The 2024 BAFTA TV Awards took place this evening, with celebrities taking to the Royal Festival Hall and its red carpet to celebrate the past year in television.
Top Boy and Happy Valley emerged as the biggest winners of the night, with fans taking to social media to praise the historic evening – from Floella Benjamin’s emotional win to Prince William’s special video message.
The ceremony has been most celebrated for its ‘In Memoriam’ segment, seeing the British Academy of Film and Television Awards pay tribute to members of its industry who have sadly passed away in the last year.
The moving 2024 tribute ended on a clip from beloved sitcom Friends in an emotional tribute to actor Matthew Perry, who tragically died last year. And in a special touch, accompanying the video was an acoustic rendition of the sitcom’s theme tune ‘I’ll Be There For You’.
Viewers took to social media to praise the segment, and pay tribute to Perry, after the complaints made when he wasn’t featured in the 2024 BAFTA film ‘In Memoriam’ earlier this year.
“Weeping again at the loss of Matthew Perry,” one viewer posted. “Absolutely irreplaceable. There could never be a more perfect Chandler Bing.”
“Sometimes I forget Matthew Perry has passed away,” another added. “Then he pops up in the memoriam and it hits again”
(Image credit: © 2012 NBCUniversal, Inc)
Perry died in October last year, at the age of 54, with his Friends cast members releasing a joint statement at the time.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew,” read the statement by Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Matt Le Blanc. “We were more than just cast mates. We are a family. There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
We will continue to update this story.
