Entertainment11 May, 20263 min read
Martin Lewis Delivers Emotional BAFTA Television Special Award Speech After Mother’s Road Accident
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Martin Lewis received the BAFTA Television Special Award at the 2026 BAFTA TV Awards. He tearfully recalled his mother's death, saying he lost her when he was 11.
Lewis’s tears at BAFTAs
Martin Lewis received the BAFTA Television Special Award at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday evening and delivered an emotional speech reflecting on the loss of his mother, Susan, in a road accident four decades ago.
“It is time for this nerd to party.”
The 54-year-old financial journalist and Money Saving Expert founder told the audience, "My childhood was over," and said he wrote his remarks on Thursday, which marked exactly 42 years since his mother’s sudden death just days before his 12th birthday.
He said, "For six years, barring school, I barely left the house. Now I'm picking up a Bafta," and added a message to viewers struggling with their own difficulties: "life can be transformed, it can get better."
Richard Osman presented the honour and praised Lewis as "someone who hasn't just informed the public, but genuinely helped them," as the ceremony continued with other winners and speeches.
Lewis concluded by thanking his wife, Lara Lewington, and their daughter, Sapphire, and signed off with: "It is time for this nerd to party."
Student debt and BBC
In the same acceptance speech, Lewis directly challenged Chancellor Rachel Reeves over government policy on student debt, urging her from the stage with "Chancellor, please." He condemned the planned freezing of the repayment threshold for plan 2 student loans, due to take effect next year, as "morally wrong," and said the power to hold power to account with trust and impartiality is needed more than ever.
Elsewhere in the BAFTAs, Ben De Pear, producer of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, slammed the BBC for removing the film from programming after winning the Bafta for Current Affairs TV, asking: "given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?" Another producer, Ramita Navai, said the documentary was a programme the BBC had paid for but "refused to air" and thanked Channel 4 for picking it up, adding, "We refuse to be censored."
Winners, tributes, and impact
The BAFTA TV Awards 2026 ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London saw Netflix’s Adolescence win multiple awards, including Limited Drama and Leading Actor for Stephen Graham, plus Supporting Actress for Christine Tremarco and Supporting Actor for 16-year-old Owen Cooper. The Independent’s live coverage also highlighted Dame Mary Berry’s BAFTA Fellowship, with the BBC noting the 91-year-old cook thanked her three children including her son William, saying, "William is in heaven, but I thank him." In the BBC’s backstage and red-carpet moments, Martin Lewis’s speech was revisited with the line, "For six years, barring school, I barely left the house, and now I'm picking up a Bafta," as the programme moved through other lighter segments.
“William is in heaven, but I thank him.”
The Independent also reported Lewis’s mother’s death in a car accident just days before his 12th birthday, and Radio Times said the ceremony was held this Sunday (10 May 2026) at Royal Festival Hall as Lewis’s wife Lara Lewington was pictured weeping in the audience. Across the night’s winners list, the BAFTA Fellowship went to Dame Mary Berry and the BAFTA Special Award went to Martin Lewis, while the BBC’s moments package framed the ceremony as including "There were tears" alongside surprises and outfits.