With one exception, this year’s TV Baftas got things spectacularly right. It’s always hard to single out specific shows and personalities who are worthy of praise in an age when so much good television is being made but, credit where credit’s due, Bafta’s hit rate was almost impeccable.
Of course Jamie Demetriou won best male comedy performance for Stath Lets Flats. For three seasons he has created less a performance and more a sheer gravitational force, terraforming an entire genre to his whims. And of course Matthew Macfadyen won best supporting actor for Succession. Because, for a performer once stereotyped as starched and staid, to see the full spectrum of colour he gave Tom Wambsgans – the tragedy and the duplicity, plus the pinpoint comic timing – is to see Macfadyen reach full capacity. So yes, with one exception the Baftas knocked it out of the park.
