TV Awards Nominations Announced

STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 07:00 HRS MONDAY 10 MAY 2010

Nomination Highlights

• John Hurt nominated for Leading Actor in reprisal of the role which won him first BAFTA 34 years ago
• Julie Walters clocks up her 13th and 14th BAFTA nominations
• Two nominations each for Julie Walters, David Mitchell, Harry Hill and first-time nominees Sophie Okonedo and Miranda Hart
• Coronation Street returns after two years to the Continuing Drama category alongside The Bill nominated in its final year
• First time nominee Michael McIntyre takes on Ant & Dec, Stephen Fry and Harry Hill in Entertainment Performance
• Three new performance categories added

Film and TV actress Julie Walters receives two BAFTA nominations in this year’s Leading Actress category, for her performances in Mo and A Short Stay in Switzerland. She is up against Helena Bonham Carter, who receives her first Television nomination, for Enid and first-time BAFTA nominee Sophie Okonedo for Mrs Mandela.

The second of Sophie Okonedo’s two nominations is in the new Supporting Actress category for Criminal Justice. She is joined there by Imelda Staunton, who is nominated for Cranford, and firsttime BAFTA nominees Rebecca Hall (for Red Riding 1974) and Lauren Socha (for The Unloved).

In the Leading Actor category John Hurt is nominated for his performance as Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York, 34 years after he won for playing Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant. Hurt will go head to head with Kenneth Branagh who is nominated for Wallander, Brendan Gleeson for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Into the Storm, and first-time nominee David Oyelowo for his performance in Small Island.

The Graham Norton Show receives its first nomination in the Entertainment Programme category alongside Britain’s Got Talent, Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe and Harry Hill’s TV Burp.

Harry Hill will be hoping to take home the Entertainment Performance BAFTA for his TV Burp for the third year in a row. Receiving their sixth performance nominations Stephen Fry (QI) and Ant & Dec (I’m a Celebrity… Get me Out of Here!) and first-time nominee Michael McIntyre (for his Comedy Roadshow) will be hoping to stop him.

For the first time this year, comedy performance nominations are split into male and female performances. Miranda Hart is nominated for the eponymous Miranda, which also features in the Sitcom category. Joanna Scanlan and Jo Brand are both nominated for Getting On. Rebecca Front receives a nomination for her performance as MP Nicola Murray in The Thick of It, which is also nominated for Sitcom.

Nicola Murray’s nemesis, Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi is nominated in the Male Performance in a Comedy Programme category. Taking him on are first-time nominees Simon Bird for The Inbetweeners, which is also nominated for Sitcom, and Hugh Dennis for Outnumbered Christmas Special as well as last year’s winner, David Mitchell for Peep Show which is also nominated for Sitcom.

David Mitchell receives his second nomination in the Comedy Programme category alongside his long-time comedy partner for That Mitchell and Webb Look. Also nominated are The Armstrong and Miller Show and first-time nominees The Kevin Bishop Show and Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle.

The nominees in the new Supporting Actor category are Benedict Cumberbatch for Small Island, Tom Hollander for Gracie, Gary Lewis for Mo and Matthew Macfadyen for Criminal Justice.

Coronation Street returns to the Continuing Drama category alongside Casualty, EastEnders and last year’s winner The Bill which is currently in its final series.

The prestigious Single Drama category is contested by Mo, A Short Stay in Switzerland (both starring Julie Walters), Samantha Morton’s directorial debut The Unloved and Five Minutes of Heaven, starring James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson.

Drama Series sees two new series with a supernatural bent take on two returning series with their feet firmly planted in reality. The nominees are Being Human, about three twenty-somethings who also happen to be a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost; Misfits, about five outsiders on community service who get struck by a flash storm and lumbered with special powers; two-time BAFTA winner The Street which follows the individual stories of the residents of an ordinary Manchester street; and the saga of Harry Pearce’s team of Spooks, which won the 2002 Drama Series award.

The nominees for Drama Serial are Occupation, which follows three soldiers over four years as they each choose to return to Iraq; Unforgiven, the story of a woman newly released from prison after serving 15 years for killing two policemen; Small Island, based on Andrea Levy’s novel about immigration and prejudice during World War II; and Red Riding, the adaptation of David Peace’s quartet of novels set in Yorkshire in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

Last year’s winner Mad Men returns to take on animated comedy series Family Guy, Nurse Jackie and FX’s True Blood in the International category.

There are two nominations each for the BBC and ITV in the Sport category, with the BBC’s F1 – The Brazilian Grand Prix and World Athletics Championship up against ITV’s Chelsea vs Everton FA Cup Final and Liverpool vs Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League Live. It is the first time that coverage of athletics has been nominated in this category.

Challenges abound in the Features category, where Gareth Malone attempts to turn a sprawling housing estate into a centre of choral excellence in The Choir: Unsung Town; James May celebrates classic toys on a grand scale in James May’s Toy Story; young chefs compete for the title of Masterchef: The Professionals; and Heston Blumenthal creates fantastic historical and fictional food in Heston’s Feasts.

Nominees in the Specialist Factual category cover art, science and nature this year, with nominations for The Art of Russia, Chemistry: A Volatile History, Inside Nature’s Giants and Yellowstone.

New hit series One Born Every Minute is up against Blood, Sweat and Takeaways, The Family and Who Do You Think You Are? in the Factual Series category.

Reporting of the Haiti earthquake dominates the News Coverage category, with ITV News at Ten, Channel 4 News and the BBC News Channel all nominated for their coverage with Sky News nominated for Pakistan: Terror’s Frontline.

Channel 4’s long running Dispatches series receives two nominations in the Current Affairs category, for Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines and Terror in Mumbai. Gypsy Child Thieves, part of BBC 2’s This World strand is also nominated, as is BBC 2’s Generation Jihad.

Four sensitive and moving films compete in the Single Documentary category: Katie: My Beautiful Face, about a young woman rebuilding her life after a vicious acid attack left her scarred; Wounded, a two-part film following the journey to rehabilitation of two injured soldiers; Tsunami: Caught on Camera uses the amateur footage of those who were actually there to tell the story of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami; and Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles sees him examine the inflammatory issue of rehabilitation for convicted offenders.

The New Media category rewards excellence and innovation in offering users a multi-platform TV experience. The nominees are Sky Arts’ Antony Gormley’s One and Other, Channel 4’s Life Begins (One Born Every Minute), ITV1’s Primeval Evolved and BBC Two’s Virtual Revolution.

The nominations for the publicly-voted YouTube Audience Award will be announced on Monday 17 May.

TV Awards Nomination Press Release 2010 (112 KB)
TV Awards Nomination List 2010 (75 KB)

Notes to editors

Hosted by Graham Norton and broadcast on BBC One the Awards will be held at London’s Palladium on Sunday 6 June 2010.

For further information on the breakdown of nominations by channel and for this year’s nominees’ previous nominations please refer to accompanying documents.

About BAFTA:

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public.

For further information:

Danielle Robinson
Freud Communications
Tel: 020 3003 6316
Email: [email protected]