Paul Chuckle denies slamming Bafta for snubbing brother Barry
Paul Chuckle has denied hitting out at Bafta omitting his late brother Barry from the in memoriam tributes at this year’s TV Awards.
Barry Chuckle - one half of hit kids TV duo The Chuckle Brothers - died from bone cancer in August 2018 but was not included in the tribute to stars who had passed away in the last year the TV Baftas ceremony on Sunday night.
Paul, 71, has told fans that Bafta had paid homage to Barry at the Children’s TV Bafta Awards in November.
He tweeted to say it was a “great shame” that the Children’s Baftas are not televised for fans.
Just read online news. Please can I say I was not devastated or angry about Barry being missed off in the memoriam tribute @BAFTA just responded to one tweet.@BAFTA does great work for British TV + Film. I don't want this to detract from that.They did a tribute to Baz in November
— Paul Chuckle (@PaulChuckle2) May 14, 2019
Paul had previously responded to a fan’s outrage on social media after an apparent snub when Barry was not featured in the ceremony’s in memoriam tribute reel.
I quite agree my friend. We received our BAFTA’s ten years ago. He should have been mentioned @BAFTA https://t.co/PeJ6Ud1FWa
— Paul Chuckle (@PaulChuckle2) May 12, 2019
The award Paul was referring to was the Special Award at Bafta’s British Academy Children’s Awards in 2008.
It seemed a disagreement over which category the double act fitted into may have been the reason behind Barry not being amongst the tributes on Sunday night.
Read more: Stars hit the TV Baftas red carpet
A Bafta spokesperson explained: "Barry was featured at our Children’s Awards ceremony in November 2018. Owing to the number of people we can recognise at any one time, names are featured within a ceremony only once.
"Owing to the limited amount of time for the televised obituaries section within our ceremonies, it is not possible to recognise all those who have sadly passed away. BAFTA’s online obituaries maintain a year-round public testament to those from our industries who are no longer with us."
Former Love Island star Mike Thalassitis, the who took his own life in March 2019, was also missing form the list of tributes.
The ITV2 dating show had won in the reality category the previous year and Thalassitis had also taken part in E4’s Celebs Go Dating.
Bafta ceremony host Graham Norton also added the names of some stars who had very recently passed away to the end of the segment, including Freddie Starr and Brian Walden.