What’s in a name? If it’s Eve, possibly a major award
ONE WAS a duplicitous aspiring actress, the other an MI5 officer on the trail of a psychopathic assassin. They shared only a name and universal acclaim. The stars of the West End hit
All About Eve and the TV drama Killing Eve emerged yesterday as front-runners for two of the industry’s most coveted awards.
Gillian Anderson, the actress who made her name in the 1990s TV hit, The X-Files, was nominated for a best actress Olivier Award for her central performance in the stage production of the 1950 movie which starred Bette Davis.
Ms Anderson plays Margo Channing, a veteran of the theatre who is taken for a ride by the title character Eve Harrington, a conniving ingenue who visits her backstage.
The Chicago-born actress, who was brought up in London and returned to live there in 2002, has been nominated twice before for an Olivier. She will compete this year with Dame Eileen Atkins, Patsy Ferran, Sophie Okonedo and Katherine Parkinson.
Sir Ian McKellen received his 11th Olivier nomination, this time for his King Lear, at the Duke of York’s Theatre. David Suchet, formerly TV’s Poirot, is also on the best actor shortlist, for his role in Arthur Miller’s The Price at the Wyndham’s Theatre.
Meanwhile, in the Royal Television Society Awards, the BBC’s Killing Eve has been nominated for best drama series, and both its leading ladies, Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, as best actress. The drama, produced for BBC America, was based on Luke Jennings’ novella series,
Codename Villanelle, and was screened last year to popular and critical acclaim.
Bodyguard and Strictly Come Dancing, perhaps the year’s most talked-about programmes, do not appear on the RTS shortlist. The BBC is behind half the nominations for programme awards, with Blue Planet II, Peaky Blinders and the Jeremy Thorpe
drama, A Very English Scandal, among those recognised.
The coverage of last spring’s Royal wedding is among the other programmes nominated, and ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent is on the entertainment shortlist.
The awards will be presented in London in two weeks’ time, while the Olivier envelopes will be opened at the Royal Albert Hall on April 7.