The Chiswick take on the BAFTAs

Image: David and Georgia Tennant opening the BAFTAs; BBC

David Tennant presents the BAFTAs with wit and style

The Chiswick Calendar has the utmost respect for The Buchan Observer, based in Aberdeenshire. When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, they reported it with the headline ‘Aberdeenshire business owner wins presidential election.’

In homage to The Buchan Observer, we are taking the same approach to the BAFTAs.

Chiswick resident David Tennant presented the BAFTAs in characteristically witty style.  The show started with him in his dressing room, telling his wife he was nervous about appearing in front of so many of his acting heroes.

“You don’t need to worry about them. You need to be more worried about all the film makers and the producers and the casting directors and what they’ll think if you mess it up,” said Georgia Tennant helpfully.

Image: ‘God of the BAFTAs’ Jim Broadbent; BBC

The ghosts of BAFTAs past then appeared in his dressing room mirror – Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and Brian Cox, each winding him up some more, taking it in turn to give the knife a little twist:

“Every tiny little thing that you do will be watched by millions,” said Jim Broadbent, “hundreds of millions – billions.”

“It’s not quite that many,” said David (three million actually.)

“No, No,” Jim Broadbent assured him, “if you screw up and become a meme it’ll be billions, and that stuff stays on the internet for ever.”

Image: Ariana Grande in the audience; BBC

The celebrity audience in the room at least were delighted with him, prancing in from the back of the Royal Festival Hall in his kilt, singing a doctored version of The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) and picking on those sitting at the end of the rows to join in.

He arrived on stage slightly out of puff, with an aside to Cynthia Erivo, one of the stars of Wicked:

“Cynthia, I don’t know how you do that on a broomstick.”

Image: Cynthia Erivo in the audience; BBC

Conclave won four awards, including Best film and Outstanding British film. Best leading actor went to Adrien Brody for The Brutalist, while Best leading actress went to Mikey Madison for Anora. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, whose writer Mark Burton gave a talk at the last Chiswick In Film Festival, won Best animated film and Best children’s and family film.

READ ALSO: Mark Burton, writer of Paddington in Peru, Madagascar and the latest Wallace & Gromit comes to the Chiswick In Film festival

READ ALSO: BAFTA winners and losers with Andrea Carnevali

Image: Super / Man: The Christopher Reeve Story – Best documentary; IMDb

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story wins Best documentary

There were celebrations in at least one household in Chiswick on BAFTA night. Peter Ettedgui, who along with co-director Ian Bonhôte, won the award for the Best documentary, is a frequent visitor to Chiswick, as his mother lives here.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story documents Reeve’s rise to becoming a film star and how his life was changed by the near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down.

The documentary starts with the accident and moves back and forth in time between events before and after it. There are interviews with his wife Dana, his children and fellow celebrities woven together in two timelines – one about his rise to fame and the other about what happened after the accident.

Christopher Reeves’ children went on stage with Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui to receive the award. The two directors were clearly thrilled by the honour.

Bonhôte had been nominated once before, for McQueen, but on that occasion did not win. His children gleefully christened him “BAFTA-less Dad.” Now they will have to think of something else.

Image: Christopher Reeve in Superman (1978); IMDb

Christopher Reeve played the title role in the Superman film series between 1978 and 1987. When the first film came out, overnight he became an international star. He said of the role:

“I was six feet four, strong, and physically imposing; so I played against that, making him as casual as possible, letting the audience sense an implied power.”

Newsweek wrote: ‘His bumbling, fumbling Clark Kent and omnipotent Superman are simply two styles of gallantry and innocence.’

He went on to pick roles in small, independent films rather than blockbusters: literary adaptations such as The Bostonians (1984) and The Remains of the Day, produced by Merchant Ivory, notoriously turning down chance to play the lead role in American Gigolo, The World According to Garp, Splash, Fatal Attraction, Romancing the Stone, Lethal Weapon, and Body Heat.

Image: Christopher Reeve as a campaigner; IMDb

After the accident, he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability rights.

Christopher Reeve won the 1978 BAFTA for ‘Most promising newcomer to leading film roles’. Nearly 50 years later Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story won Best documentary for a film that looks back on the career in which he won multiple awards: an Emmy, a Grammy and a Screen Actors Guild award. He died in 2004, aged 52.

The documentary scored a 98% appreciation rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with many of the most appreciative reviews coming from disabled people.

Image: David Tennant hosting the BAFTAs; BBC

David Tennant will be giving a talk for The Upper Room to raise money to help them provide support for people who are homeless, on Thursday 13 March at 8pm. Originally this was to be at St Albans Church, but due to the popularity of the event it has been moved to St Peter’s Church, Acton Green.

Book tickets: An Evening with David Tennant

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