BAFTA coverage: it’s The Artist’s night, and stars remember Whitney Houston

We have a full BAFTA round-up courtesy of our colleagues at ITN.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt were both up for best actor (for The Descendants and Moneyball respectively), though as with the Screen Actors’ Guild awards, Jean Dujardin won for his work in silent ﬁlm The Artist. Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy) also lost out.
While on the red carpet, Clooney, Oldman, Viola Davis, Chris O’Dowd, Tom Hiddlestone, Jeremy Irvine and other BAFTA stars picked their alternative award winners. Actors including Octavia Spencer, Daniel Radcliffe and Jim Broadbent also discuss what the BAFTAs mean.
They also paid tribute to Whitney Houston. Clooney, Davis and Tom Jones all talked about the singer’s passing, aged 48, during their red-carpet interviews.
Davis said, ‘What was special about her was how she sang a song: she not only had the technical range but she also had the heart and the expression. When you heard her you felt something.’
Jones said that Houston had ‘The best voice. The most natural sexy sounding person I ever heard.’
Inside the awards, Jones sang ‘Thunderball’, the 1965 James Bond theme song, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Eon Productions’ James Bond movies.
Identifying the heart-throb in the audience, MC Stephen Fry asked Pitt to blow a kiss to the camera.
Meryl Streep picked up the best actress BAFTA for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. En route to the stage, Streep lost a shoe, but Colin Firth came to her aid (above left).
Streep noted in her acceptance that part of her ancestry is from Lincolnshire, shared with Baroness Thatcher. It was her second BAFTA win, after taking her ﬁrst for The French Lieutenant’s Woman in 1981.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy won Outstanding British Film and best adapted screenplay, although screenwriter Bridget O’Connor had passed away from cancer before the ﬁlm’s release.
However, the night belonged to The Artist, which scooped seven awards, including best ﬁlm, best director and best original screenplay.
John Hurt received the award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema, while Martin Scorsese received the Academy Fellowship.
Christopher Plummer won his ﬁrst BAFTA for best supporting actor in Beginners, while Octavia Spencer won best supporting actress for The Help.