The final series of royal drama The Crown leads this year’s BAFTA TV Awards nominations, picking up eight nods including four in the acting categories – but misses out on the best drama shortlist.

Happy Valley, The Gold, Slow Horses and Top Boy are the four shows up for the prize, which will be one of the biggest of the night.

Black Mirror’s Demon 79 episode follows closely behind The Crown with seven BAFTA TV nominations, while The Sixth Commandment, The Last Of Us, The Long Shadow and Succession also feature several times on the shortlist.

In the news coverage category, Sky News takes two of the three slots, for its coverage on Myanmar and the Israel-Hamas war. Channel 4 is also nominated for its coverage of the war.

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After six seasons chronicling the Royal Family, the final season of The Crown covered the period from the late 1990s to 2005 – including the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, William meeting Kate, and Charles and Camilla’s wedding.

Dominic West, who played the then Prince Charles, is up for best actor, while Elizabeth Debicki (Princess Diana), Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) and Salim Daw (Mohamed Al Fayed) are shortlisted in the supporting categories. The series is also up for awards for costume design, make-up and hair, sound, and visual effects.

The return of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series Black Mirror receives all its BAFTA TV nominations for one episode, titled Demon 79, about a girl who accidentally releases a demon who tells her she must commit three murders to prevent the end of the world.

Star Anjana Vasan is in the running for leading actress alongside Bella Ramsey for The Last Of Us, Anne Reid for The Sixth Commandment, Helena Bonham Carter for Nolly, Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley, and Sharon Horgan for Best Interests.

In the leading actor category, West faces competition from Succession’s Brian Cox, Top Boy’s Kane “Kano” Robinson, Paapa Essiedu for The Lazarus Project, Steve Coogan for The Reckoning, and Timothy Spall for The Sixth Commandment.

In the comedy categories, Big Boys, Dreaming Whilst Black, Extraordinary and Such Brave Girls are up for best-scripted show, while Bridget Christie (The Change), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Black Ops), Mairead Tyers and Sofia Oxenham (Extraordinary), Roisin Gallagher (The Lovers), and Taj Atwal (Hullraisers) are shortlisted for best female performance.

Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black), David Tennant (Good Omens), Hammed Animashaun (Black Ops), Jamie Demetriou (A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou), Joseph Gilgun (Brassic), and Mawaan Rizwan (Juice) are shortlisted for best male comedy performance.

The Bear, Beef, Class Act, The Last Of Us, Love & Death, and Succession make up the shortlist in the international category, while The Long Shadow, Demon 79, Best Interests and The Sixth Commandment are the four shows up for best limited series.

The main nominations announcement comes after the reveal of the memorable moments shortlist, which was announced earlier this month.

A total of 118 programmes have been nominated, and for 17 out of 44 nominees in the performance categories it is their first BAFTA nod.

BAFTA chair Sara Putt said the “exceptional” variety and quality of programmes nominated reflects the “creative powerhouse” that is the UK television industry.

She also referenced the directing categories for factual and fiction shows, which feature predominantly male nominees.

“I’m delighted to see so many first-time nominees, so much new and emerging talent and so many debut projects recognised,” she said.

“At a time when budgets are tight and creative risk-taking can feel ever riskier, 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, particularly for talented female directors who are still significantly outnumbered by their male counterparts when it comes to awards submissions.”

Winners of the craft awards, for those behind the camera, will be announced at a ceremony on 28 April, while the TV Awards winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Romesh Ranganathan and Rob Beckett on 12 May.

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