Even tick-box Baftas switched off by BBC

THERE was more chance of seeing Wayne Rooney on Virgin Island than of the Bafta TV Awards getting it right.

- with GARRY BUSHELL

All those nonentities, all those nominations for niche shows nobody watched, all those twerps turning the stage into a fancy dress parade....

Ham actor Alan Cummins, our self-amusing host, delivered more costume changes than laughs, with the lamest opening monologue since Sue Perkins. BBC1 needs to install a comedy version of the Batman bat signal, 'Host dying, send in Gervais!' Or anyone with the guts to puncture the industry's puffed-up pomposity.

The night reminded us how much ground the BBC have lost. 2024's most talked-about dramas were made by others: ITV's Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, Disney’s funny, filthy romp Rivals, Baby Reindeer (Netflix), and Apple TV's superb spy series Slow Horses.

Graham Norton - robbed of a win by the over-rated Late Night Lycett - claimed "we're living in the golden age of television". Not all of us, Graham. It costs to watch all those streamers. Pity hard-up pensioners lumbered with back-to-back daytime repeats on BBC1 and BBC2, the tedium interrupted only by News broadcasts and charlatans on Politics Live.