Bafta says all-white actress shortlist is a victory for 'mature' women
Bafta says best actress shortlist represents a victory for ‘mature’ women despite nominees including Vicky McClure being as young as 39 as it faces backlash over its all white shortlist
- Read more: This Is Going To Hurt and The Responder lead the Bafta shortlist
The Bafta TV awards has defended its all-white shortlist for best actress this year by declaring it a ‘triumph’ for mature women – despite the nominees being as young as 39.
It comes as the awards are facing backlash yet again for a lack of diversity among the nominations, including in the best actor shortlist, which features just one non-white person.
It follows the Bafta Film Awards last month where all the winners were white, despite people of colour accounting for almost 40 per cent of nominees – leading ‘Baftas so white’ to start trending on Twitter.
But Bafta chief executive Jane Millichip defended the leading actress shortlist for the TV awards this year, saying: ‘The most remarkable thing is the age of those actors and the maturity of the roles that were written for them.’
Her comments have been blasted on social media, with Twitter users declaring: ‘That is not how diversity works’. Another added: ‘Since when do old white ladies count as diversity?’
Among the nominees are Vicky McClure (pictured), aged 39, who plays a mother whose daughter was murdered in Without Sin
Billie Piper (pictured), aged a mere 40, is also battling for the prize for her portrayal of a failed actress in I Hate Suzie Too
READ MORE: When are the BAFTA TV Awards? Here is everything you need to know about the star-studded 2023 ceremony
Others questioned whether the actresses could really be described as ‘mature’ given some of their ages.
Among the nominees are Vicky McClure, aged 39, who plays a mother whose daughter was murdered in Without Sin.
Billie Piper, aged a mere 40, is also battling for the prize for her portrayal of a failed actress in I Hate Suzie Too.
Rounding out the list are Kate Winslet, 47, Maxine Peake, 48, Sarah Lancashire, 58 and Imelda Staunton, 67.
Winslet is up for her role in I Am Ruth, in which she plays a mother to a troubled teen who has become consumed by social media.
Peake also played a mother to earn her nomination, portraying bereaved Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams in Anne.
Staunton is nominated for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown while Lancashire is up for Julia, a biopic of American chef Julia Child.
MailOnline has contacted Bafta for comment.
It comes after the awards were criticised in 2021 for not nominating more mature women. Billie Piper had been the oldest on the shortlist at 38.
Kate Winslet, 47, (pictured) is up for her role in I Am Ruth, in which she plays a mother to a troubled teen who has become consumed by social media
Role: Maxine Peake, 48, pictured in character as Anne Williams, a bereaved Hillsborough campaigner
Speaking on the awards’ perceived diversity issue, Sara Putt, deputy chairman of Bafta, said: ‘Every year after the awards we take all of the stats back, we look at them, we analyse them, we discuss what we need to do and are we fit for purpose.
‘It’s an ongoing conversation and we need to keep diversity in all its forms at the front of our minds.
‘We are a barometer of the industry. We reflect what’s out there, what’s being made, and the performances there have been during that year.’
American Chaske Spencer is the only non-white nominee in the leading actor category for his role in The English.
He will face off against Ben Whishaw for This Is Going To Hurt, Cillian Murphy for Peaky Blinders, Gary Oldman for Slow Horses, Martin Freeman for The Responder and Taron Egerton for Black Bird.
BBC have received the most nominations out of all the broadcasters with 47 nods in total, Channel 4 received 21 and ITV scored 15.
Sarah Lancashire, 58, looked unrecognisable as she donned a curly brunette wig to embody the late cook Julia Child
Imelda Staunton, 67, is nominated for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown
The Crown received five nominations for its most recent series which aired last Autumn, including Leading Actress and Supporting Actor.
Apple TV+ hits Bad Sisters and Slow Horses, as well as Emily Blunt’s The English also received five nods each.
Slow Horses star Gary Oldman has also received his first BAFTA TV nomination.
In the international category, The Bear, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Wednesday, Oussekine, Pachinko and The White Lotus are all nominated.
Comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan have been confirmed to host the BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises on Sunday May 14.
A total of 128 programmes received nominations from a record-breaking number of entries across Television and Craft.
BAFTA TV Awards Nominations
DRAMA SERIES
Bad Sisters
The Responder
Sherwood
Somewhere Boy
LEADING ACTOR
Ben Whishaw – This Is Going To Hurt
Chaske Spencer – The English
Cillian Murphy – Peaky Blinders
Gary Oldman – Slow Horses
Martin Freeman – The Responder
LEADING ACTRESS
Billie Piper – I Hate Suzie Too
Imelda Staunton – The Crown
Kate Winslet – I Am Ruth
Maxine Peake – Anne
Sarah Lancashire – Julia
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Adeel Akhtar – Sherwood
Jack Lowden – Slow Horse
Josh Finan – The Responder
Salim Daw – The Crown
Samuel Bottomley – Somewhere Boy
Will Sharpe – The White Lotus
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adelayo Adedayo – The Responder
Anne-Marie Duff – Bad Sisters
Fiona Shaw – Andor
Jasmine Jobson – Top Boy
Lesley Manville – Sherwood
Saffron Hocking – Top Boy
MALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
Daniel Radcliffe – Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Jon Pointing – Big Boys
Joseph Gilgun – Brassic
Lenny Rush – Am I Being Unreasonable?
