history: pressure at the highest levels of government and genuine public outrage.
Baby Reindeer was one of the most popular Netflix originals in the streamer's history when it debuted. Yet, Mr Bates had upwards of 15 million viewers. And here, both shows were up for Limited Drama. It was Richard Gadd vs Toby Jones for Lead Actor.
Now, I know what you're thinking… weren't these shows on absolutely ages ago? It's one of the biggest questions that I get asked about the TV Baftas. The shows celebrate the very best programmes of the year, but the calendar year, which meant that shows that aired all the way back at the start of 2024 were eligible. Perhaps the Baftas could be more current, but it takes time for the juries to choose the overall winner. And lo and behold, Mr Bates aired right back on 1 January, 2024.
Yet, the Baftas are a great litmus of how the television industry is coping with our changing viewing habits, and with new rivals with considerable spending power. In the end, both the streamers and the likes of ITV had something to be proud of, with Jessica Gunning winning Supporting Actor, whilst Mr Bates beat Baby Reindeer in the coveted Limited Series category. In the end, Richard Gadd and Toby Jones were not the winner of Lead Actor, with Lennie James for the BBC's Mr Loverman coming out on top.
Yet, despite no show dominating the awards last night, you wonder how much we're at a tipping point. Drama on public service broadcasters is in a considerable crisis, with rising costs and a squeeze on the amount of money making it far harder for important dramas to be getting to the screen in the first place.
And streaming services have been doing a series of thought provoking state-of-the-nation dramas that feel very similar to ones you see on public service broadcasters: Netflix's Adolescence and Toxic Town. Suspect — Jeff Pope's thought-provoking new limited drama on the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes — a very important British story, is on Disney+.
All of these dramas will be eligible at next year's ceremony (which means, yes, Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty will be likely nominees in May 2026). If these shows do well at the awards, which certainly feels likely, it'll be harder for the likes of the BBC to argue that what it makes is distinctively different from what you can pay a subscription for, at a time of licence fee renewal and the BBC's future hanging in the air.
Elsewhere, last night there was probably a lot of relief by Bafta organisers that the finale of Gavin & Stacey won one of the two awards they were nominated for, with Ruth Jones taking for Female Comedy Performance ("this is cracking," she told the crowd in the voice of Nessa). The talk of the audience last night was how on Earth the much-loved sitcom had not been nominated for Scripted Comedy, despite an acclaimed finale and upwards of 20 million viewers.
If the show had walked away with nothing, it would have been as baffling as the time the acclaimed Russell T Davies' series It's A Sin received the most nominations, and yet won nothing on the big night itself.
Still, there were a couple of big shocks last night, with Channel 4's The Jury: Murder Trial beating series two of The Traitors. Yes! The one with Diane and her fizzy rosé! The one where everyone yelled at Harry!
The Jury is a show that is all based around whether a filmed trial makes the same verdict as the real one. It casually makes you wonder what was discussed behind closed doors that somehow made Murder Trial come up on top.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by BAFTA (@bafta)
The other shock? Sophie William winning Scripted Comedy for Alma's Not Normal. The shock not being her win, but saying that she wasn't going to swear, and then said the word "s***". Still, not as bad as Danny Dyer, who won for Mr Big Stuff for Scripted Comedy, proceeding to accidentally say "f***" and "f***ing" (by my count) no less than four times in his acceptance speech in less than a minute.
The whole ceremony was broadcast on a taped delay, but in my opinion the Bafta's Best Editing prize should have gone to the person editing his Dyer's acceptance speech.
The Bafta TV Awards are streaming on BBC iPlayer.