Killing Eve leads the way with 14 Bafta nods
● Chairwoman praises television drama for its ‘chutzpah’
Drama Killing Eve dominates this year’s Bafta TV nominations.
Phoebe Waller-bridge’s drama, starring Jodie Comer as a psychopathic killer and Sandra Oh as an MI5 operative, has bagged 14 nominations for the TV awards.
Fellow BBC drama A Very English Scandal, about politician Jeremy Thorpe’s downfall, is also high in the nominations list with 12.
Ant and Dec have been nominated for best entertainment performance for Saturday Night Takeaway, despite Ant stepping down from presenting the show following his arrest for drink-driving.
The ITV show is also in the running for best entertainment programme, alongside Britain’s Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing and Michael Mcintyre’s Big Show, but X Factor has been snubbed.
0 Jodie Comer as the assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve which has been nominated for 14 awards
BBC thriller Bodyguard has five nominations and is up for drama series, alongside Killing Eve, Save Me and Informer.
But Bodyguard star Richard Madden is not on the list for leading actor, though his
co-star Keeley Hawes is up for best actress.
Benedict Cumberbatch is in the running for best actor for hisrolein Patrickmelrose,the Sky Atlantic drama which has six nominations. Hugh Grant
is nominated for A Very English Scandal, and Chance Perdomo (Killed By My Debt) and Lucian Msamati (Kiri) complete the list.
The best actress nominees are Killing Eve stars Oh and Comer, Hawes for Bodyguard and Ruth Wilson for Mrs Wilson.
Music documentary Bros: After The Screaming Stops is in the running for three gongs.
The Great British Bake Off, on Channel 4, is in the features category.
Bafta chairwoman Dame Pippa Harris praised Killing Eve for its “chutzpah” and the fact that it is “in memory, the highest number [of nominations] for a single show”.
She said: “I think the two central performances, you can’t get away from the fact that Jodie and Sandra just burst on to people’s screens and we all just fell in love with them.
“But also the chutzpah of the show, the way it was directed, the way it was written, the blend of drama and highoctane thriller, with comedy, very black comedy of course, but with comedy. I think people watched it because they didn’t know what was going to happen next, they were going with all the twists and turns.”
Asked if she thought audiences found it refreshing to see a female protagonist being “bad”, she said: “I think that is still quite a rare thing to see on screen.”
The Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards take place in London on 12 May.