Matt Berry – What We Do In The Shadows
FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY PROGRAMME
Daisy May Cooper – Am I Being Unreasonable?
Diane Morgan – Cunk On Earth
Lucy Beaumont – Meet The Richardsons
Nastasia Demetriou – Ellie & Natasia
Siobhán McSweeney – Derry Girls
Taj Atwal – Hullraisers
INTERNATIONAL
The Bear
Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Wednesday
Oussekine
Pachinko
The White Lotus
MINI-SERIES
A Spy Among Friends
Mood
The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe
This Is Going To Hurt
SINGLE DRAMA
I Am Ruth
The House
Life and Death In The Warehouse
SPORT
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
UEFA Women’s Euro 2022
Wimbledon 2022
DAYTIME
The Chase
The Repair Shop: A Royal Visit
Scam Interceptors
COMEDY ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
Friday Night Live
The Graham Norton Show
Taskmaster
Would I Lie To You
ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMME
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
Later… With Jools Holland: Jool’s 30th Birthday Bash
The Masked Singer
Strictly Come Dancing
ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE
Big Zuu – Big Zuu’s Big Eats
Claudia Winkleman – The Traitors
Lee Mack – The 1% Club
Mo Gilligan – The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan
Rosie Jones – Rosie Jones’ Trip Hazard
Sue Perkins – Sue Perkins: Perfectly Legal
FACTUAL SERIES
Jeremy Kyle Show: Death On Daytime
Libby, Are You Home Yet?
Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi
Worlds Collide: The Manchester Bombing
FEATURES
Big Zuu’s Big Eats
Joe Lycett vs Beckham: Got Your Back at Xmas
The Martin Lewis Money Show Livee
The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan
LIVE EVENT
Concert for Ukraine
Platinum Jubilee: Party at the Palace
The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II
SCRIPTED COMEDY
Am I Being Unreasonable?
Big Boys
Derry Girls
Ghosts
REALITY & CONSTRUCTED FACTUAL
Freddie Flintoff’s Field Of Dreams
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
The Traitors
We are Black and British
SHORT FORM PROGRAMME
Always, Asifa
Biscuitland
How To Be A Person
Kingpin Crisis
SINGLE DOCUMENTARY
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
Escape From Kabul Airport
Our Falklands War: A Frontline Story
The Real Mo Farah
SOAP & CONTINUING DRAMA
Casualty
EastEnders
Emmerdale
SPECIALIST FACTUAL
AIDS: The Unheard TaPes
The Green Planet
How To Survive A Dictator with Munya Chawawa
Russia 1985-1999: Traumazone
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Afghanistan: No Country For Women
Children of the Taliban
The Crossing (Exposure)
Mariupol: The People’s Story (Panorama)
NEWS COVERAGE
BBC News at Ten: Russia Invades Ukraine
Channel 4 News: Live in Kyiv
Good Morning Britain: Boris Johnson Interview
BAFTA Television Craft Awards nominations
DIRECTOR: FICTION
Dearbhla Walsh – Bad Sisters
Hugo Blick – The English
Lucy Forbes – This Is Going To Hurt
William Stefan Smith – Top Boy
DIRECTOR: FACTUAL
Emma Cooper – The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes
Felicity Morris – The Tindler Swindler
James Jones – Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
Sophie Robinson – My Dead Body
DIRECTOR: MULTI-CAMERA
Directing Team – The State Funeral Of HM Queen Elizabeth II
Janet Fraser Crook – Glastonbury 2022
Julia Knowles – Platinum Jubilee: Party At The Palace
Nikki Parsons – Strictly Come Dancing
WRITER – DRAMA
Adam Kay – This Is Going To Hurt
Alice Oseman – Heartstopper
Pete Jackson – Somewhere Boy
Tony Schumacher – The Responder
WRITER – COMEDY
Jack Rooke – Big Boys
Lisa McGee – Derry Girls
Nancy Harris – The Dry
Sharon Horgan, Barunka O’Shaughnessy, Helen Serafinowicz, Holly Walsh – Motherland
COSTUME DESIGN
Amy Roberts – The Crown
Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling – Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Jane Petrie – The Essex Serpent
Phoebe De Gaye – The English
MAKE UP & HAIR DESIGN
Amanda Knight, Barrie Gower, Rosalia Culora – House of the Dragon
