Monday, 13 May 2019

Bafta TV Awards 2019: Eight things we learned

Entertainment reporter(wp/bbc):::
Winning Eve might be a more appropriate title for the BBC's hit drama after the Bafta TV Awards on Sunday.
There were wins in some of the night's biggest categories for Killing Eve, including best drama series and best actress for Jodie Comer.
I'm A Celebrity and Britain's Got Talent were among the other winners in what has been a strong year for British television.
"Just sitting [in the audience] watching these incredible programmes makes me realise that we really should... get a telly," joked Jessica Hynes during her own acceptance speech for female comedy performance.
Here are eight things we learned backstage at the ceremony.

1. Graham Norton bossed the opening monologue

Graham NortonImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Every year, the television industry keeps its antennas crossed that the TV Baftas won't fall on the same weekend as Eurovision, so that Graham Norton is available to host.

2. Jodie Comer has a surprising link to Line of Duty

Jodie ComerImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Awards ceremonies always leave the biggest category of the night to the very end. The Oscars with best picture, for example.
So it was telling that Bafta considered best actress the tastiest category of the night this year, leaving it to last.
"Women are fashionable at the moment, so it's just great to be associated with them," said Steve Coogan as he introduced it.
Sandra Oh and Keeley Hawes were among the nominees in this one, but it was Jodie Comer who triumphed.
"It's just a dream, I'm very emotional, I think I blubbed my way through [my acceptance speech]," Comer said backstage.
In her speech, she thanked Line of Duty star (and fellow Liverpudlian) Stephen Graham, adding: "If I didn't owe you a pint before, I certainly do now."
Many viewers didn't realise the two had a connection, but it was Graham who encouraged his agent Jane Epstein to take on Comer after they worked together on BBC mini-series Good Cop, describing her as an "extreme talent".
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3. David Walliams wants X Factor to die

David WalliamsImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionDavid Walliams brought mum Kathleen to the ceremony
"Thank you for that seated ovation. You're so thrilled for us, I can feel it," joked David Walliams as he entered the press room to an admittedly half-hearted round of applause.
He was fresh from accepting the prize for best entertainment programme on behalf of Britain's Got Talent.
And by the sounds of it, Walliams is very happy where he is - although he is considering Simon Cowell's offer to take part in Celebrity X Factor later this year.
"Well, I think if I can kill that format forever by appearing on it, I'd very much like to," Walliams said, speaking on behalf of the nation.
"I cannot sing a note so I'd fit in very well... I would love to be on that stage, doing a duet with Wagner."
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4. Villanelle may have been loosely based on Scary Spice

Mel B and Phoebe Waller-BridgeImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has become just about the hottest property in entertainment in the last year.
In addition to adapting Killing Eve for the small screen, the second season of her hugely popular comedy Fleabag has just concluded, and she has also co-written the next James Bond film.
"I've made a promise to myself that I'm not going to talk about Bond tonight, I'm just going to talk about Killing Eve," she said backstage - a signal to journalists not to ask about anything 007.
So instead, she ended up discussing her love of the Spice Girls and their impact on her writing. Particularly her favourite, Scary Spice.
"It was because she was scary, a bit like Villanelle, perhaps I've never let Scary go," she explained.
"She was wild, she was out there, she didn't care about what people thought about her. She was just really cool. And wore trousers."
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5. Huw Edwards probably isn't going to do Strictly Come Dancing after all


Huw EdwardsHuw EdwardsImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Planning for this year's Strictly is well under way, with DJ Chris Evans having already announced his candidacy.
BBC News host Huw Edwards has also been in the frame - having told Radio 2's Steve Wright earlier this year he would consider taking part.
But having had time to ponder it, Edwards appears to have decided against following in the footsteps of fellow news figures such as Jeremy Vine, Kate Silverton and John Sargeant.
"The honest answer is I've not been asked. If I were asked, I think I'd find it quite difficult with the current job I'm doing," he explained.
"Combining that with being the BBCs chief news anchor, that would be quite difficult. In future, when my professional life might be in a different shape, I'd consider it."
Edwards and his team took home the Bafta for live event for the coverage of the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance.
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6. Daisy May Cooper trashed the red carpet

