The first thing I want to say is
thank you for not judging me. I.... I like many of you need,
or feel the need for money. So, here I am. It would help me if you could just
imagine that I'm doing this well. We here, and we are in some ways here. Hi. All want the same thing and I'm here to reassure
you that, yes, this will eventually end. It won't feel like it will. I don't know who's won what and
it's not just because I don't care. It's also because no one here trusts me and that
sentence still applies if I remove the word here. This is the last time I'll
be hosting these awards. Please. Unless for some reason they ask me back. In which case this will be the
second-to-last time I host these awards. And I'm simply hashtag honoured in
BAFTA's, BAFTA's 75th year. Or BAFTA-g, let's give it its proper name. In BAFTA's 75th
year, the BBC's 100th and my 23rd, thank you. To say well done to all of you for the things
you do, or simply take credit for doing. That's a job and regarding the things you
don't do, also congratulations. But perhaps not quite as many congratulations are as due
to Sir David Attenborough, who is 96 today. All right. Let's get some perspective here, okay,
man's 96, BAFTA is celebrating 75 years at the heart of our industry, even
though industries don't have hearts. In 1955 there were only six categories.
There was barely enough time to get up from your seat and slap someone before
the whole ceremony would be over. I'm not going to use your faces as punch
lines or punch bags. You've suffered enough, no one works harder than us, apart
from people in other professions. I'm putting in a couple of
hours today, I'm shattered I'm exhausted. Who will i take it out on? Like many in this business we call show, I can't
offer you love. What I can offer you is so much better: BAFTAs. Later this evening we will honour
a comedy colossus, receive a touching tribute from East Anglia's Alan Partridge and encounter our
new Doctor Who. That's right, but before that, let's remind ourselves of which television treats
slipped down most readily in the past 12 months.