Daniel Parker, Deborah Kenton, Claudia Stolze, Jovana Jovanovic, Wayne Fitzsimmons, Jana Radilová – Dangerous Liaisons
Helen Speyer – Gangs of London
Tara McDonald – Wednesday
ORIGINAL MUSIC: FICTION
Daniel Pemberton, Mick Jagger – Slow Horses
Federico Jusid – The English
Matthew Herbert – The Responder
Nicôle Lecky, Bryan Senti, Kwame KZ Kwei-Armah Jr – Mood
ORIGINAL MUSIC: FACTUAL
Andrew Phillips – House of Maxwell
Jessica Jones – Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story
Jessica Jones – The Tindler Swindler
Max De Wardener – The Elon Musk Show
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Alice Normington – The Essex Serpent
Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling – Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Chris Roope – The English
Kave Quinn, Tim Blake, Stella Fox, Penny Crawford, Emily Norris – Pistol
SPECIAL, VISUAL & GRAPHIC EFFECTS
Angus Bickerton, Nikeah Forde, Asa Shoul, Mike Dawson, MPS, Pixomondo – House of the Dragon
Industrial Light & Magic – The Sandman
Mohen Leo, TJ Falls, Richard Van Den Bergh, Jean-Clément Soret, Industrial Light & Magic – Andor
Russell Dodgson, Bryony Duncan, Sam Chynoweth, Damien Stumpf, Danny Hargreaves, Eliot Gibbons – His Dark Materials
TITLES & GRAPHIC IDENTITY
Balázs Simon, BBC Creative, Gas Music – Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
Peter Anderson Studio – Bad Sisters
Tom Hingston, Markus Lehtonen, Sam Norris – Life After Life
YU+CO – The Essex Serpent
EDITING: FICTION
Celia Haining – The Crown
Frances Parker – Andor (Episode 7)
Katie Weiland – Slow Horses (Series 1, Episode 1)
Selina MaCarthur – This Is Going to Hurt
EDITING: FACTUAL
Ben Brown – Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story
Doug Bryson – Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
Mark Summers – Afghanistan – No Country for Women (Exposure)
Rupert Houseman – Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
EMERGING TALENT: FICTION
Jack Rooke (Writer) – Big Boys
Lynette Linton (Director) – My Name is Leon
Nicôle Lecky (Writer) – Mood
Pete Jackson (Writer) – Somewhere Boy
EMERGING TALENT: FACTUAL
Charlie Melville (Producer/Director) – John & Joe Bishop: Life After Deaf
Helen Hobin (Photography) – Frozen Planet II
Jason Osborne (Director) – Our Jubilee
Joy Ash (Series Producer) – Super Surgeons: A Chance at Life
ENTERTAINMENT CRAFT TEAM
Andy Devonshire, James Dillon, Dru Masters, Rebecca Bowker – Taskmaster
Catherine Land, David Bishop, Patrick Doherty, Richard Silitto, David Newton, Joe Phillips – Strictly Come Dancing
Jen Bollom, Gareth Iles, Tim Routledge, Steve Sidwell, Richard Valentine, Chris Vaughan – Concert For Ukraine
Tom Bairstow, Nigel Catmur, Andy Deacon, Kevin Duff, Simon Haw, Steve Sidwell – Platinum Jubilee: Party At The Palace
PHOTOGRAPHY & LIGHTING: FICTION
Anthony Dod Mantle – Pistol
Ben Wheeler – The Tourist
Chas Appeti – Jungle
Rachel Clark – I Am Ruth
PHOTOGRAPHY: FACTUAL
Marcel Mettelsiefen, Jordan Bryon — Children of the Taliban
Steve Jamison – Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive
Sue Gibson, Robin Cox, Florian Schulz, Will Nicholls – Predators
Tim Shepherd, Oliver Mueller, Todd Kewley, Jessica Mitchell, Sam Lewis – Green Planet (Tropical Worlds)
SCRIPTED CASTING
Des Hamilton, Elan Jones – Top Boy
Julie Harkin – Am I Being Unreasonable?
Nina Gold, Lucy Amos – Bad Sister
Nina Gold, Martin Ware – This Is Going To Hurt
SOUND: FICTION
Alastair Sirkett, Doug Cooper, Martin Seeley, Paula Fairfield, Tim Hands, Adele Fletcher – House of the Dragon
Judi Lee Headman, Nigel Squibbs, Tony Gibson, Darren McQuade – SAS Rogue Heroes
Martin Jensen, Joe Beal, Duncan Price, Craig Butters, Sarah Elias, Andrew Sissons – Slow Horses
Sound Team – The Crown
SOUND: FACTUAL
Doug Dreger, Andrew Yarme, Nick Fry, Steve Speed, James Evans, Hugh Dwan – Formula 1: Drive to Survive
Kate Hopkins, Tim Owens, Graham Wild – Frozen Planet II (Frozen Worlds)
Peter Bridges, Matthew Charles, Conrad Fletcher, Julian Gough, Andy James, Andy Payne – The State Funeral Of HM Queen Elizabeth II
Tudor Davies – Later…with Jools Holland
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