It's been a while since we've posted on here, and with a lot of Lisa/The C Word related milestones recently, the time seems right, so here we go.
Can you really believe that a year has passed since the nation got a full dosage of Lisa's bloody brilliance in BBC1s The C Word? Thought not. We'd all hoped for a good response to the Drama, but never knew it would be so well received. The blog page went ape-shit, Lisa's Twitter feed went ballistic, we had emails & messages from all over the country saying how much the film had touched people's lives and helped people. Not a bad response you could say. Even months after, we'd all be getting messages out of the blue from people who had been reading the blog, or book or watched the film. Crazy, all that for my Sis. Did I ever mention she's fucking awesome? No? OK then, for the record, MY SISTER IS FUCKING AWESOME!
Let's fast forward then to last night, the 2016 BAFTA TV Awards. We found out that The C Word was nominated for two BAFTAs the same time as everyone else at the end of March. I guess we'd always hoped there may be some BAFTA recognition for the team and also for Sheridan, all of whom were simply fantastic. So to be nominated for two awards took a while to sink in, but as ever the overriding emotion was once again, pride. We were so chuffed that The C Word was nominated in the Single Drama category. So chuffed that all the hard work, the wonderful teams dedication and passion, the drive to get it made, the never give up attitude of everyone involved was recognised with a BAFTA nomination. It was such an incredible feeling. Then to see Sheridan Smith be nominated for Best Leading Actress, was equally as special. That bird threw everything at that role, literally everything. It was so important to her to get it right, and boy did she get it right. People may never be able to fully appreciate how much it meant to her and how emotional it was. We got to see it first hand in filming, and trust me that girl is special. I've become so protective of her in the same way as I was with Lisa that I really have to hold myself back from hunting down and personally castrating anybody who says a bad word against her. For the record, if there are any press type folk reading this, I wouldn't actually do that, but we all know how you like to twist the shit out of anything!!! It's not Sheridan's fault she's that talented, but luckily she has a humungous fan base that love her and know how it really is. Love is a powerful thing, much more powerful than people talking bollocks. I can highly recommend seeing Sheridan in Funny Girl too, she's bloody amazing in it. So, so talented is that one!
Last night was a surreal experience, walking down the red carpet, seeing Telly people, soaking it all up. I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed it. It was, quite literally for us, once in a lifetime type stuff. Lisa would have bloody loved it too, but I have no doubt that wherever she was, she was watching us enjoying the moment.
As for the results, what can I say, The C Word didn't win. But long before it was even nominated for a BAFTA, it was already a winner. A winner in the hearts of literally millions of people. Anything that has that kind of positive impact on so many people can only ever be a winner. It won by raising awareness about all types of Cancer, it won by getting people talking about all kinds of illness, it won by getting people to check for lumps, and in some cases even finding them early enough and being able to do something about it. This is no exaggeration, this stuff actually happened on the back of the sheer bloody brilliance of The C Word team and my amazing Sister. Therefore, even without an award, even before a nomination it was a winner, and it always will be. The BAFTA nominations were the icing on the cake, and an award for the team and/or Sheridan would have been the cherry on top. But I never really have been a fan of cherries to be honest.
All that being said, and as genuinely true as it all is, was I a little bit gutted at The C Word not winning at least one of the awards last night? Can I be honest? Yes, yes I was. I just can't lie about this one, but before you think I'm a bad loser, please allow me to explain why.
Before going last night, the result really was irrelevant to me. Obviously I wanted the team to win something, but just being nominated was a further show of recognition for the quality of the production and the impact that Lisa's words have had on so many people's lives. The being gutted bit was purely for the team involved in bringing The C Word to the screen. To use a Football analogy, I guess for me the feeling was akin to Derby County dominating QPR in the 2014 Play-Off final only to lose to a last minute Bobby bloody Zamora goal, and missing out on the prize of promotion to the Premier League. Call me biased, but I'm almost certain that there could have been no team who'd worked as hard and expended so much energy into such a moving Drama as The C Word team, and no actress who'd given her all as much as Sheridan Smith. Had The C Word and Sheridan won, I'm certain that there would have been no complaints at all. In no way is that a slight on anyone who did win though, as being nominated is proof enough that if you go on to win you'll be a worthy winner. The nomination is a huge achievement, and nothing changes for us with the ultimate result. We'll never be able to express quite how grateful we all are to everyone involved in the production of The C Word and how proud we always are of Lisa. It was a special Drama, and gave us our Sister/Wife/Daughter/Niece/Cousin/Friend back for 90 minutes. Lisa gave her all in her writing and fight against The Bullshit, and the team only matched it in getting The C Word onto the screen.
I guess the only sad thing was that Sheridan Smith, Nicole Taylor, Tim Kirkby, Susan Hogg and Simon Lewis never got the chance to go up on stage and talk about how wonderful my Sister was. For us that is what makes me a bit gutted at The C Word not winning. We'll never know what the feeling of winning a BAFTA will be like, but we could still never be as proud as we are now. The team truly deserved their moment on stage with that award but it wasn't to be. They will all come again though because they're too talented not to, and when they do, we (and I'm sure Lisa) will be rooting for them. Award or no award, the work they had already done ensured that Lisa's message got out there, helping so many people was always going to be the most important thing.
The BAFTAs was never going to be the end of Lisa's story. Thanks to this blog, her followers, her book and the wonderful screen adaptation, Lisa's legacy will continue.
To put it simply, thanks to every single person involved in The C Word, Lisa's light will never go out.
Proud Bro signing out, until next time...
xxx
It’s a big day today for me today. After four and a bit years, and to my own disbelief, my lad, Harrison, started school this morning. Yeah that’s right, despite my previous inability to keep one of those supermarket basil plants alive for more than three days, my son stepped out of the house this morning suited and booted and ready to begin his journey through the world of assemblies, wedgies and french verb tables.
SIDE NOTE: We discovered at school this morning that Harrison’s coat peg neighbour is called Lennon. Lisa would have loved that. Whether she would have joined me in lamenting the fact that no one calls their kid Ringo I can’t say.
