Rio Ferdinand was close to tears when he accepted the prize for Best Single Documentary at the Virgin
TV British
Academy Television Awards, held at The Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday
night.
He patronizes Michael Powell and Humphrey Jennings (accorded one measly clip each); fails to mention Joseph Losey, Cy Endfield, or Richard Lester (presumably regarding all three as American interlopers); reduces Ken Russell and Mike Leigh to the worst single clips imaginable (and has nothing to say about the
TV work of either); limits John Boorman, Bill Douglas, Terry Gilliam, Peter Greenaway, Isaac Julien, and Sally Potter to one fleeting movie poster apiece; and omits virtually the entire English documentary movement (though he includes a disparaging nod to
Night Mail), along with the cycle of Hammer horror movies — while paying abject obeisance to the
Academy Awards and every crumb they've offered British cinema (special points to Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, and Four Weddings and a Funeral).