Killing Eve and A Very English Scandal lead the way in the TV Bafta nominations, with 14 and 12 nods respectively.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s psychosexual cat-and-mouse chase Killing Eve will battle for the best drama gong against Informer, the counter-terror series about a British-Asian man tasked with spying on extremists, Save Me, Lennie James’ missing daughter drama also starring Suranne Jones, and ratings big-hitter Bodyguard.
Jed Mercurio’s twisty BBC thriller, starring Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden as the home secretary and her private security detail, attracted larger audiences than every other UK TV event of the year outside the World Cup – and the most viewers for a TV drama since the heyday of Downton Abbey. It is up for just five awards in total, with Madden missing out on a leading actor nomination.
Russell T Davies’ A Very English Scandal is up for best mini-series, but is also well represented in the acting categories, with Hugh Grant nominated for leading actor for his turn as Jeremy Thorpe, the Liberal Party leader accused of conspiracy to murder; Ben Whishaw is also up for the supporting actor prize for playing Thorpe’s lover, Norman Scott. Benedict Cumberbatch received a leading actor nod for his performance as aristocratic drug addict Patrick Melrose (which is also up for best mini-series and drama writing). Rounding out the leading actor nominees are Chance Perdomo for BBC Three’s Killed By My Debt, and Lucian Msamati for Jack Thorne’s Kiri, though Kiri star Sarah Lancashire was snubbed for leading actress.
Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh go head-to-head for the leading actress prize for their turns as obsessive agent Eve and hairpin murderer Villanelle in Killing Eve. Up against them are Ruth Wilson for the BBC’s Mrs Wilson and Hawes, who is nominated for Bodyguard as well as for best supporting actress in Mrs Wilson.
Mum, Stefan Golaszewski’s tender sitcom starring Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan, is up for four awards, including female and male performance in a comedy, scripted comedy and comedy writing. Sally4Ever, Julia Davis’ grotesque black comedy, has received three nominations, for best scripted comedy and best male and female performance in a comedy.
The second series of Cotswolds mockumentary This Country also received nominations for comedy writing and female performance in a comedy, proving that siblings Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper had no issues with a sophomore slump.
The first outing for Derry Girls, Lisa McGee’s raucous sitcom about a gang of gobby Catholic girls during the Troubles, is up for best scripted comedy, but received no performance nods.
Ant and Dec were nominated in the entertainment programme category for Saturday Night Takeaway, despite Ant McPartlin spending much of the year offscreen after entering rehab following a conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol. The Geordie duo announced their comeback as a double-act in December.
Bros: After the Screaming Stops, the Christmas word-of-mouth hit, is up for three nominations, while Louis Theroux also received a nod for his US-focused series Altered States.
HBO’s biting media dynasty saga Succession is nominated for best international show alongside the second series of The Handmaid’s Tale, German two-parter 54 Hours: The Gladbeck Hostage Crisis, about a hostage crisis gone wrong, and documentary Reporting Trump’s First Year: The Fourth Estate for Showtime.
Netflix fell short of its 2018 nominations, which were led by The Crown and Black Mirror, with only the Black Mirror choose-your-own-adventure episode Bandersnatch up for any awards.
The Virgin Media Must-See Moment of the year nominees, the only award for which the public can vote, are Rosa Parks’ poignant bus scene on Doctor Who, the assassination by detonation of Julia Montague in the Bodyguard, Eve stabbing Villanelle in the finale of psychosexual thriller Killing Eve, Gail’s speech on the suicide of Aidan Connor in Coronation Street, a hedgehog being saved from certain death in Peter Kay’s Car Share, and the Fab Five leading to Tom’s emotional breakthrough in Queer Eye.
• The TV Bafta awards are on Sunday 12 May
