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WATCH: Aisling Bea’s BAFTA acceptance speech is hilarious and moving in equal measures


By Megan Burns
18th Jul 2020
WATCH: Aisling Bea’s BAFTA acceptance speech is hilarious and moving in equal measures

The Kildare actress and comedian won a BAFTA Craft Breakthrough Talent winner for her comedy-drama This Way Up, that she wrote and starred in.


Last night, Aisling Bea won a BAFTA Craft Breakthrough Talent award for her excellent show This Way Up, and her acceptance speech was enough proof that she was a worthy winner for anyone who hadn’t seen the programme.

As the event was a virtual one, once she was announced as the winner, we cut to a stream of Aisling at home, wearing a blue top and looking a little alarmed.

She told the audience, after taking a big breath, that she had “45 allocated seconds to tell you that this is an absolute dream come true. Thank you so much to BAFTA for making it happen.”

With her seconds rapidly ticking down, and a panicked look, she said that there are so many people she wants to thank, and spends the next few seconds trying to cram them all in, impressively barely taking a breath to save precious time.

As well as those you’d expect, such as the cast and crew on This Way Up, collegues in the comedy industry, and her family, she also gets a thank-you in for “my enemies, for always keeping me thirsty”, with impeccable comic timing and a deadpan wink to camera.

Her brief speech then moves to a more emotional note, as she thanks Sharon Horgan, who executive produced and appeared in the show with Aisling: “my pretend sister, mentor and friend, for changing my life”.

She then dedicated the award to her father, Brian, “who didn’t get to be any older than I am today, and for whom I wrote the show”. In a 2017 article in The Guardian, Aisling wrote movingly about her father, who took his own life when she was just three years old.

With this moving tribute, she finally takes a breath and checks the timer on her phone, counting down the final few seconds. “Oh, I had loads of time, actually,” she quips.

You can watch Aisling’s full acceptance speech in full below:

Featured image: BAFTA


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