Olivier Awards 2024: Haydn Gwynne fans slam 'shameful' ITV for ...
By Rebecca Lawrence For Mailonline
Published: 09:33 BST, 15 April 2024 | Updated: 10:07 BST, 15 April 2024
Olivier Awards viewers branded ITV 'shameful' on Sunday night after the broadcaster failed to show in full the moment Haydn Gwynne was announced as Best Supporting Actress.
Gwynne - who died in October aged 66 following a secret cancer battle - was granted the posthumous honour for her performance as Stanley Baldwin in When Winston Went to War.
The award was accepted on her behalf by son Orlando, who said it had been a 'dream' of his late mother's to win an OIivier.
She had been nominated four times prior for her work in City of Angels, Billy Elliott, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and The Threepenny Opera.
Yet viewers at home only got to see a section of the speech as it was relegated to a montage at the end of the two-hour programme.
Olivier Awards viewers branded ITV 'shameful' on Sunday after the broadcaster failed to show in full the moment Haydn Gwynne (pictured 2013) was announced as Best Supporting Actress
The award was accepted on her behalf by son Orlando, who said it had been a 'dream' of his late mother's to win an OIivier
Olivier Awards 2024: WINNERS AT A GLANCE
Best Actor: Mark Gatiss - The Motive and the Cue
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Will Close - Dear England
Best Actor in a Musical: Tom Francis - Sunset Boulevard
Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Jak Malone - Operation Mincemeat
Best New Play: Dear England
Best New Musical: Operation Mincemeat
Best Actress: Sarah Snook - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Actress in a Musical: Nicole Scherzinger - Sunset Boulevard
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Haydn Gwynne - When Winston Went to War With the Wireless
Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical: Amy Trigg - The Little Big Things
Best Revival: Vanya
In the clip, her son could be seen saying: 'It was a career long dream of hers to win an Olivier so she would have been thrilled.
'She loved the stage above all other kinds of acting. She said if she came away from a show having made one good friend it was worth doing and she often made many.'
Viewers were quick to slam ITV for the omission, tweeting: 'Can’t believe @ ITV #OlivierAwards put supporting actor and actress in a play as part of the “other awards this evening” montage. Am so disappointed I could not see the late Haydn Gwynne be recognised';
'@itv should have cut a musical number and allowed best supporting actor and actress in a play and other awards to be shown #OlivierAwards';
'So moving that Haydn Gwynne has won the best actress in a supporting role Olivier for When Winston Went to War with the Wireless. Her son accepted the award & gave a beautiful & fitting speech paying tribute. #olivierawards';
'Haydn Gwynne didn't even get a proper announcement as a winner for best supporting actress. ITV can get in the bin!#OlivierAwards';
'The #OlivierAwards broadcast didn’t think Best Actress in a Supporting Role was worth broadcasting so the late great Haydn Gwynne was shelved into ‘other awards presenting this evening that we don’t care enough about’. F***ing unforgivably shameful';
'Congrats to Haydn Gwynne on her posthumous Olivier Award. We love you.'; 'A beautiful tribute to posthumous winner Haydn Gwynne segués into a performance by The Little Big Things and now I'm crying';
'Honestly, the disrespect at what they shoved into presented earlier then. Haydn, we love you! We shouldve seen that moment for her. #OlivierAwards'.
MailOnline has contacted ITV for comment.
Gwynne - who died in October aged 66 following a secret cancer battle - was granted the posthumous honour for her performance as Stanley Baldwin in When Winston Went to War
Viewers at home only got to see a section of the speech as it was relegated to a montage at the end of the two-hour programme
Gwynne's role in When Winston Went to War was her last before her death.
She had been due to appear in Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, at the Gielgud Theatre when the show opened last September - but she had to withdraw beforehand due to 'sudden personal circumstances'.
At the time, producer Cameron Mackintosh had recalled that she had become an 'integral part' of the 'very close-knit company' after giving an 'unforgettable' performance of the song Ladies Who Lunch during an Old Friends gala premiere in May 2022.
He added: 'Haydn will be very much missed.'
Gwynne died the following month after a recent cancer diagnosis.
A statement from Gwynne's representatives said: 'It is with great sadness we are sharing with you that, following her recent diagnosis with cancer, the star of stage and screen Haydn Gwynne died in hospital in the small hours of Friday 20 October, surrounded by her beloved sons, close family and friends.
