National Television Awards voters have selected an all-female shortlist in the best drama performance category for the first time.<\/p>\n
The five nominees include previous winner Sheridan Smith, who played campaigner Ann Ming in ITV true crime drama I Fought The Law, and Gavin & Stacey’s Ruth Jones for her role in Netflix thriller Run Away.<\/p>\n
Vicky McClure gets the nod as Trigger Point’s Lana Washington, while Ella Bruccoleri is shortlisted for alternative period drama The Other Bennet Sister, and Judy Parfitt is nominated for playing Sister Monica Joan in Call The Midwife.<\/p>\n
The nominees were chosen in a public vote from an initial longlist that also included stars like David Tennant, Gary Oldman, Idris Elba, James Norton and Tom Hiddleston.<\/p>\n
A second stage of voting is now open to pick the winners in the NTAs’ 15 categories.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere on this year’s shortlists, Stacey Solomon has scored a hat-trick of nominations including best TV presenter.<\/p>\n
That particular award was won last year by then-outgoing Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, breaking Ant and Dec’s remarkable 23-year winning run<\/a>.<\/p>\n Solomon will go up against the Geordie duo for this year’s gong as well as Sir David Attenborough in his 100th birthday year, Traitors and chat show host Claudia Winkleman and Alison Hammond. <\/p>\n In the inaugural celebrity-led reality docuseries award, Solomon and her partner Joe Swash face competition from boxer Tyson Fury, Jeremy Clarkson and Emmerdale actor-turned-farmer Kelvin Fletcher, as well as funny fishermen Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.<\/p>\n