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Reuters
Reuters
Entertainment
Sarah Mills

'Chernobyl' tops TV award list as BAFTA lines up live show

FILE PHOTO: HBO Golden Globe After Party - Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 5, 2020 - Stellan Skarsgard and Jared Harris. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts will celebrate the best of television broadcast in the United Kingdom during 2019 in a live show at the end of July - though with stars and studio audience absent.

'Chernobyl', HBO's critically acclaimed dramatisation of events surrounding the world's worst nuclear accident, tops the roll-call of nominations announced on Thursday, with 14.

FILE PHOTO: British actor-director Richard Ayoade poses for a portrait in West Hollywood, California May 6, 2014. Ayoade, 36, is best known for playing nerd extraordinaire Maurice Moss on British TV comedy series "The IT Crowd," but the bespectacled actor is carving out a career behind the camera. For his second directorial feature, Ayoade adapted Fyodor Dostoyevsky's classic 1846 novella "The Double" about a man who meets his doppelganger and descends into a psychological crisis. Picture taken May 6, 2014. To match story FILM-THEDOUBLE/ REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn

"We've had over 500 entries this year... (so) it was really fiercely contested," BAFTA chair Krishnendu Majumdar told Reuters TV.

Nominations fall into two categories, television and television craft, with winners of the former to be announced at the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards ceremony on July 31.

As things stand with the coronavirus pandemic, nominees are expected to film their speeches rather than appear in person and there are no plans for a big audience. There will however be a live element to the BBC show, which actor and filmmaker Richard Ayoade will present.

FILE PHOTO: 26th Screen Actors Guild Awards – Photo Room – Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 19, 2020 – Phoebe Waller-Bridge poses backstage with her Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for Fleabag. REUTERS/Monica Almeida

"All those details are being worked out at the moment because the social distancing rules are changing. What we can say at the moment is that there will be a show in a studio and we're working out the participants," Majumdar said.

'Chernobyl' nominations include leading actor for Jared Harris, supporting actor for Stellan Skarsgard, and mini-series.

'The Crown', the warts-and-all account of the reign of Queen Elizabeth that aired its third season last year, has seven nominations, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's black comedy 'Fleabag' and Anglo-Japanese thriller 'Giri/Haji' on six each.

The British Academy Television Craft Awards will be announced online on July 17.

(Writing by John Stonestreet; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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