Entertainment

It’s A Sin leads BAFTA TV Award nominations after making the shortlist in 11 categories

It’s A Sin has swept the BAFTA TV Awards with 11 nominations, including best miniseries, leading actor and leading actress.

True crime black comedy-drama Landscapers, which was co-produced by Sky and starred Olivia Colman and David Thewlis, was close behind with seven nominations.

Set in London from 1981 to 1991, It’s A Sin follows the lives of a group of gay men and their friends who lived during the HIV/AIDs crisis in the UK and was written and created by Queer As Folk and Doctor Who screenwriter Russell T Davies.

It received critical acclaim for its emotional scenes, writing and depiction of AIDS, and stars Years & Years star Olly Alexander.

Highlights from today’s nominations:

  • 11 nominations for It’s a Sin
  • Seven nominations for Landscapers
  • Six nominations for Help, Time and We Are Lady Parts
  • Five nominations for Sex Education
  • Four nominations for A Very British Scandal

The show’s 11 nominations include five in the craft categories and six in the television awards categories, as well as nods for Davies in the writer drama category and Alexander for leading actor for his role as Ritchie Tozer.

Olly Alexander performed It's A Sin with Elton John
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Olly Alexander has been nominated in the leading actor category

Other stars 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.

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Meanwhile, It’s A Sin’s Lydia West is up against Kate Winslet in the leading actress category – who starred in HBO/Sky Atlantic’s Mare Of Easttown, marking The Titanic star’s first TV performance nomination.

Denise Gough and Emily Watson have also been nominated in the leading actress category for ITV’s Too Close, alongside Jodie Comer for Channel 4 drama Help, and Niamh Algar for Channel 4’s Deceit.

The second-most nominated TV show, Landscapers, is not nominated in the performance categories but received five nods in the craft categories and two in the television categories.

Sky Original drama Landscapers, starring Olivia Colman and David Thewlis, tells the story of a seemingly ordinary couple who become the focus of an extraordinary investigation when two dead bodies are discovered in the back garden of a house in Nottingham. Pic: Sky UK/ HBO/ Sister
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Sky Original drama Landscapers stars Olivia Colman and David Thewlis

Inspired by true events, Colman and Thewlis play a mild-mannered married couple whose lives are upturned after dead bodies are discovered in the back garden of a house in Nottingham.

Help, Time and We Are Lady Parts have all received six nominations, while Netflix’s Sex Education has received five nods.

Asa Butterfield as Otis Milburn and Ncuti Gatwa as Eric Effiong in the third season of Sex Education. Pic. Sam Taylor/ Netflix
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Asa Butterfield as Otis Milburn and Ncuti Gatwa as Eric Effiong in the third season of Sex Education. Pic. Sam Taylor/ Netflix

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 received four nominations in the craft categories.

The nominations for the public-voted Virgin Media’s Must-See Moment include An Audience With Adele, when the singer was surprised by a teacher who changed her life, and Netflix’s hit show Squid Game for its harrowing Red Light, Green Light game.

The IT Crowd’s Richard Ayoade is set to 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.