Ben Whishaw in nominated for his performance in the screen adaptation of This Is Going To Hurt
By Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
Ben Whishaw’s This Is Going To Hurt and Martin Freeman’s The Responder lead the field at his year’s Bafta TV Awards, with six nominations each.
Whishaw is up for best actor for playing a doctor in the adaptation of Adam Kay’s best-selling memoir.
He will go up against Freeman, who is shortlisted for playing a police officer in his Liverpool-set drama.
Sarah Lancashire, Kate Winslet, Cillian Murphy and Daniel Radcliffe are among the other acting nominees.
The other leading shows include Bad Sisters, The Crown, The English and Slow Horses, which have five nominations each.
There are four nominations apiece for Daisy May Cooper’s comedy-thriller Am I Being Unreasonable?, as well as three boy-based dramas – Top Boy, Somewhere Boy and Big Boys.
Image source, HBO
Sarah Lancashire is recognised for her portrayal of US TV chef Julia Child
In the acting categories, Lancashire is nominated for her portrayal of US TV chef Julia Child in the HBO drama Julia.
Lancashire also recently starred in Happy Valley, but the latest series of that show was broadcast too recently to be eligible at this year’s Baftas.
Image source, Netflix
Imelda Staunton is nominated for her portrayal of the late Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s The Crown
She is up against Winslet (I Am Ruth), Imelda Staunton (The Crown), Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie Too), Maxine Peake (Anne) and Vicky McClure (Without Sin).
In the leading actor category, Freeman and Whishaw face competition from Murphy (Peaky Blinders), Gary Oldman (Slow Horses), Taron Edgerton (Black Bird) and Chaske Spencer (The English).
Martin Freeman is recognised for his performance as a front-line police officer in The Responder
Tony Schumacher, the former police officer who wrote The Responder, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “amazing” to be nominated.
“I grew up in one of the worst areas in the country in terms of deprivation,” he said. “I got a U in my O-level English. I’d always wanted to be a writer but I thought, I haven’t got an O-level so I can’t be a writer, and it took me 40 years to realise that I could.”
Elsewhere, the live event category sees nominations for both the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last June and her state funeral in September.
The first series of the hit BBC reality show The Traitors has scored nominations for best reality show, as well as best entertainment performance for host Claudia Winkleman.
The Traitors is up for best reality series while host Claudia Winkleman is nominated for entertainment performance
In the scripted comedy category, Am I Being Unreasonable? faces competition from the final series of Derry Girls as well as Big Boys and Ghosts.
Radcliffe is nominated for best male comedy performance for his portrayal of Weird Al Yankovic in the biopic of the US musical comedian.
Other nominees in that category include Lenny Rush (Am I Being Unreasonable?) and Stephen Merchant (The Outlaws).
The best female comedy performance shortlist sees nods for Cooper (Am I Being Unreasonable?), Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth) and Lucy Beaumont (Meet The Richardsons).
Read more about the nominated shows
Some of the biggest TV hits of the year can be found in the international category, with nominations for Wednesday, The White Lotus, The Bear and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Joe Lycett vs Beckham: Got Your Back At Xmas – which saw the comedian criticise the former footballer for his links with Qatar – is nominated in the features category.
There are some notable omissions in this year’s list. Lesley Manville and David Morrissey, the two stars of Sherwood, one of the most acclaimed dramas of the year, missed out in the lead acting categories.
Elsewhere, Netflix hit Heartstopper, about a teenage boy who falls in love with his classmate, and The Tourist, starring Jamie Dornan as a man who wakes up with amnesia following a car crash, only have one craft nomination each.
The winners in the main categories will be announced at a ceremony on 14 May, with the Bafta Craft Awards handed out on 23 April.