'We would like to thank the staff and teams at the Royal Marsden and Brompton Hospitals for their wonderful care over the last few weeks.'
Gwynne shot to fame in Nineties sitcom Drop The Dead Donkey and more recently starred as Queen Camilla in The Windsors.
The Channel 4 comedy was loved by many fans and it has been reported that Queen Camilla herself has watched the satirical show in the past.
The star of stage and screen, who received Olivier and Tony nominations for her turn in Billy Elliot The Musical, was due to return to the West End - but withdrew last month due to 'personal circumstances'.
Gwynne faced competition from Lorraine Ashbourne for Till the Stars Come Down, Priyanga Burford for An Enemy of the People, Gina McKee for Dear England and Tanya Reynolds for A Mirror
Gwynne's sons Orlando and Harrison Phipps picked up the award on their late mother's behalf
Sunset Boulevard came out on top with an impressive seven wins at this year's Awards, while Sarah Snook and Andrew Scott's play also won big.
Nicole Scherzinger was handed the Best Actress in a Musical prize for her performance in Sunset Boulevard while her leading co-star Tom Francis took home the Best Actor in a Musical gong.
Jamie Lloyd won the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director and the show also won Best Musical Revival.
Elsewhere, Jack Knowles took home the White Light Award for Best Lighting Design; Alan Williams won for the Outstanding Musical Contribution award for his musical supervision & musical direction and Adam Fisher won the d&b audiotechnik Award for Best Sound Design.
Pop star Nicole joked that she first wanted to thank God for stopping her from tripping on the way to accept her Best Actress in a Musical gong.
The US actress and singer also said that she 'was coming for blood' on Broadway ahead of her taking Sunset Boulevard to New York.
She said 'thank God for saving me from that trip right there', before adding that she was 'nothing without him'.
The Pussycat Dolls singer also said that 'coming from really humble beginnings I always wanted to be a singer and do musicals'.
She added that she wanted to do 'so many roles' and joked that the failing Hollywood star, Norma Desmond, depicted in the musical was not 'one of them'.
After weeks of accolades it was almost inevitable that Sarah Snook might lead the winners as the 2024 Olivier Awards got underway on Sunday evening - and so it proved as the Australian star was named Best Actress, and rightly so.
Snook - best known for her starring role in HBO series Succession - scooped the award for her mesmerising one-woman performance in a new West End production of Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
The Australian actress takes all 26 roles in the production, among them Basil Hallward, Sibyl Vane and of course Gray himself.
She had been nominated four times prior for her work in City of Angels, Billy Elliott (pictured) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and The Threepenny Opera.
Elsewhere there was triumph of sorts for Andrew Scott, who surprisingly lost out on the award for Best Actor but found himself among the winners after VANYA, director Stephen Simon's contemporary rendering of the Anton Chekhov classic, claimed the award for Best Revival during the event at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Scott brings to life multiple characters in adapter and co-creators Stephens' radical new version of the play, with Sunday's accolade coming just weeks after the death of his mother, Nora.
Adapted and directed by Sydney Theatre Company's artistic director Kip Williams, the play has already had successful runs in Adelaide, Auckland and Melbourne with actress Eryn Jean Norvill starring.
Snook paid tribute to Oscar Wilde, the author of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, for coming up with the story in the first place and paid tribute to the one-woman show's production staff and director.
While Scott celebrated Vanya's triumph with his colleagues on Sunday night, the much-fancied star missed out on the award for Best Actor, with Mark Gatiss pipping him to the coveted gong.
Gatiss plays the late screen and stage legend Sir John Gielgud in Jack Thorne's The Motive And The Cue, a theatrical take on the fraught history behind a notorious 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, starring Gielgud and Richard Burton.
The British actor told audience members that the announcer had pronounced his name wrong, saying "it is Gatiss" and thanked his husband, actor and writer Ian Hallard, for putting up with his "haircut".
Sunset Boulevard came out on top with an impressive seven wins at this year's Olivier Awards while Sarah Snook (pictured) and Andrew Scott's play also won big
Nicole Scherzinger was handed the Best Actress in a Musical prize for her performance in Sunset Boulevard while her leading co-star Tom Francis took home Best Actor in a Musical
He beat actors Joseph Fiennes, who played England manager Gareth Southgate in Dear England, Happy Valley's James Norton, Doctor Who star and Scottish actor David Tennant and Irish star Scott.
