The Crown leads Bafta TV nominations ahead of Black Mirror and Happy Valley

The final season of Netflix’s The Crown leads this year’s Bafta TV Award nominations, despite controversy over its depiction of the Royal Family.

The sixth season of the royal drama, which covers the events of the 1990s including Princess Diana’s death, has been nominated for eight awards.

It received mixed reviews from critics, with one saying it was “obviously mining tragedy for ratings”.

Happy Valley and Black Mirror episode Demon 79 both have seven nominations.

The top Bafta TV nominees
The Crown – 8
Demon 79 (Black Mirror) – 7
Happy Valley – 7
Slow Horses – 6
The Sixth Commandment – 6
Succession – 6

Four actors in The Crown have received nominations, including Elizabeth Debicki, who played Diana. The show split opinion when the late princess’s ghost appeared to Prince Charles and the Queen.

Dominic West is nominated for his role as Charles. The actor told the BBC in December he could understand why people thought the last series was “too close to the actual events and that the grief is still so real”.

The Guardian’s review said it “borders on the exploitative”, while the Telegraph called it “intrusive and clumsy”.

Lesley Manville, who played Princess Margaret, and Salim Daw, who portrayed Mohamed Al-Fayed, are nominated for supporting roles in the show.

Although it leads the Bafta field, The Crown missed out on a nomination for best drama series.

The four nominees in that category are The Gold, Happy Valley, Slow Horses and Top Boy.

Sarah Lancashire is nominated in the best leading actress category for her role as police sergeant Catherine Cawood in the final season of BBC crime thriller Happy Valley.

Amit Shah and Siobhan Finneran are also nominated as supporting actor and actress for the show.

However, there was no room for James Norton, who played villain Tommy Lee Royce.

Elsewhere, Steve Coogan is nominated for playing serial abuser Jimmy Savile in The Reckoning, the BBC’s dramatisation of the disgraced presenter’s life.

Coogan and West will go up against stars including Succession’s Brian Cox and Top Boy’s Kane Robinson for the best leading actor award.

And Timothy Spall is nominated for playing a murdered teacher in BBC true crime drama The Sixth Commandment, while his co-star Anne Reid is up for best leading actress.

Helena Bonham Carter is nominated for the same award for playing former soap star Noele Gordon in ITV’s Nolly.

Other nominees in that category include Bella Ramsey for post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us – the 20-year-old’s first nomination.

The Last of Us has five nominations in total, as do Succession for its final season, and The Long Shadow, ITV’s drama about the victims of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

In the comedy categories, Hammed Animashaun and Gbemisola Ikumelo are nominated for best male and female female performances for Black Ops. The duo play hapless community support officers who are recruited to work on an undercover operation.

Extraordinary, Juice, Big Boys, Such Brave Girls and Dreaming Whilst Black are also among the leading comedy shows.

There are four nominations for the BBC’s coverage of last year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, including best entertainment performance for Hannah Waddingham.

She will go up against her co-host Graham Norton – who is shortlisted in that category for his chat show – as well as Ant and Dec for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

Waddingham is also in the running for the best entertainment programme trophy for her Apple TV+ Christmas special.

Charlie Brooker is up for an award for writing Demon 79, the final episode of the sixth series of Black Mirror, while its star Anjana Vasan is in the running for best leading actress.

She played a meek sales assistant who is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster.

Meanwhile, acclaimed documentary series Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland has four nominations including best factual series.

Bafta chair Sara Putt said she hoped the 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”.

The main awards ceremony will take place on 12 May and will be hosted by comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan.