A Merseyside drama written by a former Liverpool policeman is leading the nominations for this year’s BAFTA TV Awards.
The Responder, written by Tony Schumacher has been nominated in six categories.
These include Best Drama Series, Best Actor for Martin Freeman and Best Supporting Actor with Josh Finan, who comes from Wirral.
Maxine Peake has been nominated for Leading Actress in her role as the title character of ‘Anne’, a show which tackles the devastating Hillsborough disaster of 1989 and its aftermath.
And Wirral-born Taron Egerton has been nominated as Best Actor for Black Bird.
#BAFTATVAwards Nominations
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
TARON EGERTON – Black Bird pic.twitter.com/TUpnd2b4Rp— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) March 22, 2023
The Responder tells the story of a morally-compromised police officer on the night beat in Liverpool.
Speaking to Merseynewslive when the show was first aired, writer Tony Schumacher told how the drama became his life.
“I go to bed and it’s there; I wake up in the morning and it’s there. You can’t just shut it down.
“When I walk the dog, I’ll talk to the characters out loud, I’m lucky that most of the people where I live know that I write.”
Adam Kay’s ‘This Is Going To Hurt’ is another big winner in the nominations.
Daniel Radcliffe has also received his first-ever BAFTA TV Award nomination for ‘WEIRD: The Al Yankovic story!’, under the Male Performance in a Comedy Programme segment.
This is the second year running that a Merseyside drama has grabbed the attention of the BAFTA judges.
Last year’s big winner was Help, written by Jack Thorne and starring Jodie Comer, Stephen Graham, and Cathy Tyson, who all won BAFTAs for their roles in the series.
When the nominations were announced this morning, Tony Schumacher tweeted his delight:
BBC News – Bafta TV Awards 2023: This is Going to Hurt and The Responder lead nominations.
We did it.
There'll be a thread about this later when my head stops wobbling. https://t.co/ibZidkqZ9s
— Tony Schumacher (@tonyshoey) March 22, 2023
The drama was produced by Dancing Ledge Productions, who said they were chuffed at the nominations.
So chuffed to be nominated for 6 @bafta awards:
🎬Best Actor #MartinFreeman 🎬 Best Writer @tonyshoey 🎬 Best Supporting Actor #JoshFinan 🎬 Best Supporting Actress #AdelayoAdedayo 🎬 Best Series #TheResponder 🎬 Best Music @matthewherbert 👏👏 @UKScreenSkills @bbcwritersroom pic.twitter.com/eJcpANCgQ3— #DancingLedgeProductions (@DancingLedgeUK) March 22, 2023
Tony Schumacher: The Responder, mental health and “the underclass”