Elsewhere there was triumph for Will Close, whose portrayal of Bayern Munich and England footballer Harry Kane in Dear England earned him Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
The play, written by James Graham, sees Joseph Fiennes star as England manager Gareth Southgate at the National Theatre and shines a light on the pressures of penalties and Gareth's 'cultural reform' of the national team in his six years as manager.
Close thanked footballer Kane, whom he played in the production, and Joseph Fiennes for being a "hero".
'My mum who passed away with Covid ... here's to all the single mums in council housing,' he added.
With Gareth Southgate's chances of winning the European Championships this summer remain debatable, the production also came out on top by winning Best Play.
Further awards went to Marg Horwell for Best Costume Design in The Picture Of Dorian Gray and Tom Wexler and Miriam Buether for Best Set Design in Stranger Things: The First Shadow, while the Outstanding Achievement in Opera award went to Sir Antonio Pappano for his role as Musical Director of the Royal Opera House.
The Royal Opera House enjoyed a second win after Innocence by Royal Opera won Best New Opera Production, while the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre went to Sleepova by Matilda FeyiṣayọIbini.
Stranger Things, inspired by the popular Netflix series, also won for a second time after claiming the Noël Coward award for Best New Entertainment or Comedy Play.
Sunset Boulevard, the West End hit starring Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, featured among the winners thanks to Jamie Lloyd, who claimed the award for Best Director after taking on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
The hugely popular show also picked up the Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, Best Sound Design and Best Lighting Design, while the award for Musical Supervision and Musical Direction went to Alan Williams for his contribution to the musical.
Mark Gatiss won Best Actor for his role as the late screen and stage legend Sir John Gielgud in Jack Thorne's The Motive And The Cue
The award for Best New Dance Production went to La Ruta by Gabriela Carrizo and the award for Best New Musical went to Operation Mincemeat.
Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips was also among Sunday evening's roll call, with the professional dancer and collaborator Jamie Cousins on hand to collect the award for Best Theatre Choreographer in long-running West End hit Guys & Dolls.
Launched in 1976, the annual ceremony - widely regarded as the most prestigious of its kind - honours the best of London's vibrant West End theatre schedule.
Sunday's show was once again presented by seasoned stage and screen star Hannah Waddingham, who returned for the second consecutive year following her consummate job as compere in 2023.
Waddingham opened the event with singer and pianist Joe Stilgoe, while the ceremony finale marked the National Theatre's 60th anniversary.
Performances came from best new musical nominees including The Little Big Things, Next To Normal, Operation Mincemeat and A Strange Loop, alongside best musical revival nominees Guys & Dolls and Hadestown
Individual presenters on the night included Dominic West, Michael Ball, Michael Sheen, Rosalind Plowright, Sir Lenny Henry and Michelle Visage.
Olivier awards 2024: Full winners list
Best actor in a musical
David Cumming for Operation Mincemeat
Tom Francis for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER
Daniel Mays for Guys and Dolls
Charlie Stemp for Crazy for You
Best actress in a musical
Natasha Hodgson for Operation Mincemeat
Caissie Levy for Next to Normal
Nicole Scherzinger for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER
Marisha Wallace for Guys and Dolls
Best actress
Laura Donnelly for The Hills of California
Sophie Okonedo for Medea
Sarah Jessica Parker for Plaza Suite
Sheridan Smith for Shirley Valentine
Sarah Snook for The Picture of Dorian Gray - WINNER
Best actor
Mark Gatiss for The Motive and the Cue - WINNER
Joseph Fiennes for Dear England
James Norton for A Little Life
Andrew Scott for Vanya
David Tennant for Macbeth
Best new play
Dear England by James Graham - WINNER
The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth
The Motive and the Cue by Jack Thorne
Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel
Best new musical
The Little Big Things, music by Nick Butcher, lyrics by Nick Butcher and Tom Ling, book by Joe White
Next to Normal, music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Operation Mincemeat, music, lyrics and book by David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts - WINNER
A Strange Loop, music, lyrics and book by Michael R Jackson
Best actress in a supporting role in a musical
Grace Hodgett Young for Sunset Boulevard
