BAFTA has announced that Kirsty Wark will be presented with the BAFTA Fellowship.
Wark will receive the award at this year’s BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises on Sunday 11 May. The BAFTA Fellowship is the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA upon an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, games or television.
Kirsty Wark presented BBC’s Newsnight for 30 years, holding politicians and public figures to account with her formidable interviewing skills. Making her reputation as a journalist and producer on BBC Scotland, Kirsty was one of the first television journalists to arrive on the scene when PAN AM Flight 103 was blown up in the skies above Lockerbie in 1988. Two years later, she locked horns with Margaret Thatcher in a headline making interview which propelled her into the national spotlight. Kirsty joined BBC Two’s arts strand The Late Show as a presenter, then moving on to BBC’s Newsnight in 1993. Wark continued to span both arts and news/current affairs, hosting The Review Show for over a decade, as well as a range of BBC Arts series and documentaries. Over the years she has had memorable encounters with everyone from Madonna, Harold Pinter, Pete Doherty, Damien Hirst and George Clooney. She hosts BBC Radio 4’s long-running flagship series The Reunion and regularly presents Start the Week and Front Row. She continues to present arts programmes on TV and Radio, cultural history series such as The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland and Panorama specials.
Kirsty Wark said: “This is a wonderful surprise and a great honour. Television has been my home for forty years, both at the BBC and in Independent Production, and I continue to learn every day from people with awe-inspiring skills who have become treasured colleagues and dear friends. Thank you, BAFTA!”
Jane Millichip, CEO of BAFTA, said: “I am beyond delighted to present this year’s BAFTA Fellowship to Kirsty Wark. Kirsty’s dedication is unwavering when it comes to telling the stories that really matter. Her legacy is unmatched in the world of news and current affairs broadcasting. Her ability to inform and engage her readers, listeners and viewers is truly inspiring. And she does all this with enormous charm and wit. We are thrilled to celebrate her continued and lasting impact on the industry and beyond.”
BAFTA Fellows previously honoured for their work in television include Baroness Floella Benjamin OM DBE DL, Meera Syal CBE, Sir Billy Connolly, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Jon Snow, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Joanna Lumley, Melvyn Bragg, Michael Palin, Sir Trevor MacDonald, Sir David Attenborough, Dame Julie Walters and Kate Adie CBE DL.
Photo Credit: Eamonn McCormack/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
Jon Creamer
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