Keeley Hawes, Sarah Lancashire and Sheridan Smith compete at Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
James Nesbitt, Toby Jones and David Threlfall are all nominated for the best actor award
Three of TV’s most popular female stars – Sheridan Smith, Keeley Hawes and Sarah Lancashire – will compete for the best actress prize at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards next month.
Smith is nominated for her performance as the young Cilla Black in ITV drama Cilla and for The Widower. Hawes is recognised for BBC2's Line of Duty and Lancashire for her roles in the BBC dramas Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax.
Cilla, Happy Valley and Line of Duty have also been shortlisted for best drama series, alongside The Honourable Woman, at the awards voted on by journalists and writers specialising in TV.
In the best actor category, David Threlfall is shortlisted for Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This, alongside James Nesbitt for The Missing and Babylon and Toby Jones for the drama Marvellous and the Mackenzie Crook comedy Detectorists.
Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This and Marvellous have been shortlisted for best single drama, alongside BBC dramas A Poet In New York and Murdered By My Boyfriend.
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The BBC has bagged all five nominees for best comedy/entertainment prize: Harry & Paul’s Story of the Twos, Rev, The Trip to Italy, W1A and Detectorists.
The Great British Bake Off will compete for the best factual entertainment award against three Channel 4 series, Gogglebox, Speed with Guy Martin and The Undateables.
The Multichannel Award will be contested by Discovery Channel’s Ebola Exposed and three shows from Dave – Crackanory (which starred the late Rik Mayall), Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish.
The annual BPG award for innovation shortlist comprises BBC iPlayer’s Original Drama and Comedy Shorts, Ripper Street, which was resurrected by Amazon Instant Video after the BBC cancelled it, and Vice News for its UK-commissioned films, including The Islamic State.
The Breakthrough Award – for people or organisations who attained a new level of success in 2014 – will be contested by Harry and Jack Williams, the writers of The Missing, and two actors, James Norton (Happy Valley and Grantchester) and Maddy Hill (EastEnders).
The writer’s award will be fought out between Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman), Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty), Mackenzie Crook (Detectorists) and Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax).
The awards lunch will be held at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Friday 13th March.
The full list of BPG TV nominations 2015 is:
Best Single Drama
A Poet in New York (BBC Two)
Marvellous (BBC Two)
Murdered By My Boyfriend (BBC Three)
Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This (ITV)
Best Drama Series
Cilla (ITV)
Happy Valley (BBC One)
Line of Duty (BBC Two)
The Honourable Woman (BBC Two)
Best Single Documentary
Baby P: The Untold Story (BBC One)
Dave Allen: God’s Own Comedian (BBC Two)
Panorama: The Fake Sheikh Exposed (BBC One)
Best Documentary Series
24 Hours in Police Custody (C4)
Benefits Street (C4)
Broadmoor (ITV)
Grayson Perry: Who Are You? (C4)
Best Comedy/ Entertainment
Detectorists (BBC Four)
Harry And Paul’s Story Of The Twos (BBC Two)
Rev (BBC Two)
The Trip to Italy (BBC Two)
W1A (BBC Two)
Best Multichannel Programme
Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (Dave)
Crackanory (Dave)
Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish (Dave)
Ebola Exposed (Discovery Channel)
Best Factual Entertainment
Gogglebox (C4)
The Great British Bake Off (BBC One)
Speed with Guy Martin (C4)
The Undateables (C4)
Best Actor
David Threlfall (Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This)
James Nesbitt (The Missing/Babylon)
Toby Jones (Marvellous/Detectorists)
Best Actress
Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty)
Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley/Last Tango)
Sheridan Smith (Cilla/The Widower)
Best Writer
Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman)
Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty)
Mackenzie Crook (Detectorists)
Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley/Last Tango in Halifax)
Innovation in Broadcasting – Online First Award
Original Drama & Comedy Shorts for BBC iPlayer
Ripper Street for Amazon Instant Video (Tiger Aspect/Lookout Point TV)
Vice News (The Islamic State & other UK commissions)
Breakthrough Award
Harry and Jack Williams, writers, The Missing (BBC One)
James Norton (Happy Valley/Grantchester)
Maddy Hill (EastEnders)
