Bafta bends rules for Killing Eve at TV nominations
The thriller series has been nominated for 14 awards
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Your support makes all the difference.Killing Eve dominated at the television Bafta nominations, but only because the awards body bent their own eligibility criteria.
The BBC thriller has been nominated for 14 awards, topping 12 for A Very English Scandal and 6 for Patrick Melrose.
However, Killing Eve should not have been legible for those awards as Bafta rules state that a show must first be broadcast in the UK before anywhere else in the world.
The thriller series, written by Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge and starring Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, premiered in the US on BBC America five months before arriving on BBC One and iPlayer.
BBC America is a separate entity from the BBC, jointly owned by BBC Studios and the American network AMC. British licence fees do not fund BBC America, which is instead commercially funded.
Bafta responded by saying their committee deemed Killing Eve sufficiently British and explained that, even without bending the rules, the series would have been eligible for nine of the craft categories it has been nominated in.
A spokesperson said: "Bafta's television committee deems Killing Eve a British series. Killing Eve received 14 nominations, nine of which were eligible under Bafta's criteria, and five of which were deemed eligible by the TV committee due to the significant creative contribution from key UK talent throughout the production. The television committee is the arbiter of all eligibility."
Luke Jennings, who wrote the book on which Killing Eve is based on, responded to the controversy while speaking to BBC Radio 5.
"You couldn't have a more British show than Killing Eve," he said. "This was a wholly British production and British in conception. They've decided we are eligible and I'm very happy to go with that."
Oh and Comer are both up for Best Drama Actress, going against Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard) and Ruth Wilson (Mrs Wilson). Best television drama nominees are Killing Eve, Bodyguard, Save Me and Informer.
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