BAFTA nominations announced

The nominations for this year's British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards have been announced. A BAFTA is the most sought after prize in the British TV industry's awards calendar and thus a lot of attention is obviously now being paid to the shortlist.

The nominations in the Situation Comedy category are Green Wing, The IT Crowd, Pulling and The Royle Family. They're quite significant choices - there's a notable lack of a nominations for BBC2's new sitcoms for example. Last year the sitcom award was won by The Thick of It.

Elsewhere this year, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are nominated (seperately) for Extras for best comedy performances, as well as Dawn French for The Vicar of Dibley and Liz Smith for The Royle Family.

The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family are also up for the audience award, voted for by the public. They are up against Dragons' Den, Life on Mars, nature show Planet Earth and Celebrity Big Brother.

Other comedy awards include one for Best Comedy Programme which will go to either Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Little Miss Jocelyn. Also nominated is The Secret Policeman's Ball for Interactvity and My Name is Earl, which is up for best international award.

Below is a summary of the comedy-related nominations:

SITUATION COMEDY

Green Wing (C4)
The IT Crowd (C4)
Pulling (BBC3)
The Royle Family: Queen of Sheba (BBC1)

COMEDY PROGRAMME

The Catherine Tate Show (BBC2)
Little Britain Abroad (BBC1)
Little Miss Jocelyn (BBC3)
That Mithcell and Webb Look (BBC2)

COMEDY PERFORMANCE

Dawn French (The Vicar Of Dibley, BBC1)
Ricky Gervais (Extras, BBC2)
Stephen Merchant (Extras, BBC2)
Liz Smith (The Royle Family Queen Of Sheba, BBC1)

ENTERTAINMENT PERFORMANCE

Ant and Dec (Saturday Night Takeaway, ITV1)
Stephen Fry (QI, BBC2)
Paul Merton (Have I Got News For You, BBC1)
Jonathan Ross (Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, BBC1)

PIONEER AUDIENCE AWARD

Life of Mars The Royle Family: Queen of Sheba
Dragon's Den Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special
Planet Earth
Celebrity Big Brother

Note: At the time of writing you can still vote for the audience award via www.obsessedwith.tv.

Meanwhile comic Victoria Wood has gained a record 12th Bafta television award nomination, the latest is for her role in ITV1 drama Housewife 49. The full list of nominations can be seen here. The winners will be announced at the ceremony at the London Palladium on the 20th May 2007.