National Television Awards 2018: who will win, who should win
TV's great, good and publicity-hungry are getting their gladrags dry-cleaned and practising their gracious loser faces ahead of Tuesday night’s National Television Awards.
Hosted by Dermot O’Leary at London’s O2 Arena, the NTAs are now in their 23rd year of gong-giving, entirely viewer-voted and broadcast live on ITV.
Here’s who deserves to win this year’s dozen key categories – and who probably will:
Drama
Nominees: Doctor Foster, Liar, Call The Midwife, Casualty, Game Of Thrones
Will win: Medical stalwart Casualty’s loyal fanbase propelled it to victory last time and it had another strong year, including a bold single-take episode and viewer favourite Connie Beauchamp (Amanda Mealing) battling cancer.
Should win: Doctor Foster. Playwright Mike Bartlett’s glossy wronged wife drama divided opinion with its heightened histrionics but became a major talking point last autumn and had 10m viewers yelling at their screens.
Crime Drama
Nominees: Line Of Duty, Broadchurch, Little Boy Blue, Sherlock
Will win: A solid field in this new category, recognising the enduring popularity of primetime whodunits. Thankfully returning to form for its third and final series, Broadchurch could get a golden send-off. Altogether now: "Shut up, Mill-ah!"
Should win: Gut-wrenching factual drama Little Boy Blue or cop corruption thriller Line Of Duty. Deservedly promoted from BBC Two to BBC One, it remained as fiendishly gripping as ever, thanks to “Balaclava Man” and Thandie Newton’s amputated hand.
Drama Performance
Nominees: Tom Hardy (Taboo), David Tennant (Broadchurch), Sheridan Smith (The Moorside), Jenna Coleman (Victoria), Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster)
Will win: Suranne Jones, who was maddening yet mesmerising as vengeful GP Gemma Foster, a modern-day Medea. If the three actresses split the vote, though, Tennant could steal it.
Should win: Sheridan Smith for her sensitive, stripped-back turn in the superb two-parter about the disappearance of Shannon Matthews. We’d also like to have seen Julie Hesmondhalgh (Broadchurch) and Thandie Newton (Line Of Duty) on the list.
Bruce Forsyth Entertainment Award
Nominees: Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Celebrity Juice, The Graham Norton Show, All Round To Mrs Brown’s
Will win: The NTAs are paying fitting tribute to the late, great Sir Bruce by renaming the entertainment show award in his honour. Expect emotional montages and a win for Saturday Night Takeaway, the closest shortlisted show to the spirit of Brucey. Good game, good game.
Should win: It’s always been the bridesmaid but it would be lovely to see the ever-entertaining Graham Norton Show finally triumph.
Serial Drama
Nominees: Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks
Will win: Yorkshire soap Emmerdale finally broke the big two’s monopoly last year and could repeat the trick after another 12 months of rollercoaster rural melodrama.
Should win: Cockney shout-a-thon EastEnders has been on resurgent form and its compelling Christmas episodes might just be fresh enough in viewers’ minds for it to sneak up on the rails. Faaaamily innit? Get outta my pub!
Serial Drama Performance
Nominees: Barbara Knox (Coronation Street), Lucy Fallon (Coronation Street), Danny Miller (Emmerdale), Lacey Turner (EastEnders)
Will win: Four-time NTA winner Lacey Turner is favourite for a fifth. She consistently excels as Stacey Fowler, one of Walford’s most likeable and nuanced characters.
Should win: Nobody would begrudge Turner another triumph but we’d like to see one of the Corrie duo clinch it. As grooming victim Bethany Platt, Lucy Fallon anchored one of the cobbled soap’s most controversial storylines, while Knox merits recognition for her fine 46 years as warm, wise, orange-beehived newsagent Rita Tanner.
Newcomer
Nominees: Danny Walters (EastEnders), Ned Porteous (Emmerdale), Nathan Morris (Hollyoaks), Rob Mallard (Coronation Street)
Will win: Ned Porteous for his charismatic performance as moneybags businessman Tom Waterhouse - who, in a killer twist, turned out to be Joe Tate, back for revenge. However, pedants might enjoy pointing out that Porteous previously played Mark Fowler Jr in EastEnders, so isn’t strictly a newcomer.
Should win: Rob Mallard is superb as Corrie’s troubled bad boy Daniel Osbourne. Besides, anyone who pushes boring old Ken Barlow down the stairs deserves a trophy.
Comedy
Nominees: Benidorm, The Big Bang Theory, Still Open All Hours, Peter Kay’s Car Share
Will win: Joyous commuting romcom Car Share drove back for four blissful episodes - and after public outcry at its tantalising cliffhanger ending, will return for a finale this year. If it does win, all eyes will be on who collects the award, as Peter Kay recently cancelled his tour commitments due to a family crisis.
Should win: It can only be Car Share. Please not the others.
Talent Show
Nominees: Britain's Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing, The X Factor, The Voice UK
Will win: It was Strictly’s most successful series yet ratings-wise and in terms of column inches (thanks to the Aston Merrygold and Alexandra Burke controversies), so it seems bound to foxtrot to victory - especially since The X Factor’s figures tumbled.
Should win: Strictly. Its rivals had moribund years and the pro-celeb hoofing contest is the best nominee by a sequin-spangled mile.
Challenge Show
Nominees: The Great British Bake Off, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Love Island, MasterChef
Will win: I’m A Celebrity, which attracted bumper ratings once more and invariably gets an NTA.
Should win: We’d prefer to see the prize go to Bake Off for its surprisingly assured debut series on Channel 4, or Love Island for a breakthrough year which saw it break ITV2 ratings records and become a watercooler phenomenon. Well, if watercoolers are still “a thing”.
TV Judge
Nominees: Paul Hollywood (The Great British Bake Off), Simon Cowell (Britain’s Got Talent/The X Factor), will.i.am (The Voice), David Walliams (Britain’s Got Talent)
Will win: Looks destined to go to Walliams, who last won in 2015 and remains the BGT’s panel’s clown prince-cum-chief Cowell-baiter.
Should win: Hollywood, who provided Bake Off continuity as the cakey contest’s only star to follow it to Channel 4. But it’s baffling why no female judges are nominated. Whither Prue Leith, Darcey Bussell, Nicole Scherzinger or Shirley Ballas?
TV Presenter
Nominees: Ant & Dec, Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Bradley Walsh
Will win: Messrs McPartlin and Donnelly have taken this trophy home for 16 years in a row and will surely continue that remarkable run, despite Ant’s recent stint in rehab. Howay the lads. Again.
Should win: If Pip ’n’ Holly were also allowed to enter as a pair, they’d be serious threats to Geordie supremacy. They’ll doubtless win the Daytime gong instead and be nursing amusingly painful hangovers on Wednesday’s This Morning.
The National TV Awards are live on ITV at 7.30pm on Tuesday January 23