Media captionThis Country star's bin bag Bafta dress explained
Jaws were dropping on the red carpet for the likes of Keeley Hawes and Jodie Comer, both of whom wore stunning dresses.
But it was This Country star Daisy May Cooper who caught the most attention, with her bin bag ensemble.
It was so extravagant it wouldn't have looked out of place at last week's Met Gala.
How much did it cost? "About five quid," she laughed, adding it was made by her mum.
But, Cooper explained, she chose this year to donate the money she would have spent on a dress to a food bank charity.
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7. Mack (stuck in) the knife

Lee MackImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Lee Mack, who won best entertainment performance for Would I Lie To You?, delivered one of the night's highlights, poking fun at both his co-stars and Bafta's own sponsor in his speech.
"Right, I'll keep it brief because I know we just want to go for dinner now," he began.
"Especially this year, because there's no chocolate under the seat. Are we still on BBC One, or is it Channel 5 now?"
He continued: "Thanks for this, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but on the off-chance that we do get to come back next year, is there any chance you couldn't do it on the same day as the final Premier League game?
"I'm only kidding, I couldn't have watched it anyway because I've got [Bafta sponsor] Virgin Media and the reception is terrible."
Paying tribute to his co-stars Rob Brydon and David Mitchell, he joked: "It's bad enough I get paid more than them, but this is going to kill them."
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8. Dec the halls with lots of Baftas

Ant and DecImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Love Island won the prize for best reality and constructed factual last year, but bizarrely wasn't even nominated this year despite having its biggest series yet in 2018.
Instead, I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! took home the prize, in a year that saw Holly Willoughby replace Ant McPartlin as a co-presenter on the show.
"Holly came in and did a fantastic job, she loved it and we loved having her there," Dec said backstage.
"It was a tough year. Personally and professionally. But I just went out and tried to do my best, keep the shows warm for him when he was ready to come back, so I tried to deliver as best I could."
Britain's Got Talent also triumphed, despite the fact Dec had to host the live shows solo after Ant McPartlin's drink-drive conviction.
"And thankfully," he laughed, "they both won Baftas tonight, so how cool am I?!"
After last year's clash, Norton returned to fronting the Bafta ceremony on Sunday and delivered a killer opening sequence true to form. His best jokes included:
  • "We now have a female host of Question Time, an all-female line-up on Newsnight. It's not only great for equality, but it saves the BBC a fortune."
  • "Every week on The Great British Bake Off, a Baker gets kicked out. This week it was Danny. Literally a show stopper."
  • "The Bros documentary really was must-see television. A lot of people have argued about which one emerged with the most dignity. I would say on balance it was probably the bassist, Craig, who declined to take part."
  • "Everyone loved Line of Duty. The interviews were incredible. A more forensically detailed interrogation of times, dates and mobile phone data hasn't been seen since that time Seann Walsh got home late from Strictly practice."

Heart deaths up for first time in 50 years

Health reporter(wp/bbc):::
Deaths from heart and circulatory diseases among people under 75 is on the rise for the first time in 50 years, UK figures show.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) says increasing rates of diabetes and obesity are partly responsible.
In 2017 there were 42,384 deaths in under-75s from heart and circulatory conditions, up from 41,042 in 2014.
The charity says the historic pace of progress in reducing these deaths "has slowed to a near standstill".

Risk factors

Heart and circulatory diseases remain a leading cause of death in the UK, with millions at risk because of conditions like high blood pressure.
Other risk factors include high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, smoking and family history.
According to the charity's report, more than 14 million adults have high blood pressure but nearly 5 million do not know it because they have yet to be diagnosed.
And around 15 million, or one in every four, adults in the UK is obese.
Over the last five years the UK has seen an 18% increase in people diagnosed with diabetes. Circulatory diseases include stroke and diseases of the arteries.

Tackling heart disease

Historically, the UK has made great strides at treating and preventing heart disease, thanks to better prevention - getting more people to stop smoking, for example - and new treatments.
The BHF says a slowdown in the rate of improvement in death rates combined with a growing population is partly to blame for the reversal it is now seeing.
Between 2012 and 2017, the premature death rates for heart and circulatory disease in the UK fell by just 9%, compared with a fall of 25% between 2007 and 2012.
Simon Gillespie, chief executive at the BHF, said: “In the UK we’ve made phenomenal progress in reducing the number of people who die of a heart attack or stroke.
"But we’re seeing more people die each year from heart and circulatory diseases in the UK before they reach their 75th, or even 65th, birthday. We are deeply concerned by this reversal.
“Heart and circulatory diseases remain a leading cause of death in the UK, with millions at risk because of conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes.
"We need to work in partnership with government, the NHS and medical research community to increase research investment and accelerate innovative approaches to diagnose and support the millions of people at risk of a heart attack or stroke."

Facial recognition tech 'should be dropped over race issues'

Facial scan
Pic-Police facial recognition systems have been shown to do poorly when analysing non-white faceswp
Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick
Pic-Met police boss Cressida Dick said she use of facial recognition was "lawful and appropriate"/wp
Crime /IT  reporter(wp/bbc):::
Black and minority ethnic people in the UK could be falsely identified and questioned as police have not tested facial recognition systems on enough non-white faces, say campaigners.
At least three chances to assess how well the systems deal with ethnicity were missed over the past five years, the BBC found.
Campaigners said the tech had too many problems to be used widely.
"It must be dropped immediately," said privacy rights group Big Brother Watch.

Lost lesson

Several UK police forces have been trialling controversial new facial recognition technology, including automated systems which attempt to identify the faces of people in real time as they pass a camera.
Documents from the police, Home Office and university researchers show that police are aware that ethnicity can have an impact on such systems, but have failed on several occasions to test this.
The Home Office said facial recognition can be an "invaluable tool" in fighting crime.
"The technology continues to evolve, and the Home Office continues to keep its effectiveness under constant review," a spokesman told the BBC.
The ability of facial recognition software to cope with black and ethnic minority faces has proved a key concern for those worried about the technology, who claim the software is often trained on predominantly white faces.
Minutes from a police working group reveal that the UK police's former head of facial recognition knew that skin colour was an issue. At an April 2014 meeting, Durham Police Chief Constable Mike Barton noted "that ethnicity can have an impact on search accuracy".




He asked CGI, the Canadian company managing the police's facial image database, to investigate the issue, but subsequent minutes from the working group do not mention a follow-up.
Facial recognition was introduced on the Police National Database (PND), which includes around 13 million faces, in 2014.
The database has troubled privacy groups because it contains images of people subsequently cleared of any offence. A 2012 court decision ruled that holding such images was unlawful.
The "unlawful" images are still held on the PND. The government is currently investigating ways to purge them from the system.
Despite this, the PND facial recognition system, provided by German company Cognitec, has proved very popular.
The number of face match searches done on the PND grew from 3,360 in 2014 to 12,504 in 2017, Freedom of Information requests to the Home Office have revealed.
In 2015, a team of assessors from the Home Office tested the PND facial search system, using about 200 sample images. They had identified ethnicity information about the sample photos but, once again, failed to use this opportunity to check how well the system worked with different skin colours.
The same Home Office report also estimated that, across the entire PND, about 40% of the images were duplicated.
It noted that this meant the UK government has overpaid hundreds of thousands of pounds to Cognitec, because the company charges more once the number of images (or "templates") on the database exceeds 10 million.
The Home Office assessment also found the facial recognition system was only half as good as the human eye. It said: "Out of the initial 211 searches, the automated facial search of PND identified just 20 true matches, whereas visual examination by the tester identified a total of 56 matches."
Cognitec declined to comment on costs, but said its matching technology had improved since the Home Office report, and that facial recognition results always required review by a human.



A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs Council said the technology had the potential to disrupt criminals, but said any roll-out must show its effectiveness within "sufficient safeguards". It added that work is being done to improve the system's accuracy and remove duplicates.
Another chance to check for racial bias was missed last year during trials by South Wales of real-time facial recognition software, which was used at sports events and concerts. Cardiff University carried out an assessment of the force's use of the technology,
That study stated that "due to limited funds for this trial", ethnicity was not tested.
Cardiff's report noted, however, that "during the evaluation period, no overt racial discrimination effects were observed", but said this may be due to the demographic make-up of the watch lists used by the force.
In addition, an interim report by a biometrics advisory group to the government considering ethical issues of facial recognition highlighted concerns about the lack of ethnic diversity in datasets.
Under-representation of certain types of faces, particularly those from ethnic minorities, could mean bias "feeds forward" into the use of the technology, it said.
Silkie Carlo, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: "The police's failure to do basic accuracy testing for race speaks volumes.
"Their wilful blindness to the risk of racism, and the risk to Brits' rights as a whole, reflects the dangerously irresponsible way in which facial recognition has crept on to our streets."
Big Brother Watch is currently taking legal action against the Metropolitan Police over its use of automated facial recognition systems.