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Gavin and Stacey leads Comedy Award nominations
BBC3 sitcom Gavin and Stacey, written by and starring Ruth Jones and James Corden, has been nominated in an impressive five categories for this year's British Comedy Awards.
The show is nominated for Best New Television Comedy and Best British Comedy; whilst Jones and Corden are each nominated as Best Comedy Newcomers - along with their co-stars Matthew Horne and Joanna Page. Matt Berry and Sharon Horgan are also in the running for the Best Newcomer titles.
In addition Ruth Jones has also been nominated for Best Television Comedy Actress - the other nominations being Catherine Tate and The Royle Family's Liz Smith.
The award for Best Television Comedy Actor is going to be a close call this year. The nominations are David Mitchell for Peep Show, Lee Mack for Not Going Out, Jack Dee for Lead Balloon and Kevin Bishop for Star Stories.
Meanwhile elsewhere Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins have been jointly nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality, they're up against Stephen Fry and, new host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Simon Anstell.
Going up against Gavin and Stacey for Best TV Comedy will be Star Stories and Peep Show. This is a particularly competitive category with Peep Show having been named Best Comedy last year and Star Stories picking up the Best New TV Comedy of 2006 award.
Meanwhile superb sitcoms Not Going Out and Lead Balloon are fighting Gavin and Stacey for the title of Best New Comedy (scripted).
In total the BBC has eighteen nominations, ITV has three and Channel 4 has seven. A summary of all the nominations can be seen at the bottom of this story.
As usual, there are some questions to be asked about some nominations - for example Matthew Horne has been a recognisable comedy actor ever since playing Ben Birkett in Teachers in 2004 so surely cannot be named Best Male Newcomer? Similarly, 2007 could not be called Ruth Jones' first year in comedy - she has had starring roles in Nighty Night, Little Britain, I'm With Stupid and Saxondale prior to Gavin and Stacey. Meanwhile both Lead Balloon and Not Going Out started in 2006 - their second series being in 2007.
Surprisingly Ant and Dec's names don't appear in a single category this year - the geordie duo have gone home with at least one British Comedy award every year since 2003.
Announcing the nominees, producer Michael Hurll said there would be no phone vote this year. He added the show will be like "watching Britney Spears get out of a taxi, because you never know what you are going to see, but it's sure to be more unpleasant than you expected."
The winners will be revealed in a ceremony hosted by Jonathan Ross on December 5th, but it still remains to be seen whether this will be televised.
As we have reported previously, ITV have announced they are not intending to broadcast the awards this year because of the on-going investigations into alleged irregularities with the 2005 phone voting. However, since then, the network has been put under increased commercial and fan pressure to reverse its decision. ITV has now had to pay the producers £70,000 to stop Channel 4 acquiring the brand - another potential factor which could force a re-think?
Best television comedy actor
David Mitchell - Peep Show
Jack Dee - Lead Balloon
Kevin Bishop - Star Stories
Lee Mack - Not Going Out
Best television comedy actress
Catherine Tate - The Catherine Tate Show
Liz Smith - The Royle Family: The Queen of Sheba
Ruth Jones - Gavin and Stacey / Saxondale
Best comedy entertainment personality
Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins - The Friday Night Project
Simon Amstell - Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Stephen Fry - QI
Best male comedy newcomer
James Corden - Gavin and Stacey
Mathew Horne - Gavin and Stacey
Matt Berry - The IT Crowd
Best female comedy newcomer 2007
Joanna Page - Gavin and Stacey
Ruth Jones - Gavin and Stacey
Sharon Horgan - Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive / Pulling
Best new British television comedy (scripted)
Gavin and Stacey - Baby Cow for BBC Three
Lead Balloon - Open Mike for BBC Four
Not Going Out - Avalon for BBC One
Best television comedy
Gavin and Stacey - Baby Cow for BBC Three
Peep Show - Objective Productions for Channel 4
Star Stories - Objective Productions for Channel 4
Best new comedy entertainment programme
Al Murray's Happy Hour - Avalon for ITV1
Fonejacker - Hat Trick for E4
The Graham Norton Show - So Television for BBC Two
Best comedy entertainment programme
Harry Hill's TV Burp - Avalon Television for ITV1
Never Mind the Buzzcocks - Talkback Thames for BBC Two
The Friday Night Project - Princess Productions for Channel 4
Best live stand up
Alan Carr
Dara O'Brian
Simon Amstell
Best international comedy
Curb Your Enthusiasm - HBO Entertainment for Mor
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