It’s a Sin snub is a huge injustice that marred Bafta triumphs

It’s hardly the fault of these great actors – who deserve whatever success they get – that they were born into comfortable circumstances.

Nobody is in control of their own birth and as far as I know it is not yet a crime to have wealthy parents.

Nonetheless, there is a widespread notion in the UK that ‘noble’ people find it easier to break into a place like RADA and that once they graduate they are invariably offered the best roles.

It’s not that clear. In reality, the annual fees for RADA are exactly the same as for any university in the UK, so the challenges faced by aspiring working-class actors are no different than those for any bright, ambitious, working-class young person, the one would like to pursue third-level education and a career in their chosen field.

If anything, it is the decline of repertory companies that provide a pathway into acting careers for those who have not attended drama school that has done most to reduce opportunities for young actors of all backgrounds.

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Still, the BAFTAs were a glorious refutation of the notion that a successful acting career is now reserved for a privileged, middle- and upper-class elite. No One Listens As Jodie Comer Accepts Her Second Best Actress BAFTA For Excellent Help could mistake her natural accent for anything but the purest of working-class Liverpool.

The same goes for their Merseysider counterparts and Help Co-star Stephen Graham, who was nominated for Lead Actor in the Drama and Supporting Actor in the Miniseries Time.

Graham grew up with his mother and stepfather in Kirkby, historically one of Lancashire’s most deprived areas and the very definition of ‘humble beginnings’. Still, he has deservedly risen to the top of his profession, becoming one of the most popular and critically acclaimed actors of his generation.

Graham didn’t win that night, but another working-class actor, his, did time Co-star Sean Bean did, and won best actor.

Bean’s family was so attached to their Yorkshire working-class community that they chose to remain in their community center even after his father had started a successful business employing 50 people.

Acting is all about talent, not background, which is why no one would begrudge Matthew Macfadyen (the privately trained son of an acting teacher and an oil engineer) his Best Supporting Actor award for his brilliantly nuanced performance in successor.

Or Cathy Tyson (daughter of a social worker and a lawyer) deny her award for best supporting actress Help.

Unfortunately, the 2022 BAFTA television awards will most likely not be remembered for her acting greatness, but for a great, grave injustice: the snub of it’s a sin Russell T. Davies great miniseries about a group of young gay men and their friends who are hit by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Elsewhere it was incorrectly reported that there was not a single BAFTA win; he even won two awards for directing and editing at the separate BAFTA Craft Awards earlier this year.

But a lot of people (myself included) thought it was a shoo-in for best miniseries, one of last night’s seven nominations. In fact, it gained nothing on the night.

Instead, the award went to the aforementioned Time, written by Jimmy McGovern (another well done working class boy). time was excellent, but it was also a fairly conventional drama.

it’s a sin which was rejected by a timid BBC and ITV before Channel 4 crashed was adventurous.

It dared to celebrate the joy of being young, gay and free before the darkness of AIDs fell.

It was sad and funny, heartbreaking, but also life-affirming. In other words, a real TV milestone that will be remembered for a long time.