The best of British: celebrating 2022's TV BAFTA nominees

Leading the way with the most BAFTA nominations is the immensely moving yet wild and joyous It's a Sin that became the most talked-about show of 2021. Every superlative has been used to describe Russell T Davies’s five-part tale of love and loss through the 1980s, and the series – unsurprisingly – became All 4’s most binge-watched series to date. The then-largely unknown cast have been thrust to stardom, with Olly Alexander and Lydia West both getting leading actor nods in the male and female categories respectively, whilst Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells and David Carlyle are all nominated for supporting actor. Frances Taylor

This joyously weird true-crime story – nominated for mini-series and leading actor (David Thewlis) – casts a distinctive spell. Director Will Sharpe has a way of toying with us, playing visual tricks that are unsettling but also beautiful. Police have arrested Susan (Olivia Colman) and Chris (Thewlis) over the murder of her parents, years earlier. But as the two suspects are questioned, we see haunting theatrical tableaux of key moments they describe, with dream-like tinted lighting. Imagine applying David Lynch surrealism to an English suburban murder case and you’ll be somewhere close. You won’t see anything else quite like it. David Butcher

The Murder of Stephen Lawrence won the BAFTA in 2000 for Best Single Drama. That success is looking to be repeated with Stephen, the three-part sequel starring a very believable Steve Coogan as policeman with integrity DCI Clive Driscoll, and Hugh Quarshie and Sharlene Whyte as Neville and Doreen Lawrence, who perfectly combine a sense of weariness, anger, determination, pain and sadness, and no matter how often you’ve heard the details of the case, it’s still sickening. As well as being nominated for mini-series, Quarshie also receives a nod for leading actor. Jane Rackham

From the start of Jimmy McGovern’s tough drama, we’re drawn into a hard, alien world alongside hesitant Mark (Sean Bean), entering prison for the first time in his 50s. Asked what he is in for, he replies that he killed a man. But he doesn’t look capable of it, and his mild, decent demeanour (he was a schoolteacher) hardly equips him for prison life. McGovern charts the outline of a system that clamps its jaws on everyone involved, and although Time is not an upbeat story, it’s painfully well told. As well as a nod in the mini-series category, Bean and co-star Stephen Graham are also respectively nominated for leading and supporting actor. David Butcher

It’s no surprise that In My Skin is nominated in the drama category at this year’s BAFTAs after the first series of the Welsh coming-of-age drama, which aired in 2018, cleaned up at the BAFTA Cymru ceremonies. Series 2 returns to the life of Bethan (Gabrielle Creevy), a lippy Cardiff schoolgirl with a troubled home-life, who is her same old self – causing mayhem in the classroom and boozing with mates after school. Her mother may be out of the psychiatric ward, but family life is still tumultuous. Kelly-Anne Taylor

A nuclear submarine is the setting for claustrophobic six-parter Vigil from the makers of Line of Duty, which is up for a drama series BAFTA. DCI Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) leaves terra firma behind and is winched onto a Royal Navy sub following a suspicious death on board the boat. But as Amy soon discovers, life on the male-dominated HMS Vigil is lived according to a code, so the crew don’t exactly welcome her prying into their affairs. In fact, senior officer Prentice (played with a supercilious sneer by Adam James) is downright hostile. Yet Amy won’t be deterred. David Brown

Four series in (filming is currently under way on a fifth) and Chris Lang’s slow-burning drama Unforgotten has, finally, received a BAFTA nod for best drama series. Returning to work after being denied early retirement, DCI Cassie Stewart (Nicola Walker) agrees to a final three-month stint in the job. The case she comes back to lead is that of a headless, handless body in a breaker’s yard, and when she and DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) finally get to the bottom of the mystery, it’s a stark surprise. Frances Taylor

Martin Clunes reprised his wonderfully understated performance as DCI Colin Sutton, the Metropolitan Police detective on whose memoirs the first series of Manhunt was based, in last year’s second series. In south-east London, Sutton is called in to review Operation Minstead. A serial offender (nicknamed the Night Stalker) is burgling and raping older women in a slew of crimes dating back to 1992. Clunes is superb, like a pernickety maths teacher dropping by to check other officers’ sums. It is all as resolutely unflashy as crime drama gets, but so deftly directed that it’s instantly gripping. David Butcher

Grime artist and self-taught cook Big Zuu is nominated for best entertainment performance, while the series itself – a deliciously joyful cookery show in which Zuu treats touring comedians to tasty meals – is nominated in the features category. Hannah Watkin

Nominated for her role as Alma, a 30-year-old aspiring actress looking to find more meaning and fun in her life, this sitcom’s star and creator Sophie Willan is also nominated for writing in the scripted comedy category. Hannah Watkin

Telling the moving story of legendary singer Freddie Mercury’s battle with AIDS and the tribute concert Queen organised in his honour, this BBC Two documentary is nominated in the specialist factual category. Hannah Watkin

Creator, co-writer and star of comedy series Starstruck, Rose Matafeo is up for best female performance for her role as Jessie, a New Zealand-born Londoner whose life is turned upside down after a drunken one-night-stand with a film star (Nikesh Patel). Hannah Watkin

The BBC’s gripping feature-length documentary exploring what happened on the day US citizens stormed the Capitol Building in January 2021 through first-hand accounts and never-before-seen footage is nominated for best current affairs programme. Hannah Watkin

Unafraid of exploring the highs and lows of young adulthood, Sex Education’s stars Aimee Lou Wood and Ncuti Gatwa are nominated for best female and best male performance in a comedy programme for their roles as the lovable Aimee and the effervescent Eric. Hannah Watkin

Comedy legends Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s attempts at fishing and living a heart-healthy lifestyle have soothed the nation across four series, and this year Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing is nominated in the features category. Hannah Watkin

Hilarious documentary-style comedy Stath Lets Flats follows the life of hapless estate agent Stath (show creator Jamie Demetriou). Demetriou is nominated twice, once for best male performance in a comedy, and once (with others) for best scripted comedy. Hannah Watkin