The 2023 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises nominations list has officially been released, and while it features a vast array of some of the top shows of the past year, including The Crown and This is Going to Hurt, Happy Valley is notably absent. The show, which first hit TV screens in 2014, returned for a third season earlier this year, seven years after the second series aired. Upon its comeback, the show soon became a hit among TV audiences. The third instalment of the series, which ran across six episodes, wrapped early last month (February). Its finale episode alone reportedly pulled an audience of a whopping 11.1 million. Its loyal viewership has since led to the series to be considered as one of the most-watched dramas of the last decade. Amid the show’s warm reception, some fans online are surprised Happy Valley’s third season has not received any nominations at the 2023 BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises. We explain why the show is missing from the award show’s 2023 nominations as BAFTA addresses the show’s absence. The popular BBC drama did not make the prestigious award shows nominations list this year as it was not eligible to be considered for accolades within the 2023 ceremony. The 2023 entries opened in October 2022, and at the time, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts outlined that the eligibility window for the upcoming awards was between January 1 2022, to December 31 2022. This means that TV shows and films released within that window will only be eligible to receive nominations. Happy Valley sadly was not released in this period, which is why it didn’t make the 2023 nominations list. The show just missed the cut-off of eligibility as the third season premiered on January 1 2023. BAFTA has addressed confusion around why the show was missing from the 2023 nominations on Twitter. In response to a fan on Twitter, the official account for the awards clarified the show will be eligible for the 2024 awards as it came out earlier this year. Despite the show not receiving any BAFTA nominations for its third season just yet, Happy Valley has been recognised by prestigious awards in the past. The drama had its first nod from the awards in 2015, following the release of its first season the previous year. That year the show won Best Drama Series, with the show’s stars, Sarah Lancashire and James Norton, also nominated for awards. In 2017 the show won three more BAFTAs. It once again won Best Drama Series, but its creator Sally Wainwright also received the award for Best Writer in the drama category. Sarah Lancashire, who’s character is at the centre of the show, also walked home with Best Leading Actress.
