'The Crown' leads nominations for BAFTA Television awards

The final season of Netflix royal drama The Crown led nominations for the BAFTA Television Awards on Wednesday, with a scene from former footballer David Beckham's docuseries also up for a prize. The Crown, which dramatises the political and personal events that shaped the reign of Britain's late Queen Elizabeth, has eight nods at the annual British television industry awards, including four in the acting categories.

Dominic West, who plays then-Prince Charles, and Elizabeth Debicki, who portrays the late Princess Diana, are among the cast members nominated. Demon 79, the final episode of season six of the anthology series Black Mirror, has seven nominations, including in the leading actress category for Anjana Vasan. She plays a shop assistant who has to commit three murders to stop the world ending.

Crime drama Happy Valley has six nominations, including a leading actress nod for its star, Sarah Lancashire. Other nominees for that prize include Helena Bonham Carter for biographical mini-series Nolly and Bella Ramsey for the adaptation of the post-apocalyptic video game The Last of Us.

That series and the media dynasty drama Succession have five nominations each, including in the international category, where they face competition from culinary drama The Bear and road rage mini-series Beef, among other shows. More than 100 programmes are nominated and 17 out of the 44 nominees in the performance categories received their first nod in the BAFTA Television Awards, which take place on May 12.

"I'm delighted to see so many first-time nominees, so much new and emerging talent and so many debut projects recognised today," Sara Putt, chair of BAFTA, said in a statement. "We hope our awards can play a positive role in reinforcing the value of nurturing new talent and ideas, as well as holding a mirror up to stubborn industry inequities," she added, noting female directors were "still significantly outnumbered" by male counterparts in awards submissions.

Nominees for the memorable moment award, which were revealed last week, include a scene from Beckham - a mini-series about the British soccer star - in which David teases his fashion designer wife Victoria to be honest about her "working class" upbringing. Other contenders for the award, the only one voted for by the public, include the announcement of Ncuti Gatwa taking over the lead role in British sci-fi series Doctor Who.

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