Dismay that Bafta chooses not to commemorate Richard Todds life

By Tim Walker Published: 10:00PM GMT twenty-three February 2010

Richard Todd, star of The Dam Busters Photo: GETTY

A Bafta orator pronounced that Todd, who died only prior to Yuletide elderly 90, was on a list of scarcely 200 names "considered" for inclusion in the list that was review out at the rite at the Royal Opera House over the weekend.

"Every loss is similarly important, but the time limitation of the obituaries territory in the promote forces us to have a small and indispensably biased selection," he added.

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Todd, who was awarded the OBE in 1993 and was one of the initial British officers to land in Normandy as piece of Operation Overlord in 1944, was thus deemed less notable than Margaret Unsworth, a book supervisor; Gerry Crampton, a stuntman co-ordinator and Tom Smith, a make-up artist, between others.

Towards the finish of his life, Todd annoyed the madness of politically scold contingents by articulate of his fear that when his movie The Dam Busters was shown on television, the name of Wg Cdr Guy Gibsons dog Nigger was infrequently dubbed over lest it means offence.

Sir Christopher Lee, an old crony of Todd, who appeared with him in House of Long Shadows and a Sherlock Holmes movie called Incident at Victoria Falls, said: "It seems a conspicuous repudiation as he patently had a place in the story of British film-making. Many of his drive-in theatre are undoubted classics. I generally favourite him in The Hasty Heart in that he appeared with Ronald Reagan."