Actor resigns from Bafta over ‘embarrassing' awards ceremony

Phil Davis, the Sherlock and Quadrophenia actor, has resigned his Bafta membership in protest at the academy’s “embarrassing” awards ceremony.

The actor, who has also appeared in Whitechapel, Poldark and legal drama Silk, has branded the 2023 Bafta Awards a “travesty” amid outrage over the cutting of acceptance speeches from its broadcast of the ceremony.

Davis said on Twitter that he had resigned his membership of Bafta, also taking issue with film and TV star Bernard Cribbins being left out of the traditional in-memoriam tribute for the recently deceased.

The Batmobile segment of the show was a comedic opening sketch, which showed ceremony host Grant taking advice from American actor Steve Martin, before driving a Batmobile car to the awards venue at the Royal Festival hall in London.

The awards were dominated by the German language war film All Quiet on the Western Front, but Bafta faced a backlash after its broadcast of the ceremony cut out the acceptance speech of the film’s Scottish screenwriter, Lesley Paterson.

She said following this omission: “It’s definitely frustrating, because it takes a village to make a film and all the team should be recognised, especially because we started this project so many years ago.”

Her speech was not the only omission which provoked outrage, with many viewers disappointed that The Railway Children and Dr Who star Cribbins was not included in the in-memoriam tribute video played at this year’s ceremony.

Sally Thomsett, one of his Railway Children co-stars, voiced her anger on Twitter.

Bafta responded with a statement which explained: "Bernard Cribbins had a celebrated and hugely influential career in film and TV and is honoured on our website. Bernard will be included in our upcoming Television Awards broadcast."