Baftas 2023: Derry Girls, Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sisters and Cillian Murphy among nominations

Irish talent prominent across several categories in acting, writing and directing

Eve Hewson, Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Green in Bad Sisters on Apple TV+
Eve Hewson, Sharon Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Green in Bad Sisters on Apple TV+

Bad Sisters – Sharon Horgan’s tale of five siblings who attempt to murder one of their monstrous husbands – has received five nominations in this year’s Bafta awards.

Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls nabbed three nominations including one for Siobhán McSweeney’s beloved portrayal of Sr Michael.

Cillian Murphy is among the names of several recognisable stars getting their first Bafta TV nomination along with Gary Oldman for Slow Horses and Daniel Radcliffe for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Sharon Horgan has also been nominated for her writing on Motherland.

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This Is Going to Hurt and The Responder jointly lead the 2023 TV Bafta nominations after being shortlisted in six categories. Adam Kay’s darkly comic drama, This Is Going to Hurt – which is adapted from his best-selling memoir about his time as a junior doctor – has been recognised in categories including leading actor, for Ben Whishaw’s fictionalised version of Kay, and best writer: drama for Kay.

The Responder, which centred on a troubled police officer, also sees its star Martin Freeman nominated in the leading actor category. The six awards it is shortlisted for also include best drama series.

The English, an epic western following Emily Blunt as a character travelling to the US to avenge her son’s death has also received five nominations

They are joined in that category by Slow Horses, Apple TV+’s Gary Oldman-starring spy drama about a washed-up bunch of MI5 agents and The Crown’s fifth series, whose opinion-dividing recent outing tackled Martin Bashir’s interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.

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The three performers who received more individual awards nominations than any others were all fiction-based emerging talent, and were recognised in the fiction category of that award. Jack Rooke, Somewhere Boy’s creator Pete Jackson and Nicôle Lecky, who created and starred in BBC’s Mood, each received three nominations.

A total of 128 programmes received nominations from a record-breaking number of entries. The leading broadcaster was the BBC, with 81 nominations, followed by Channel 4 with 33, Netflix with 24, ITV with 19, Apple TV+ with 15, Sky with 14 and Disney+ with 8 nominations.

This year’s TV Baftas awards ceremony will take place on May 15th and will be hosted by Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan, broadcasting on BBC One and iPlayer. It will feature a tribute to character actor Bernard Cribbins, whose omission from the Bafta film awards’ in memoriam section caused controversy. It prompted actor Phil Davis to resign his membership of the organisation, calling it an “embarrassing travesty”.

After the incident, Bafta caused further outrage by posting a statement on Twitter claiming that Cribbins was omitted due to limited time and that “he will be considered for inclusion in the next Television awards broadcast”. After the likes of Russell T Davies called this statement “the work of an idiot”, Bafta have since confirmed that they will definitely pay homage to the actor at the 2023 TV awards ceremony. — Guardian