Small Screen, Big Talent

28 September 07

The nation’s finest TV craftsmen were feted at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in 2007. Head of BAFTA awards, Anne Marie-Flynn recalls an evening celebrating the industry's outstanding talent.

Winners at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in 2007 gather for a photocall.

BAFTA / Richard Kendal

A close encounter with Idi Amin which could have altered the course of history was just one of the anecdotal treats offered to guests at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in 2007, courtesy of its charming host Jon Snow.

Philip Glennister, Jim Broadbent, Emilia Fox, Martin Freeman, Ruth Wilson, Adrian Edmondson and Jon Culshaw were just some of the presenters who attended on Sunday 22 April at London’s Dorchester Hotel, to pay tribute to the unsung heroes behind the camera. “Gathered in this room tonight are the sum total, the brightest and the best of what makes British television still the best in the world,” said Snow.

Peter Morgan followed his two wins at this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards with a hat trick, winning the Writer award for Longford, which was also victorious in Editing Fiction, bringing BAFTA glory to Melanie Oliver.

An Audience With Take That... Live! was the first non-drama set to win in Production Design for Bill Laslett. Period dramas were not denied their moment of glory though; Anne ‘Nosh’ Oldham brought Jane Eyre recognition for Hair and Make Up and Amy Roberts took the Costume Design Award for her lavish, Elizabethan wardrobe in The Virgin Queen.

Edmund Coulthard, who won the New Director category at these Awards in 2001, demonstrated how that talent has flourished, winning this year’s Director BAFTA for urban thriller Soundproof. Writer Sharon Foster won this year’s Break-through Talent Award with her first feature-length drama, Shoot The Messenger, about a black teacher accused of racism for assaulting one of his black pupils. It was a double celebration for Shoot The Messenger when David Katznelson won in the Photography & Lighting Fiction/Entertainment category.

Other winners included 9/11: The Twin Towers and Tsunami: The Aftermath for Sound Factual and Sound Fiction/Entertainment. It was a first for football, when Match Of The Day’s FIFA World Cup 2006, won for its striking Titles. Another first came for Nickelodeon UK for Me:TV in the New Media Developer category, which enabled young viewers to become part of the television programmes they watched and Sky One’s Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather won for Visual Effects. Prime Suspect: The Final Act, brought victory to Nicholas Hooper in Original Television Music.

Veteran comedy and drama producer Sydney Lotterby was honoured with this year’s Special Award presented to him by David Jason: “... if it wasn't for this man, television’s Del Boy would have been very different – and so would my career – because he slipped me the pilot script of Only Fools And Horses before anyone else had seen it and pushed my name forward. And the rest, as they say, is history.” Sydney’s prodigious body of work in the comedy and drama field includes classic hits such as Porridge, Yes Minister, Butterflies and As Time Goes By.

Thanks go to the television committee, to Hilary Bevan Jones and her tireless enthusiasm for these awards, to all those jurors who gave so generously of their time and expertise, to both our loyal and new sponsors and lastly to Clare Brown and the Awards team, and particularly Lisa Prime, Craft Awards Officer, for her unstinting commitment.