Time Lord's 50th anniversary to be celebrated at television extravaganza despite programme not being nominated
The Bafta TV awards will recognise the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who on Sunday night – but the BBC1 programme is one of several big-rating shows that failed to win a nomination, along with Downton Abbey and the bawdy sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys.
Clare Balding and Michael Palin will be honoured at the awards, which will be hosted by Graham Norton and screened on BBC1.
Palin, the Monty Python star turned travelogue veteran, will receive a Bafta fellowship, while Balding will be presented with a special award in recognition of her presenting roles at the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.
But some of the most popular TV shows of last year are conspicuous only by their absence. Doctor Who, whose half-centenary will be marked with the broadcast of an exclusive sketch featuring stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman, misses out.
The ITV drama Downton Abbey is absent, as is BBC1's hit Call the Midwife, which has a single nomination in the audience category voted for by viewers. Another absentee, Mrs Brown's Boys, won the best sitcom prize last year.
Andrew Newman, who chairs the Bafta television committee, said: "It's a testament to how good the field is this year.
"Bafta has always had an agenda to recognise the most excellent programmes: sometimes they are the big blockbusters of drama and entertainment and sometimes they are the little gems from elsewhere.
"Part of Bafta's remit about rewarding excellence is pointing people to things that they might not have seen.
"If you were just doing it on ratings you would have a more homogenised field."
Leading the pack are the BBC's Olympics coverage, with three nominations, one fewer than the four picked up by BBC2's Olympics spoof, Twenty Twelve. Three other programmes are nominated four times: the BBC1 drama series Accused and Last Tango in Halifax, and BBC2's film about Alfred Hitchcock, The Girl.
Also nominated are Armando Iannucci's The Thick of It, which came to an end on BBC2 last year, and another show in which he was closely involved, the return of Alan Partridge, played by Steve Coogan, in Sky Atlantic's Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life.
Other nominees include the artist Grayson Perry for his Channel 4 series In the Best Possible Taste, the Bradford-born magician Dynamo for Magician Impossible on the digital channel Watch, ITV dramas Scott and Bailey and Mrs Biggs, BBC2's The Great British Bake Off, and E4's "constructed reality" show, Made In Chelsea. Reported by guardian.co.uk 7 hours ago.
The Bafta TV awards will recognise the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who on Sunday night – but the BBC1 programme is one of several big-rating shows that failed to win a nomination, along with Downton Abbey and the bawdy sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys.
Clare Balding and Michael Palin will be honoured at the awards, which will be hosted by Graham Norton and screened on BBC1.
Palin, the Monty Python star turned travelogue veteran, will receive a Bafta fellowship, while Balding will be presented with a special award in recognition of her presenting roles at the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.
But some of the most popular TV shows of last year are conspicuous only by their absence. Doctor Who, whose half-centenary will be marked with the broadcast of an exclusive sketch featuring stars Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman, misses out.
The ITV drama Downton Abbey is absent, as is BBC1's hit Call the Midwife, which has a single nomination in the audience category voted for by viewers. Another absentee, Mrs Brown's Boys, won the best sitcom prize last year.
Andrew Newman, who chairs the Bafta television committee, said: "It's a testament to how good the field is this year.
"Bafta has always had an agenda to recognise the most excellent programmes: sometimes they are the big blockbusters of drama and entertainment and sometimes they are the little gems from elsewhere.
"Part of Bafta's remit about rewarding excellence is pointing people to things that they might not have seen.
"If you were just doing it on ratings you would have a more homogenised field."
Leading the pack are the BBC's Olympics coverage, with three nominations, one fewer than the four picked up by BBC2's Olympics spoof, Twenty Twelve. Three other programmes are nominated four times: the BBC1 drama series Accused and Last Tango in Halifax, and BBC2's film about Alfred Hitchcock, The Girl.
Also nominated are Armando Iannucci's The Thick of It, which came to an end on BBC2 last year, and another show in which he was closely involved, the return of Alan Partridge, played by Steve Coogan, in Sky Atlantic's Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life.
Other nominees include the artist Grayson Perry for his Channel 4 series In the Best Possible Taste, the Bradford-born magician Dynamo for Magician Impossible on the digital channel Watch, ITV dramas Scott and Bailey and Mrs Biggs, BBC2's The Great British Bake Off, and E4's "constructed reality" show, Made In Chelsea. Reported by guardian.co.uk 7 hours ago.