Channel 4 drama It’s A Sin leads Bafta TV awards nominations

Channel 4 series It’s A Sin leads the nominations at the Bafta television awards where it is in the running for 11 gongs.

The series, written and created by Queer As Folk and Doctor Who screenwriter Russell T Davies, tracked a group of gay men and their friends as they navigated the UK’s HIV/Aids crisis throughout the 80s and early 90s.

The show’s 11 nominations, comprising five in the craft categories and six in the television awards categories, include nods for Davies in the writer drama category, as well as a leading actor nomination for singer Olly Alexander for his role as Ritchie Tozer.

His co-star Lydia West has been nominated in the leading actress category, alongside Kate Winslet, who starred in HBO/Sky Atlantic’s Mare Of Easttown, and marking The Titanic star’s first TV performance nomination, although she has previously been nominated for and won film Baftas, and is a previous Britannia Award winner.

Also nominated in the leading actress category are Denise Gough and Emily Watson for ITV’s Too Close, alongside Jodie Comer for Channel 4 drama Help, and Niamh Algar for Channel 4’s Deceit.

Stars going up against Years & Years singer Alexander in the leading actor category include David Thewlis for Landscapers, Hugh Quarshie for ITV’s Stephen, Samuel Adewunmi for BBC’s You Don’t Know Me, Sean Bean for Time and Stephen Graham for Channel 4’s Help.

Graham is a double nominee, also recognised for BBC’s prison drama Time in the supporting actor category, which is dominated by the cast of It’s A Sin, who have scored three out of the six possible nominations.

Stars Callum Scott Howells, David Carlyle and Omari Douglas have all been nominated, with Nonso Anozie, star of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth also nominated alongside Matthew Macfadyen for his role as Tom Wambsgans in HBO/Sky Atlantic’s Succession.

Sky drama Landscapers, which also starred Olivia Colman, who is not nominated in the performance categories, is the second-most nominated TV show, with seven in total, five in the craft categories and two in the television categories.

Inspired by real events, the series starred Colman and Thewlis as a mild-mannered married couple whose lives are upturned after dead bodies are discovered in the back garden of a house in Nottingham.

Landscapers’ nominations include for director fiction, original music, leading actor and mini-series categories.

Help, Time and We Are Lady Parts have all received six nominations, Netflix’s Sex Education has received five nominations and A Very British Scandal, starring Claire Foy and Paul Bettany as the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the drama series about the couple’s high-profile split in the 1960s, has four nominations in the craft categories.

The supporting actress category nominations include Cathy Tyson for Channel 4’s Help, Celine Buckens for BBC’s Showtrial, Emily Mortimer for BBC’s The Pursuit Of Love, Jessica Plummer for BBC One’s The Girl Before, Leah Harvey for Apple TV+’s Foundation and Tahirah Sharif for ITV’s The Tower.

EastEnders and Hollyoaks are absent from the soap and continuing drama category, where the four nominations have gone to ITV stalwarts Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as BBC’s Casualty and Holby City.

Medical drama Holby City ended on Tuesday night after 23 years on screen with an emotional final episode which celebrated the spirit of the NHS.

Strictly Come Dancing is nominated in the entertainment programme category, but will have to do battle against Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, which returned with a live studio audience in February after last year’s show had a virtual gallery due to Covid protocols.

Other programmes in the category include ITV’s An Audience With Adele and last year’s winner of the category, Sky Arts’ Life & Rhymes, has been nominated again.

Comedian Sean Lock, who died from cancer last year, has received a posthumous nomination for Channel 4’s 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, in the entertainment performance category.

The category also features Alison Hammond, nominated for BBC’s I Can See Your Voice, marking her first Bafta TV nod in a performance category, while Dave’s Big Zuu, Graham Norton, nominated for The Graham Norton Show on BBC, as well as Joe Lycett for Channel 4’s Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back and Michael McIntyre, nominated for BBC’s Michael McIntyre’s The Wheel, are also in the running.

It’s a Sin’s Scott Howells also features in the Virgin Media must see moment category for his portrayal of Colin’s devastating Aids diagnosis.

The must see moment, which is the only award voted for by the public, celebrates the diversity of British TV and the moments that got the nation talking, tweeting and laughing in 2021.

Adele’s onscreen reunion with the teacher that changed her life and Rose Ayling-Ellis’s silent dance on Strictly Come Dancing are both in the running for the award, along with I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! for the moment presenting duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly had a dig at alleged lockdown-busting parties held in Downing Street.

The gruesome red light, green light game featured in Netflix’s hit South Korean series Squid Game and Bimini Bon Boulash’s verse in the Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK performance of UK Hun? complete the list of nominees.

Comedian, presenter and star of The IT Crowd Richard Ayoade will host the Virgin Media Bafta TV Awards ceremony for the third consecutive year as it returns to London’s Royal Festival Hall on May 8.

The Bafta TV Craft Awards will take place on April 24.