Chernobyl and The Crown lead Bafta TV nominations

Chernobyl, the miniseries about the nuclear power plant disaster in 1986, leads the Bafta TV awards nominations with 14, while Netflix’s The Crown has received seven nominations, including best drama series.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Killing Eve missed out on a nomination for best drama series after winning the award last year, with The Crown, The End of the F**king World, Giri/Haji, and Sally Wainwright’s Gentleman Jack all up for the main award.

The lack of diversity at the Bafta film awards in January was a major talking point, with the director Steve McQueen saying the awards risked becoming “irrelevant” if they continued to ignore BAME talent. The TV nominations were far more diverse, with representation of BAME actors in all categories, except for lead actress.

Jared Harris, who starred as Soviet scientist Valery Legasov in Chernobyl, is up for best lead actor alongside Stephen Graham (The Virtues), Takehiro Hira (Giri/Haji) and Callum Turner (The Capture). Best lead actress is between Glenda Jackson (Elizabeth is Missing), Samantha Morton (I Am Kirsty), Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack) and Jodie Comer, who won the award last year and stars in Killing Eve, which is up for four awards in 2020.

The Crown’s Josh O’Connor is up for best supporting actor along with Stellan Skarsgård (Chernobyl), Joe Absolom (A Confession) and Will Sharpe (Giri/Haji). Best supporting actress is between Helen Behan (The Virtues), Jasmine Jobson (Top Boy), Naomi Ackee (End of the F**king World) and Helena Bonham-Carter, who played Princess Margaret in The Crown.

Fleabag’s second series is competing for six awards, with Waller-Bridge and Sian Clifford both nominated for best female performance in a comedy programme, along with Gbemisola Ikumelo (Famalam) and Sarah Kendall (Frayed).

Best male performance in a comedy series is between Guz Khan (Man Like Mobeen), Youssef Kerkour (Home), Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education) and Jamie Demetriou for his estate agent comedy Stath Lets Flats.

The Guardian’s long-running web series Anywhere But Westminster is nominated in the short form category, with Brain in Gear, Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle and Toni_With_An_I (Born Digital: First Cuts).

One of the major surprises was the success of Giri/Haji, the BBC and Netflix co-production that explores the crime underworlds of London and Tokyo and stars Kelly Macdonald. It took six nominations in total with only Fleabag, the Crown and Chernobyl getting the same number or more.

Omissions included Top Boy, which was not nominated for best drama, while many had tipped Aisling Bea to be nominated for her comedy This Way Up. Game of Thrones took only two awards, one for costume designer Michele Clapton and the other for must-see moment, an award the public votes for.

The BBC’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials received five nominations, as did Sean Meadows’ dark drama The Virtues, while Killing Eve, Top Boy and Sex Education all got four nods.

The current affairs award is between ITV’s Undercover: Inside China’s Digital Gulag, Channel 4’s Dispatches programme Growing Up Poor: Britain’s Breadline Kids, and BBC Panorama’s Is Labour Anti-Semitic?, the controversial investigation into how Labour dealt with complaints of antisemitism from its members.

Channel 4’s Michael Jackson abuse documentary Leaving Neverland is up for best factual series against Our Dementia Choir with Vicky McClure, Crime and Punishment and Netflix’s Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.

In the entertainment performance category, Lee Mack is nominated again after winning last year for Would I Lie To You?, while Graham Norton, Frankie Boyle and Mo Gilligan are the other nominees.

Best comedy entertainment programme is between The Graham Norton Show, Dave’s Taskmaster, BBC’s The Ranganation and the only nominee to be featured last year, Channel 4’s The Last Leg.

The nominations and awards were affected by Covid-19, with the awards being pushed back from their original date of 17 May to 31 July, with a virtual ceremony hosted by Richard Ayoade.

Source: The Guardian