Kirsty Wark to be Awarded the 2025 BAFTA Fellowship Award

Kirsty Wark, a renowned Scottish broadcaster and journalist will receive this year’s BAFTA Fellowship, the British Academy’s top accolade. The BAFTA Fellowship is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the industry. Wark will join other journalist to receive the honor including Kate Adie and Jon Snow.

Wark, who presented BBC’s Newsnight programme for 30 years until leaving last July, said: “This is a wonderful surprise and a great honor. Television has been my home for 40 years… I continue to learn every day from people with awe-inspiring skills who have become treasured colleagues and dear friends.”

She has also presented BBC arts programs The Late Show and The Review Show. Highly notable interviews in the cultural space include with Harold Pinter, Madonna, Pete Doherty, Damien Hirst, and George Clooney.

The news comes after it was revealed that EastEnders has been named recipient of the 2025 BAFTA TV craft special award for its sheer commitment to taking on and nurturing new talent off-screen.

The BBC One soap garnered a lot of praise thanks to its work on nurturing upcoming directors from under-represented groups, and offering writing and acting opportunities on its spin-off show, E20, which ran for three series.

The Scottish TV presenter and journalist celebrated her milestone birthday on February 3 and will receive the BAFTA’s highest accolade at its annual TV awards. She said: “It was quite a long birthday, actually, there’s lots of things that go on (during) a birthday.”

“But to get that email was tremendous. And I think it just added, literally the icing on the cake…” “So we were at home, we were doing different things. We were going to, sort of, my favorite place to go in Scotland, Arran.”

‘We were doing all sorts of things and then that just came in. I just thought, that’s extraordinary. I can’t believe it.’

She now finds herself in good company among previous fellowship recipients, including Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Martin Scorsese, Sideny Poitier and Dame Helen Mirren.

The most recent winners of the award are actor and presenter Warwick Davis and composer Yoko Shimomura.

CEO of BAFTA Jane Millichip, said: “Kirsty’s dedication is unwavering when it comes to telling the stories that really matter.”

Wark was described as a “legend of British journalism” by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair during her final Newsnight show in July 2024,