“How do you solve a problem like the Olivier Awards?” is a song that television has been humming wistfully to itself for a good chunk of the past few decades. The country’s leading theatre awards ceremony was once guaranteed a prime slot on the BBC, but for the past 20 years has been booted about unceremoniously between radio coverage and a dismal late-night highlights show on ITV.
Yet, with the Oliviers celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, the BBC took a chance and welcomed the ceremony back with a two-hour, early-evening broadcast on BBC Two. Theatre lovers held their breath anxiously when the curtain went up, before eventually letting out an enormous sigh of relief: the result was, to quote Hamlet, a palpable hit.
The trouble with the Oliviers, from a television perspective, is that they celebrate excellence in West End theatre, thus excluding – by dint of geography alone – a huge chunk of the country. No matter how keen folks in, say, Hull or Sunderland are, they are unlikely to have seen (m)any of the shows in contention. Unlike film, theatre remains a precious “in-the-room” experience.
Still, the thinking by Suzy Klein, the BBC’s admirable head of arts and classical music, seems to have been that 50 years meant a lot of history and celebrated past winners to play with – and why not get a famous face from The Celebrity Traitors to host it? Not Alan Carr, mercifully, but the modest and personable Nick Mohammed, who ran the evening beautifully. Conan O’Brien, who presided over this year’s dismal Oscars ceremony, could usefully look and learn from this self-effacing performance.
What the Oliviers did so well this year was to acknowledge and include this national television audience without – and this is the crucial bit – losing its integrity and rushing through everything it was meant to be celebrating in embarrassed haste. Notably slick editing of the broadcast – there was no endless footage of winners shuffling to make it from their seats to the stage – kept things moving at a pleasing pace. Skilfully staged songs from mega hit musicals The Phantom of the Opera and Wicked bookended the broadcast, giving it a more open and inclusive feel, while also just about earning their place, given that both shows celebrate big anniversaries of their own this year.
Underdog Jack Holden won Best Actor for his role in ‘Kenrex’ (Photo: Jeff Spicer/Getty)Also the fact that Paddington got his marmalade-covered paws on most of the awards for his new musical outing helped no end in the wider recognition stakes. (I particularly enjoyed the unimpressed look from Belgian auteur Ivo Van Hove when the bear’s Luke Sheppard beat him to the Best Director prize).
If Jack Holden (Kenrex) trumping Bryan Cranston and Tom Hiddleston to Best Actor won’t have caused the same shockwaves nationally as it did in the theatre community, his heartfelt speech will not only have struck a chord, but also perfectly highlighted the key theme of the evening. “Most people watching this at home won’t know who I am,” said Holden endearingly. “If you’re watching this at home, I encourage you to go to your local theatre and take a chance on something.”
An official scriptwriter could not have come up with better lines, as the Oliviers rightly and sensibly made the point time and again that West End shows come about only through the talent and skills nurtured all around the country, from regional theatres to the life-changing opportunities provided by youth groups. Thus the danger of potentially overbearing London-centric-ness was navigated in the most stylish manner.
Will the 51st Olivier Awards be offered similar television treatment next year? I for one very much hope so, as our national broadcaster, using the licence fee to good effect, is their rightful home. Take a proud bow at the curtain call, BBC.
The Olivier Awards 2026 are streaming on BBC iPlayer
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