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 bestselling 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.
Five nominations each are given to Bad Sisters – Sharon Horgan’s tale of five siblings who attempt to murder one of their monstrous husbands – and The English, an epic western following Emily Blunt as a character travelling to the US to avenge her son’s death.
They are joined 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.
In the comedy category, the standout nominees were Big Boys – Jack Rooke’s hugely affecting tale of male friendship – and Daisy May Cooper’s comedy-thriller Am I Being Unreasonable?.
Both programmes received four award nominations each, and were joined by melancholy drama Somewhere Boy and London crime series Top Boy, which were both also recognised in four categories, with the latter seeing rising stars Jasmine Jobson and Saffron Hocking nominated for best supporting actress.
Among the names getting their first Bafta TV nomination are several recognizable stars, including Gary Oldman for Slow Horses, Cillian Murphy for Peaky Blinders and Daniel Radcliffe for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. 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 14 May 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.
