Why the Baftas must get rid of their two-hour delay and broadcast live

Mon, 23 Feb 2026

Last night made clear that broadcasting a partially redacted version long after the winners have been announced doesn’t work for anyone

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The team responsible for editing the Baftas have an absurdly thankless task. In theory, the ceremony is supposed to start at 5pm and end around two hours later. They make a few judicious cuts here and there, and air the thing more or less as it happened on BBC One between 7pm and 9pm.

But that is never what happens. Awards shows rarely start on time, usually because the A-listers – permanently locked in a terminal status battle of red carpet chicken – don’t turn up until the very last second. And then things overrun. Speeches go long, unexpected winners have to clamber down from the back of the auditorium, so many people die during winter that the in memoriam segment takes up more time than anyone expected.