Hosting the BAFTAs
Stephen Fry visited before hosting the BAFTA Film Awards for an 11th time. He explained that nerves still gave him the energy required for a live ceremony and that the precise running order left room for improvisation only when something went wrong.
Past gifts had included Meryl Streep accidentally saying “spank” instead of “thank” and rain causing a red carpet to froth around arriving guests. Stephen preferred those unexpected moments to a perfectly smooth show, although his instinct was very different from Ricky Gervais’s confrontational awards style. He disliked genuinely upsetting people and was more comfortable teasing the audience than attacking it.
The ceremony fell on Valentine’s Day, allowing him to involve the actors and directors in a special moment. His husband would attend with family, although a full day backstage meant their own celebration would have to wait.
Celebrity books, serious voice
Scott and Chris used Stephen’s famous audiobook delivery for passages he was unlikely to have been offered professionally. He read extracts from three celebrity autobiographies while everyone tried to identify their authors.
The first combined a dislike of underwear with gravy drinking, baby wipes and an unwillingness to visit the toilet alone. Stephen made the material sound momentous before revealing Charlotte Crosby’s Me Me Me. A passage about complete loyalty between bandmates came from One Direction’s Where We Are, while Joey Essex’s Being Reem included a confession about confusing reindeer with dolphins.
Stephen’s performance made every line sound far more distinguished than its contents deserved and left Scott wanting to sit in on a real audiobook session.
A different chart show
The podcast was shorter because Scott and Chris presented the Official Chart from 2pm while Greg completed his final Sport Relief challenge. Chris approached his first chart countdown nervously, despite Scott reducing the job to counting backwards and discovering whether Zayn Malik could retain number one with “Pillowtalk”.
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