And so we reach 2014. Warning… this one is a bit long!

2014 was a fairly uneventful year queue wise- we were in the in the queue super early and so had the joy of the music and drunk people from the night club opposite. At one point a *very* drunk man came and sat with us and chatted for ages about how he was Michael Balls son, telling us all about his life. We were soon left to sleep and by the time we woke up the queue was getting pretty impressive behind us. This year we didn’t get moved on, as we kept all the fire exits clear and rubbish to a minimum. They did come out and check on us every now and again throughout the day but for some reason this year they didn’t seem to mind. Saturday night passed with awful music and more drunk people; and by Sunday morning  the queue was looping around the entire theatre.

I just want to add that in all the years we have slept out on the street for the wristbands, we have never felt unsafe and never had any real problems with drunk people. More recently we have security, but in the first few years we didn’t. Even being the first people to arrive there were always other people about, and as long as you are sensible and keep your belongings close to you, you can sleep quite safely; or at least try and sleep lol.

Anyway – wristbands collected we waited in a cafe until it was time to get our spot on the barrier. We were opposite and a bit further down from Eddies Troop – but still in shouting distance enough to play word association VERY loud to pass the time!

Another thing that passes the time is watching the presenters rehearse the red carpet during the day – this year it was Fearne Cotton and Dermot O’Leary presenting for E! Entertainment.

As the sun began to set  Christoph Waltz was one of the first to arrive on the DRY Red Carpet.

Next up was a very sparkly and chatty Juliet Stevenson. Early on in the arrivals the stars seem a bit more relaxed and take there time. As it gets closer to start time you can often get two or three arrive at once and no doubt you will miss someone. That is why it’s not a good idea to totally set your heart on meeting one particular person, as it can spoil your night.

Daniel Bruhl was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Rush….

… but the award went to  Captain Phillips actor Barkhad Abdi. Both films at the cinema made me feel slightly travel sick – what with all the speed and the rocking of the lifeboat!

In the 2014 award season I loved every single one of Lupita Nyong’o’s dresses, but this one was truly my favourite. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years A Slave – which I think she should have won.

Apparently 2014 was the year for making me feel ill at the cinema – Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director and Outstanding British Film for Gravity. I saw it in IMAX and it made me so dizzy! ( this year was the first year I had a Cineworld Unlimited Card – so I saw A LOT of films.)

The lovely Chiwetel Ejiofor  won Best Actor for  his role in 12 Years a Slave, beating  Bruce Dern, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale and Tom Hanks, who arrived shortly after him.

As Tom Hanks signed down the carpet – his wife, actress Rita Wilson signed with him, and is this years HOW LONG reaction photo!

Now the next couple of minuets were all very surreal and possibly the oddest five minuets I have ever had by a red carpet. The only way to describe it is super rambley so I apologise but here goes…

A bearded Michael Fassbender signed his way down the carpet… just being lovely and taking his time when suddenly….

 

…a WILD Bradley Cooper literally appears out of nowhere and grabs Fassbender, massive hugs and general love ensue…

Just lots of chat and catching up. They both turn and continue to sign down the carpet when….

…Emma Thompson appears and launches herself across the carpet! More hugs and lots of chat…

It was like a little moment of calm in all the chaos. They chatted to each other  as they went along, and no one really interrupted them, just held out things to be signed. Thompson promised a picture with Sam, but walked away down the carpet until she remembered and came bounding back. It was a tad surreal being stuck in the middle of their little reunion. They could have completely ignored there fans and left to catch up, but they didn’t and it was lovely.

As you know by now I have done a *few* red carpets, and having worked in the West End I have met a lot of celebrities when at work. I didn’t honestly think that I still got properly star struck until Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrived on the carpet. I think I just smiled dazedly at them both and took a lot of pictures. You could tell how used to this kind of situation they were by the way they worked the crowd together, it was quite interesting to see. But yeah, either of them could have asked me anything and I probably would have just stared at them.

Oh, and yeah – the night ended with Royalty. Prince William was the last to arrive on an almost empty carpet, met with the CEO of BAFTA Amanda Berry and got hurried inside.

But a very cool end to a pretty amazing BAFTAs.

Fridays post will be about 2015, in which the wristbands get handed out a day early, Tom Hiddleston grabs everyones cameras and it still doesn’t rain!!

Until Then!!

Much Love,

Amanda xx