BAFTA TV Awards red carpet packed with stars: Kate Winslet, Gary Oldman, Taron Egerton …

Jacob Sarkisian
·6 min read
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The 2023 BAFTA TV Awards are here with the red carpet just kicking off in London where the British version of the Emmys will be hosted by comedians Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett. Usually, this event is paired with a classically grey and gloomy British sky despite being held annually in May. Today, however, the red carpet is shining brightly in the Spring sun as those of us here in the media center at the Royal Festival Hall, where this year’s TV BAFTAs are held, swelter at our laptops.

Down on the red carpet, Michelle Visage and Clara Amfo welcome viewers and guests alike as the first stars of this year’s awards begin to trickle in here in Waterloo, just beside the London Eye. There is a real mix of stars in attendance today. There are British TV presenters including “Strictly Come Dancing” judge Motsi Mabuse as well as Oscar-winning legends like Kate Winslet (nominated for Best Actress for “I Am Ruth”) and Gary Oldman (nominated for Best Actor for “Slow Horses”).

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That’s particularly telling about the state of British TV and TV in general — the number of movie stars here. In the Best Actor category alone, Oldman is joined by “Kingsman” actor Taron Egerton (“Black Bird”), Bond star Ben Whishaw (“This is Going to Hurt”), “Batman Begins” and “Oppenheimer” player Cillian Murphy (“Peaky Blinders”), MCU actor Martin Freeman (“The Responder”), and “The English” performer Chaske Spencer. Elsewhere, three “Harry Potter” alums are here: Fiona Shaw is contending in Supporting Actress for “Star Wars” show “Andor,” Imelda Staunton is here for lead role in “The Crown” and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, himself is in vying in Comedy Actor for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

This mixture of British icons and outright A-list movie stars just shows how much television is grown in the last several years — the TV awards are beginning to give the film awards a run for their money.

Siobhán McSweeney — she’s nominated for Comedy Actress for “Derry Girls” — has rocked up in a sparkling red dress reminiscent of those ruby slippers in “The Wizard of Oz.” She looks stunning in the London light. And Sister Michael is wearing Michael Jordans, she reveals to Amfo. She also reveals the sort of refreshingly honest outlook about awards that we love here at Gold Derby — she says she’d love to win and has always wanted a BAFTA.

“I’m delighted to be here and I really hope I win but if I don’t, I’ll still have a wonderful time,” McSweeney said. Good for her. Elsewhere, “What We Do in the Shadows” star Matt Berry, who’s nominated for Comedy Actor, tells Visage he didn’t expect to get past the pilot let alone earn the massive cult following (which this writer is proudly part of) that “What We Do in the Shadows” now has.

Amfo then interviews “The Crown” star Salim Daw, who played Mohamed Al-Fayed in the latest season of Netflix’s royal drama. He’s nominated for Supporting Actor and he is perhaps the most humble and grateful man on the red carpet. He called being nominated at BAFTA “a big dream for me” and said the moment was only equaled by actually working on the show.

“I enjoy every, every moment, every day of the show. Thank you so much,” Daw said before we switch over to Visage interviewing hosts Ranganathan and Beckett, who joked that they didn’t rehearse that much this week as they didn’t want to “over-prepare.” They did reveal they wrote all of the jokes themselves, however, so if they bomb — that’s all on them. No writers can be blamed! Huzzah!

And here comes Lesley Manville, who looks like a regal 1950s movie star with her hair pinned back and an elegant black dress. Manville, who is nominated for “Sherwood,” starts by defending “The Crown.” She admits the show might not be “fact, fact, fact” but that we should enjoy the fact that it is an absolute drama that gives us a glimpse behind the curtain of the most famous family in the world (sorry, Kardashians). Manville has four previous BAFTA TV award bids but has never won — she’ll be hoping that changes today.

Robert Baratheon himself, Mark Addy, is here alongside Lesley Sharp — they’re presenting Best Scripted Comedy — and they big up their upcoming Disney+ TV Series “The Full Monty,” which is based on the Oscar-winning 1997 film of the same name. We quickly flash over to one of the most popular actors here in the aforementioned Cillian Murphy, who is nominated for the final season of “Peaky Blinders.” Murphy says it’s “tough to shake off” a character like Tommy Shelby at the end of the day, while he teases that there is “hopefully” a movie coming at some point, but no guarantees. “I’m up for it,” he says.

Murphy then takes a moment to appreciate the late, great Helen McCrory, who also starred in “Peaky Blinders.” “The show wouldn’t have been the same without her,” the Irish actor said.

Elsewhere in attendance is “Game of Thrones” alum Emilia Clarke, who was spotted on the red carpet arm in arm with Freeman — the two will be seen together in Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series “Secret Invasion.” And the “Bad Sisters” crew, led by nominee Supporting Actress nominee Anne-Marie Duff, are also on the red carpet. Duff said that when she was sent the scripts for the show, she was given the first two episodes along with short outlines for each other episode. She said that she knew the show would be a hit as she thought that if she was shocked by the finale, so, too, would audiences.

That’s pretty much a wrap for this hot, star-studded red carpet. Press will now be escorted down to the Winners’ Press Conference room, where we’ll be hoping to interview a number of tonight’s winners. Stay tuned for more.

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