Rugby league will be represented at this year’s BAFTA television awards.
The sport will sit alongside the likes of The Crown and Strictly Come Dancing at one of the country’s most prestigious entertainment award ceremonies later this year, after the BBC’s coverage of the 2020 Challenge Cup final was shortlisted for an award.
Director Ken Burton, who oversaw the coverage of Leeds Rhinos’ victory against Salford Red Devils at Wembley, has been nominated for director: multi-camera award alongside three other programmes.
Burton and rugby league will be up against The Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, ENO’s Drive & Live: La Bohème and Strictly Come Dancing for the award. He has been a long-standing producer of the BBC’s rugby league coverage.
It is not the first time the sport has had a brush with the BAFTAs in recent years. Two years ago, comedian Adam Hills infamously played for Warrington Wolves’ PDRL side in Wakefield just hours before he was due to be in London for the 2019 BAFTA television awards.
Hills, who is a passionate rugby league supporter and a keen PDRL player, has frequently talked up the sport on his show The Last Leg.
