Blinded by the stars (well the spotlights)
The "Happy Birthday BAFTA" was an enjoyable show, staged at the New London Theatre in Covent Garden and to be broadcast on ITV1 in November.
The show celebrated 60 years of films (British and non), and of British television.
There were so many stars!!
The presenters where Michael Parkinson and the delightfully posh but naughty (there's definitely something of Patsy in her!) Joanna Lumley, but individual sections of the show were presented by other actors.
The wonderful Miss Piggy opened the show!! and shared her sofa with Sharon Osbourne. Then it was the cast of Billy Elliott the musical performing, followed by Halle Berry introducing a selection of the best films in the last 7 years
After that Celine Dion sang a short version of my "Heart will go on". Sadly she didn't sing anything else nor stayed on stage to chat to the hosts.
I couldn't take my camera of course. Anyway it was impossible to take pictures because the lights were very bright and pointed towards the audience. Adrian and I were repeatedly blinded by a spotlight that came on when Parky and Joanna were on stage: only when Joanna moved sligthly covering the light, our sight was partially restored!
I tried to take some pictures with my mobile phone but the result was only white light; so you have to believe me when I tell you that this dress surrounded by a nuclear explosion belongs to arguably the most famous Canadian on earth!
Other highlights of the evening where:
- a celebration of "Upstairs, downstairs" and of "Coronation Street";
- a very long and yawn inducing live "Kumars at no. 42" show with sir Ben Kingsley (after a while the Ben Kingsley Patrick Stewart
- Andrea Bocelli singing Maria from West Side Story
- and the very funny Victoria Wood (who has so far won 12 BAFTAs!!) ending the show with some of her stand-up material (the 7 signs of aging! all so true: I can relate to most of them!),
This is the only decent picture of the evening, of my very own star:
london1952 .
In the interval, we also had the pleasure of chatting to
bullchef .
Normally TV recordings in London are free, but this one came with a rather steep £50 (about US$100) price tag, but it was for charity (BAFTA charity causes and Unicef).
Lord Attenborough at the end of the show talked about Unicef's work and asked the audience to fork out more money on the way out. I didn't: I am sorry but I don't care for emotional blackmail.
After all, we travelled home on a bus (no. 176 - 50 min journey)
and not in a stretch limo!
The show celebrated 60 years of films (British and non), and of British television.
There were so many stars!!
The presenters where Michael Parkinson and the delightfully posh but naughty (there's definitely something of Patsy in her!) Joanna Lumley, but individual sections of the show were presented by other actors.
The wonderful Miss Piggy opened the show!! and shared her sofa with Sharon Osbourne. Then it was the cast of Billy Elliott the musical performing, followed by Halle Berry introducing a selection of the best films in the last 7 years
After that Celine Dion sang a short version of my "Heart will go on". Sadly she didn't sing anything else nor stayed on stage to chat to the hosts.
I couldn't take my camera of course. Anyway it was impossible to take pictures because the lights were very bright and pointed towards the audience. Adrian and I were repeatedly blinded by a spotlight that came on when Parky and Joanna were on stage: only when Joanna moved sligthly covering the light, our sight was partially restored!
I tried to take some pictures with my mobile phone but the result was only white light; so you have to believe me when I tell you that this dress surrounded by a nuclear explosion belongs to arguably the most famous Canadian on earth!
Other highlights of the evening where:
- a celebration of "Upstairs, downstairs" and of "Coronation Street";
- a very long and yawn inducing live "Kumars at no. 42" show with sir Ben Kingsley (after a while the Ben Kingsley Patrick Stewart
- Andrea Bocelli singing Maria from West Side Story
- and the very funny Victoria Wood (who has so far won 12 BAFTAs!!) ending the show with some of her stand-up material (the 7 signs of aging! all so true: I can relate to most of them!),
This is the only decent picture of the evening, of my very own star:
london1952 .
In the interval, we also had the pleasure of chatting to
bullchef .
Normally TV recordings in London are free, but this one came with a rather steep £50 (about US$100) price tag, but it was for charity (BAFTA charity causes and Unicef).
Lord Attenborough at the end of the show talked about Unicef's work and asked the audience to fork out more money on the way out. I didn't: I am sorry but I don't care for emotional blackmail.
After all, we travelled home on a bus (no. 176 - 50 min journey)
and not in a stretch limo!