Michaela Coel and Daisy Edgar-Jones will battle it out for the Actor (Female) prize at the 2021 Royal Television Society (RTS) Programme Awards.

Coel’s critically-acclaimed show I May Destroy You received three nominations including Mini-Series and Actor (Female) and Writer – Drama for Coel.

The recognition comes after the show and creator Michaela were snubbed during the nominations for the 78th Golden Globe Awards, which took place on Sunday.

Hit show Normal People collected more nominations for leads Paul Mescal and Edgar-Jones, who both picked up nods in the acting categories.

Edgar-Jones and Coel will also compete against Glenda Jackson in the Actor (Female) category for Elizabeth Is Missing, while Shaun Parkes’ turn in Small Axe and Lennie James in Save Me Too complete the category for male actors.

Billie Piper’s dark comedy I Hate Suzie, which sees Piper play former popstar Suzie Pickles, who has her life thrown into disarray when compromising photos of her with a man who isn’t her husband are leaked online, received two nods for Drama Series and Writer – Drama for Lucy Prebble.

The other Drama Series nominees include Save Me Too and In My Skin.

A new Comedy Entertainment category sees The Big Narstie Show, Antiviral Wipe, and The Ranganation battle it out, while Brassic, Sex Education, and The Young Offenders are nominated in the Scripted Comedy list.

Chair of the Awards, Kenton Allen, said: “The standard of entries has been outstanding and demonstrated the breadth of high-quality content that has informed, entertained and kept audiences going through what has been such a uniquely difficult time.

“We very much look forward to and hope everyone will join us on the 16th March to celebrate the nominees and winners and another outstanding year of television.”

The virtual ceremony, hosted by Jonathan Ross, will take place on 16 March at 6:30pm, and will be streamed live on the RTS website.

– Cover Media