IRISH actors Sharon Horgan, Siobhán McSweeney and Cillian Murphy lead the Irish contingent vying for gongs in the 2023 BAFTA Television Awards.
The award categories, announced yesterday, cover the best and brightest offerings viewed on British television in 2022.
And there are plenty of Irish artists and shows among them.
Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sisters, which she writes and stars within, is nominated five times, including for the coveted Best Drama Series award.
The Apple TV series faces stiff competition from The Responder, Sherwood and Somewhere Boy for that title.
The black comedy, set in Dublin, has seen director Dearbhla Walsh nominated for Best Director: Fiction, and is also nominated for the Best Titles and Graphic Identity award, and the Best Scripted Casting award.
Sarah Greene, Sharon Horgan and Eve Hewson in “Bad Sisters,” premiering globally August 19, 2022 on Apple TV+.Horgan’s co-star in the series, Anne-Marie Duff, who was born in Southall, west London to parents from Donegal, is nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work on the show.
The former Shameless star goes up against Adelayo Adedayo for the Responder, Fiona Shaw, for Andor, Jasmine Jobson for Top Boy, Lesley Manville for Sherwood and Saffron Hocking for Top Boy.
Horgan is also nominated for the Best Writer: Comedy award, for her work on Motherland.
Lisa McGee’s Channel 4 favourite Derry Girls is also well represented among the 2023 BAFTA TV nominations, findings itself in the Best Scripted Comedy category.
From left, Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee with stars Nicola Coughlan, Siobhan McSweeney, Dylan Llewellyn, Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Louisa Harland (Image: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)McGee herself is up against Horgan for the Best Writer: Comedy award for her Derry Girls series, while star of the show Siobhán McSweeney, who hails from Cork, is nominated for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme.
Elsewhere fellow Cork native Graham Norton is up for the Best Comedy Entertainment Programme for his long-standing BBC One hit The Graham Norton Show.
And yet another Cork man, Cillian Murphy gets his first ever BAFTA TV nomination this year, as he finds himself in the Best Leading Actor category for his role as Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
But it is drama series This Is Going to Hurt and The Responder that jointly lead the 2023 TV Bafta nominations – having both been shortlisted in six categories.
This year’s TV Baftas awards ceremony will take place on May14.
It will be hosted by comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan and broadcasted on BBC One and iPlayer.
