The RTS has announced the nominations for the Programme Awards 2017 in partnership with Audio Network.
At an event this morning, hosted by Countryfile’s Anita Rani, the nominees were announced, including National Treasure stars Julie Walters and Robbie Coltrane for Actor (Female) and Actor (Male) respectively, TV duo Ant and Dec for Entertainment Performance, and Bake Off’s Nadiya Hussein for Breakthrough Award.
The RTS Programme Awards, which are chaired by The Foundry CEO, Alex Mahon, honour excellence across all genres of television programming and recognise exceptional actors, presenters, writers and production teams as well as the programmes themselves.
This year saw the introduction of the RTS Channel of the Year Award.
Channel 4 drama, National Treasure, is nominated in four categories. Julie Walters is nominated alongside star of BBC One drama, Undercover, Sophie Okonedo, and Jodie Comer, for her role in BBC Three series, Thirteen; while Robbie Coltrane is joined on the shortlist by James Nesbitt for ITV’s The Secret and Adeel Akhtar for BBC Three’s Murdered By My Father.
National Treasure is also shortlisted in the Mini-Series category against Thirteen and BBC Two’s London Spy; and its writer, Jack Thorne, receives a nod in the Writer – Drama category, alongside Jed Mercurio for Line of Duty and Sally Wainwright for Happy Valley.
Line of Duty and Happy Valley are also nominated for Drama Series, along with ITV’s The Durrells, while the nominations for the Single Drama category include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (BBC One), Murdered By My Father (BBC Three) and Reg (BBC One).
Ant and Dec are nominated in two categories this year, receiving nods in the Entertainment category for Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, up against BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing and Dave’s Taskmaster, and the Entertainment Performance category, for which they took home the award in 2016, for I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
The Saturday night staples will battle it out against Romesh Ranganathan for BBC Three’s Asian Provocateur and Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe for their Channel 4 series The Last Leg.
In the comedy categories, Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney receive a joint nomination for Comedy Performance for their roles in Channel 4 series Catastrophe. They are up against Asim Chaudhry for BBC Three’s People Just Do Nothing and Steve Coogan for Alan Partridge’s Scissored Isle on Sky Atlantic.
Catastrophe is also shortlisted for the Scripted Comedy award, which it won last year and will take on People Just Do Nothing (BBC Three) and The Windsors (Channel 4).
Horgan also picks up a nomination in the Writer - Comedy category – with Graham Linehan, Helen Linehan and Holly Walsh – for BBC Two’s Motherland. They are nominated alongside Stefan Golaszewski for Mum (BBC Two) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge for BBC Three’s Fleabag.
Waller-Bridge is also nominated for Fleabag in the Breakthrough Award category alongside Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain for The Chronicles of Nadiya (BBC One) and Phillip Wood for Chasing Dad: A Lifelong Addiction (BBC Three).
In the Soap and Continuing Drama category, three of Britain’s biggest soaps, EastEnders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks will battle it out for the award.
Other nominees include Nasser Hussain, Clare Balding and Osi Umenyiora, who will compete in the Sports Presenter, Commentator or Pundit category; and Grayson Perry who is up for two awards, nominated in the Presenter category for Channel 4 series Grayson Perry All Man alongside Sir David Attenborough for Attenborough and The Giant Dinosaur (BBC One) and Richard Ayoade for Travel Man: 48 Hours In Vienna (Channel 4), and in the Arts category, up against BBC Four’s Bricks! and BBC One’s One Night In 2012.
The Chair of the Awards, Alex Mahon, said "The RTS Programme Awards strive to reflect the ever-changing broadcasting landscape and to recognise the very best programmes and talent that made-up the schedules over the last 12 months.
“To support this aim, in 2016 we committed to increase diversity among the RTS Programme Awards jury chairs, and I am delighted to say that in 2017 the make-up of our juries was 50% female and 30% BAME.”
Find the full list of nominees here.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Sandi Toksvig at the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London on Tuesday 21st March 2017.
