We regret to inform you that The British
Academy of Film and Television Arts will not be honouring Jeremy Brett with a
posthumous Award. Our petition, dossier and letter were discussed at the
Academy’s Television Committee meeting which took place at the end of January.
However, despite all of our support from several leading actors, producers and
directors, the Board of Trustees decided that their initial decisions on
posthumous Awards would not change.
Ms. Kelly Smith, Head of Television and Video
Games within BAFTA relayed the information to us, saying:
To confirm BAFTA Awards are given for
excellence in particular categories at our awards ceremonies for their work in
the Awards year. These awards may still be presented to someone who died
between the completion of their award-winning performance and the date of the
ceremony itself. In keeping with this policy, Heath Ledger for example won a
BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the Joker in The
Dark Knight, even though he died before the date of presentation.
The Academy also honours individuals
with either Special Awards or Fellowships, which recognise outstanding
contribution to the film, television or video games industries for overall
bodies of work. However, our Board of Trustees decided a number of years ago
that these honours should not bestowed posthumously.
So… we couldn’t get BAFTA to recognise Jeremy’s
talent and work. But we are however proud to have made a try for it. We are
also very proud and thankful for all of the support which we received, be it
from actors, television executives, producers or directors.
Most of all, we would like to say a big big THANK
YOU to all of Jeremy’s fans and admirers who joined us on our venture. Thanks
to you and to your belief in what we were trying to do, Jeremy Brett and his
work received a big bag of publicity all over the world. We shall forver be
grateful for that.
To our critics, and especially to those who
thought our campaign “unrealistic”, we would like to point out that from the
start, our contact at BAFTA, as well as past and present members of the Academy
thought that we may indeed be able to achieve something. Had this not been the
case, none of our work would have been discussed at any official meetings. We
did not succeed. But we tried. We did our very best. We could have done
nothing more.
On a last note, we would like it to be known that
we are very grateful for the politeness shown us by Ms. Smith. It was indeed a
pleasure to correspond with her.
For those whom it may interest, we shall continue
to update you as to what will become of our team. Please stay tuned.
Once again, THANK YOU for your
support!
It is highly regrettable that Brett has been denied a BAFTA. Brett was highly dedicated and fought a lot of mental and physical hardships to perform the role of Sherlock Holmes...
ReplyDeleteI have such fond memories of visiting with him in St Louis.
ReplyDeleteI had asked him if he could read the poem '221b', and he said he couldn't because he was dyslexic. Imagine being as good as he was, but having trouble reading. Wow!