Mary Berry to Receive BAFTA Fellowship in May
mary berry will receive the BAFTA Fellowship at the BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises ceremony in May, the latest honour for a broadcaster whose name has been tied to British factual entertainment for more than 50 years. The award is BAFTA’s highest honour, and it puts her alongside a short list of previous recipients.
Berry said she “couldn’t believe it was true” and called it “a huge honour to be presented with the BAFTA Fellowship.” She added: “For over 50 years, I have enjoyed every moment of teaching my passion on television and I thank all the generous professionals along the way who have given me guidance and support - and I am still learning. This amazing BAFTA Fellowship is the icing on cake!”
Southbank Centre on 10 May
The ceremony will take place on Sunday 10 May at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and will be hosted by Greg Davies. It will be broadcast on One and iPlayer, giving the award a prime platform on the night television’s own industry prizes take centre stage.
BAFTA described Berry’s run on The Great British Bake Off as transformative and said it helped inspire a national resurgence in home baking. That is the core of her television case: she is not being honoured for a single hit, but for shaping a format that moved from simple cookery into a wider audience habit.
From the 1970s to Bake Off
Berry first appeared on television in the 1970s and has been on screen regularly ever since. She is best known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off, but she has also hosted several self-titled shows, giving her a six-decade footprint that is rare even in a medium built on longevity.
Jane Millichip said: “Dame Mary Berry is a singular talent whose warmth, craft and generosity have helped shape the very best of British television.” She also said: “Mary Berry for more than 60 years has informed, inspired and entertained audiences, setting a new benchmark for factual entertainment, proving that expertise and empathy can draw huge audiences in primetime.”
Berry Royal Christmas in 2019
Berry said her proudest moment on TV so far was filming A Berry Royal Christmas with the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2019. “They put their whole heart into making roulades and achieved great things, with a lot of laughter,” she said. That memory now sits beside the Fellowship itself, which is the cleaner verdict on her career: a long, steady, audience-building run that the industry is choosing to reward at 91.
Previous recipients include Dame Joanna Lumley, Kirsty Wark and Sir David Attenborough, who will soon be celebrating his 100th birthday. For Berry, the May ceremony turns a familiar television figure into one of the night’s defining honourees, and the broadcast should give viewers a clear look at how BAFTA wants to frame factual entertainment right now.
