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 in the 1980s 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 and a supporting actor nomination for Callum Scott Howells, who played fan favourite Colin. He commented: “Thank you, Bafta, from the bottom of me heart. I can’t even tell you how much this means to me.”
thank you @BAFTA from the bottom of me heart ❤️ I can’t even tell you how much this means to me https://t.co/0E5IJ9lcis
— Callum Scott Howells (@callumshowells) March 30, 2022
Their 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 the 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.
The 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 turned upside down 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 each received six nominations, the latter including one in the category of female performance in a comedy programme, for Anjana Vasan, who posted on social media to say: “Think I need to go and lie down for a bit.”
Think I need to go and lie down for a bit
— Anjana Vasan (@aj_vasan) March 30, 2022
😭
Thank you @BAFTA https://t.co/g9a10hRkrJ
Netflix’s Sex Education 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.
Of the 42 nominees, 23 are receiving their first Bafta nomination, including comedians Rose Matafeo and Joe Lycett, and Alexander.
In the international category, Jesse Armstrong’s drama about a warring media dynasty, Succession, is competing against French comedy about the talent business Call My Agent! and Netflix’s Korean dystopian hit Squid Game.
Netflix’s French thriller Lupin, HBO crime drama Mare of Easttown – which also sees Kate Winslet up for her first TV Bafta for her performance – and the Underground Railroad, a drama about slavery, are also nominated.
Richard Ayoade, the comedian, presenter and star of The IT Crowd, will host the Virgin Media Bafta TV Awards ceremony for the third consecutive year as it returns to London’s Royal Festival Hall on 8 May.
The Bafta TV Craft Awards will take place on 24 April.