Zoë Roberts for Operation Mincemeat
Amy Trigg for The Little Big Things - WINNER
Eleanor Worthington-Cox for Next to Normal
Best actor in a supporting role in a musical
Jak Malone for Operation Mincemeat - WINNER
Cedric Neal for Guys and Dolls
David Thaxton for Sunset Boulevard
Jack Wolfe for Next to Normal
Best actor in a supporting role
Will Close for Dear England - WINNER
Paul Hilton for An Enemy of the People
Giles Terera for Clyde’s
Luke Thompson for A Little Life
Zubin Varla for A Little Life
Best actress in a supporting role
Lorraine Ashbourne for Till the Stars Come Down
Priyanga Burford for An Enemy of the People
Haydn Gwynne for When Winston Went to War With the Wireless - WINNER
Gina McKee for Dear England
Olivier Tanya Reynolds for A Mirror
Noël Coward award for best new entertainment or comedy play
Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Stranger Things: The First Shadow by Kate Trefry - WINNER
Vardy V Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial, adapted by Liv Hennessy
Best Family Show
Bluey’s Big Play by Joe Brumm
Dinosaur World Live by Derek Bond - WINNER
The House With Chicken Legs adapted by Oliver Lansley
The Smeds and the Smoos adapted by Tall Stories
Gillian Lynne award for best theatre choreographer
Fabian Aloise for Sunset Boulevard
Ellen Kane and Hannes Langolf for Dear England
Arlene Phillips with James Cousins for Guys and Dolls - WINNER
Mark Smith for The Little Big Things
Susan Stroman for Crazy for You
Best Costume Design
Bunny Christie and Deborah Andrews for Guys and Dolls
Ryan Dawson Laight for La Cage Aux Folles
Hugh Durrant for Peter Pan
Marg Horwell for The Picture of Dorian Gray - WINNER
Best Revival
The Effect by Lucy Prebble
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
Vanya by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Simon Stephens - WINNER
Best musical revival
Groundhog Day, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Guys and Dolls, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows
Hadestown, music, lyrics and book by Anaïs Mitchell
Sunset Boulevard, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics and book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton - WINNER
Best Sound Design
Paul Arditti for Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbins for Dear England
Adam Fisher for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER
Gareth Fry for Macbeth
Outstanding Musical Contribution
Tom Brady for Musical Supervision and Arrangements and Charlie Rosen for Orchestrations for Guys and Dolls
Matt Brind for Musical Supervision, Arrangements and Orchestrations for Just for One Day
Steve Sidwell for Orchestrations and Joe Bunker for Musical Direction for Operation Mincemeat
Alan Williams for Musical Supervision and Musical Direction for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER
Best set design
Miriam Buether for Stranger Things: The First Shadow WINNER
Bunny Christie for Guys and Dolls
Es Devlin and Ash J Woodward Dear England
Soutra Gilmour and Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom for Sunset Boulevard
Best lighting design
Jon Clark for Dear England
Jon Clark for Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Paule Constable for Guys and Dolls
Jack Knowles for Sunset Boulevard - WINNER
Best new opera production
Blue by the English National Opera
Innocence by the Royal Opera - WINNER
Picture a Day Like This by the Royal Opera
The Rhinegold by the English National Opera
Outstanding achievement in opera
Antonio Pappano for his role as Musical Director of the Royal Opera House - WINNER
Belarus Free Theatre Company for King Stakh’s Wild Hunt
Marina Abramović for 7 Deaths of Maria Callas
Outstanding achievement in dance
Isabela Coracy for her performance in NINA: By Whatever Means, part of Ballet Black: Pioneers - WINNER
Jonzi D for his artistic direction of Breakin’ Convention 2023 International festival of hip-hop Dance theatre
Rhiannon Faith for her community focused conception of Lay Down Your Burdens at The Pit
Outstanding achievement in affiliate theatre
Blue Mist by Mohamed-Zain Dada at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court theatre
A Playlist for The Revolution by AJ Yi at the Bush theatre
Sleepova by Matilda Feyişayo at the Bush theatre - WINNER
The Swell by Isley Lynn at Orange Tree theatre
The Time Machine: A Comedy by Steven Canny and John Nicholson at the Park theatre
Sir Peter Hall award for best director
Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin for Stranger Things: The First Shadow at the Phoenix theatre
Rupert Goold for Dear England at the National Theatre – Olivier and Prince Edward theatre
Jamie Lloyd for Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy theatre - WINNER
Sam Mendes for The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre – Lyttelton and Noël Coward theatre