1st March 2026
Opening Reflection
After another gruelling day at the shop, I decided to unwind with something mindless. Nothing heavy. Nothing requiring brain power. Just background noise.
I put the BAFTAs on iPlayer.
And within minutes I found myself thinking: how has this ceremony barely changed since I was a child?
The BAFTAs are meant to celebrate creativity, storytelling, brilliance. Yet the whole production felt predictable, formulaic, almost frozen in time. I couldn’t help wondering why it’s still televised in its current form.
But what struck me more than the ceremony itself was this question:
Why do we spend so much time celebrating interpreters rather than creators?
The Interpreter vs The Creator
Actors interpret scripts.
Directors interpret ideas.
Performers interpret someone else’s vision.
Interpretation takes skill — no question. But surely building the story, creating something from nothing, is a greater act than performing it?
We applaud the polish.
We honour the performance.
But the origin often gets less attention.
And that made me wonder whether we’ve become too comfortable celebrating ceremony over substance.
Entitlement Is Fragile
Thinking about celebration and status took me back many years.
When I was a director at the BBC, I once met Prince Andrew while filming aboard a warship. You cannot judge someone fully from brief encounters, and I won’t pretend to. But I left those meetings with a sense of arrogance. There was an air of entitlement that felt uncomfortable.
By contrast, on separate occasions when I met Prince Charles and Princess Anne, I felt warmth and humility.
Watching what has unfolded publicly since then is sobering. Whatever view one takes, seeing anyone dismantled by public opinion is a reminder of something important:
Privilege is not permanent.
Entitlement is dangerous. When challenge disappears and status feels guaranteed, fragility sets in. And fragility eventually cracks.
Business is no different. The market does not tolerate entitlement for long.
Are We Shifting What We Value?
With AI advancing at extraordinary speed, entire creative industries may be reshaped. When machines can generate scripts, music, even synthetic actors, what happens to interpretation?
Perhaps we begin to value origin more than performance.
Perhaps we become more interested in those who create rather than those who merely present.
Maybe we will celebrate builders over performers.
Rethinking the Younger Generation
While questioning assumptions, I’ll admit something else.
For years, I believed younger generations were becoming entitled — raised with expectations and comfort, lacking resilience.
But three young people who’ve recently joined our business — none yet 18 — have made me rethink that completely.
They are hardworking. Observant. Determined. Hungry to prove themselves.
Perhaps the era of entitlement isn’t as dominant as I thought. Perhaps realism is returning. They seem to understand something very simple:
Success must be earned.
And that is refreshing.
From Transaction to Experience
Retail, like award ceremonies, risks becoming repetitive if it refuses to evolve.
For decades, retail focused on speed and transaction. Get people in. Take their money. Move them on.
But technology has perfected transaction. It can now be done instantly.
So what remains?
Connection.
Atmosphere.
Experience.
Story.
People don’t just want to buy something anymore. They want to feel something. And as transactional retail becomes frictionless, experiential retail becomes valuable.
The future will not belong to the fastest checkout.
It will belong to the places that create meaning.
Closing Reflection
Watching the BAFTAs made me question what we celebrate. Reflecting on entitlement reminded me how fragile status can be. Seeing young people grafting challenged my assumptions.
Perhaps the future belongs not to ceremony, not to performance, not to entitlement — but to authenticity and creation.
In retail, in business, and in life, those who build something real will always outlast those who simply perform.
Onwards.
