Will we spend the Baftas guessing who is a hologram?

Tomorrow’s Bafta TV awards is set to beam TV stars and fans onto the red carpet as holograms. While nominees including Normal People’s Paul Mescal, Killing Eve star Jodie Comer, and I Hate Suzie’s Billie Piper are due to appear in person, the technology has been rolled out for those who may be restricted due to production filming bubbles, as well as to fans who are not allowed to line the red carpet because of social distancing rules.

It’s certainly a first – and a very novel idea. It’s not half as creepy as Whitney Houston’s posthumous hologram tour, Michael Jackson’s performance at the 2014 Billboard Awards in holographic form, or Snoop Dog bringing out the late rapper Tupac Shakur at Coachella in 2012.

It doesn’t trigger ethical questions, such as reviving a dead person’s career – but it can pose challenges for those reviewing it.

As we watch it live-streamed on BBC One – with presenters Stacey Dooley and Vick Hope introducing the hologram guests to those actually at the ceremony – it will be transfixing.

If the action is anything like as realistic as Cameron Diaz’s holographic appearance on Drew Barrymore’s US talk show last year, it might outdo the awards ceremony itself.

We might be trying to figure out who is there or who is not? How will we know? It’s a game in itself and perhaps even more exciting than who wins.

It’s one thing to report that the director Steve McQueen picks up a gong for Small Axe and gives a heartfelt speech, but quite another to establish if he’s real.

Yours,

Charlotte Cripps,

Culture writer