Stars of British television take centre stage at glittering awards ceremony

BBC2 Tudor drama Wolf Hall leads the pack with four nominations, with Peter Kay’s Car Share and and This Is England ’90 snapping at its heels with three apiece, while Sir Ian McKellen and Adele make the shortlists for the first time.

So, who deserves to be making the walk up to the podium to shake hands with Graham Norton and head straight to the free VIP bar?

Who’ll be smiling through gritted teeth for the cameras as they watch a rival collect the gong?

And who’s been unjustly snubbed by the British Academy?

Well, let’s tackle that rather large elephant in the room first, because there are some glaring omissions that frankly beggar belief.

No Ant & Dec, for example, astonishingly overlooked for their blindingly brilliant work on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here (although the show itself received a nod) in favour of the likes of Romesh Ranganathan and Stephen Fry.

Game of Thrones is also absent from an admittedly strong International category.

Nicola Walker must feel extremely hard done by that neither her role as Stevie in BBC1 cop drama River nor DCI Cassie Stuart in ITV’s excellent, and overlooked, thriller Unforgotten was deemed worthy of a mention.

Likewise, The Island With Bear Grylls, Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe and highly original BBC3 comedy Murder In Successville are conspicuous by their absence.

Notably there are also no nominations for The X Factor or, for the final time, Downton Abbey, although neither deserves one after woeful series.

In any case, Downton was awarded a special Bafta last year for no apparent reason.

We can’t, however, do anything about the non-runners, and there are some impressive, competitive categories even without them.

Starting with Best Actor which, despite the best efforts of Ben Whishaw (London Spy) and Stephen Graham (This Is England ’90), should be a head-to-head ding dong between Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall) and Idris Elba (Luther).

It’s a rematch for the pair who, coincidentally, were up against each other at the Bafta Film Awards in February for Supporting Actor, with Rylance coming out on top.

His powerhouse performance as Thomas Cromwell should see him add to that triumph and his recent Oscar win.

If the Academy is keen on Wolf Hall sweeping the board, it will name his co-star Claire Foy as Best Actress, although it would be great to see Suranne Jones take the honour for playing the wronged, unhinged and vengeful Doctor Foster.

Knowing Bafta, though, there’s every chance one its golden girls, Sheridan Smith (The C Word), will sneak up on the rails.

It would be a huge surprise if Sir Ian McKellen (The Dresser) didn’t land Supporting Actor on his Bafta TV Awards debut, ahead of an outstanding turn by Tom Courtenay in Unforgotten, Cyril Nri in the otherwise dreadful Cucumber and Anton Lesser (that Wolf Hall again).

Lesley Manville (River) and Chanel Cresswell (This Is England ’90) have strong claims in Supporting Actress, but it would be wonderful to see it given to the magnetic Michelle Gomez for stealing the show as Missy, formerly The Master, on Doctor Who, the show’s sole representative.

One of the easiest categories to call is Mini-Series where the behemoth that is Doctor Foster should dispatch the final This Is England, The Enfield Haunting and London Spy.

With Poldark up only for the Radio Times Audience Award, Best Drama also looks a one-horse race for Wolf Hall over Sky Atlantic’s The Last Panthers and Channel 4’s Humans and No Offence.

Strictly Come Dancing deserves Best Entertainment Programme but it won’t win. Instead, expect Adele At The BBC to overcome TFI Friday Anniversary Special and a Britain’s Got Talent severely hampered by the stunt-dog-double scandal.

Without Ant & Dec, Graham Norton has a clear run to present Entertainment Performance to himself. Romesh Ranganathan (Asian Provocateur), Leigh Francis (Celebrity Juice) and Stephen Fry for his last ever series hosting QI just aren’t in the same league as the BBC1 chat show king.

If there’s any justice, Car Share should take all three accolades it’s up for — Scripted Comedy (against Peep Show, Chewing Gum and People Just Do Nothing) and Male and Female Comedy Performance for its stars Peter Kay, nominated for the first time in 13 years, and Sian Gibson.

Though there’s much to be said for their main rivals Toby Jones (Detectorists) and Catastrophe’s Sharon Horgan.

It’s hard to look beyond The Great British Bake Off to clinch the Features crown, especially when the opposition is Travel Man, Kevin McCloud: Escape To The Wild and Back In Time For Dinner.

In Reality and Constructed Factual, a terrific series of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, thanks in no small part to Lady Colin Campbell, is up against a Channel 4 triple threat of Gogglebox, The Secret Life of Five Year Olds and First Dates, the latter of which should take the trophy.

How Bafta is going to separate BBC2’s The Detectives and Channel 4’s The Murder Detectives in Factual is an exceptionally difficult call as both were tremendous and a cut above the other two in the running, The Tribe and Great Ormond Street.

Emmerdale’s consistency makes it the worthiest contender for Soap & Continuing Drama, especially with Corrie and EastEnders having an awful patch, but the Academy is usually a year or two behind in this category and will probably give it, wrongly, to one of the big two, especially as both had live anniversary specials which were, admittedly, excellently executed.

With 221 points scored on an extraordinary 2015 Six Nations Final Day, it would be a travesty if it lost out to The Ashes, the Grand National or the FA Cup Final in Best Sport.

Finally, before predicting Best Live Event, a mention of some that haven’t made the grade in that category, for obvious reasons, but which deserve a special commendation.

Madonna’s cape/staircase disaster at The Brits.

This Morning getting The Osmonds to test high-street leaf blowers with Alice Beer.

Building Cars Live spending three hours following a Mini being built only to miss the moment it came off the production line.

And the BBC sending Chris Hollins 600 miles to the Faroe Islands for the solar eclipse but ending up staring at clouds.

Back, though, to the actual contenders, Big Blue Live, The Sound of Music Live, The Vote and the snappily named Stargazing Live: Brit In Space, Tim Peake Special, a technical triumph which will surely win, if only for the astronaut’s aunt replying to the question “What kind of boy was he? Was he someone you always thought something special is going to happen to?” with: “No, not really.”

The Bafta TV Awards is on BBC1 at 8pm tomorrow.