Richard Armitage at the Baftas 2009

Hedgey’s Bafta Report

I made a fairly late decision to attend the BAFTA’s upon discovering Richard was going to be presenting. I know people who had spoken to him when he attended in 2007 and after some deliberation decided to travel down Saturday night. That morning we discovered that we would only get into the pens with a ticket. As a result Dawn joined me in my hotel room by the river at Kew but neither of us got much sleep.

We eventually got up at some unholy hour and walked for some time to locate a tube

We were coralled into a line by the Queen Elizabeth hall and then tickets were allocated. We were told to go away and come back at 3pm and we would be allowed in in the order of our tickets. Those that had been before were rather shocked (in a nice way) but this piece of sensible organisation which allowed people to go home or to go and get breakfast and coffees as it was still quite early. I sat with a group on the grass by the London Eye and watched the various performance artists, ate sarnies and enjoyed the somewhat sporadic sunshine.

Eventually we returned to the Royal Festival Hall about 3 and there was a crew practising on a carpet. People were taken into the pen for this filming and I’m still uncertain whether it was for a later filming or as some people said actually for a television show. The pen was then emptied and the security called people forward in batches of ten. I was number 32 so got a lovely space at the front. It was about 4pm at this point and the sun beamed down from a cloudless sky. Security had arranged it so that there was a limited number of tickets so it wasn’t especially crowded but it did start to get a bit warm. About a third of the front row was made up of Richard Armitage fans.

The security team handed out disposable cameras to the crowd but I think bottles of water might have been better given the unexpectedly clement weather.

When I left the house Saturday I picked up a folder I had some artwork in and stuck my printed pictures of Lucas North in it but during our conversation at the coffee shop I was told I should get him to sign one of the pictures. So at the barrier I gave away my three glossy Lucas prints. Cobwebs from C19 had a box of sweets and one of the security men took a jelly baby joking that he’d probably have it in his hand when he shook hands with Dame Helen Mirren.

First on the carpet was Peter Firth and Miranda Raison about 5pm. They were both coralled to talk to the television but Peter did make time to talk to quite a few people. Cobwebs offered him a sweet but he politely declined. Richard came in with quite a few people and where taller people were calling, he’s there hobbit sized Hedgey couldn’t see a thing.

He spent time talking to the television crews at which point I was able to get some photos. The lady from QVC was aware of the large contingent of RA fans and told Richard about us. He then started to make his way along the fans who wanted autographs. He autographed Dawn’s picture first and she informed him that about the next twenty people were there for him. I took out the picture I wanted signing and handed him my pen.

He looked at the picture and enquired, “Did you draw that?” To which I replied, “I’m afraid so.” His reply then was “You’re very talented.” Unable to think of anything urbane or witty I blurted in a ludicrously fangirly voice, “And you’re very talented too.” and immediately felt like a total idiot. He however smiled at me and moved onto to do more pics and autographs. Not renowned for my gushing nature I was somewhat surprised by my response and felt a bit of a prize whatsit, especially as Dawn found it highly amusing.

Taking phonecalls from various people back at their respective homes they were also higlhy amused by my loss of decorum and I now have zero street cred left.

The picture that I used was the original of this. At the minute I don’t have a working scanner at home so will upload the autographed picture when I have access to a scanner tomorrow.

More people came along but we were still on a high from seeing Richard and Dawn was on the phone to Ali.

Alan Carr gave an autograph to the person next to me then turned to Dawn and in mock injury cries, “Look she’s not even excited I’m here”

Fewer people came down the carpet then and we all headed off to have a drink, rub sore backs and compare photos. The after show party was being held at the Royal Festival Hall. The security guard in charge of our area told us it was like someones wedding where they would set the tables out for the meal and then take them away again for the dancing.

There is a selection of pictures taken by the Richard Armitage fans here.

I made my way back to Waterloo where I had to wait nearly an hour for a train back to my hotel.In between the Canada geese on the Thames, planes going into heathrow, traffic and my brain replaying the day I got very little sleep.

If this was at the Royal Festival Hall again I’d quite possibly attend as the security team did an extremely efficient job with the ticketing which was very fair.

All in all a fun day and whilst my wit may have deserted me I got to speak to Richard, meet people I haven’t seen in a while, and people I’ve not met before and generally had a pretty decent time.