Richard Shanley

Game of Thrones pitted against The Night Manager at National Television Awards

By Euro Weekly News Media • 13 January 2017 • 10:00

BEST DRAMA: Will it be Game of Thrones or The Night Manager?

DID the Battle of the Bastards leave you breathless, or were you blown away by the gorgeous antics of Tom Hiddleston’s suave spy? Now’s the time to have your say, with fantasy epic Game of Thrones up against The Night Manager for best Drama at the National Television Awards 2017.

GoT is the one US drama to make it onto the shortlist this year, which is otherwise dominated by the best of British. It faces stiff competition in not just The Night Manager but also the ever-popular Casualty, ITV’s heartwarming Cold Feet and acclaimed cop thriller Happy Valley – with that show’s star Sarah Lancashire also competing with Hiddleston for best Drama Performance.

Jenna Coleman (Victoria) and Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) are also on the shortlist for what’s sure to be another hard-fought category.

Sherlock returned with a bang last week and it looks like a LOT of you were watching it. In fact, more people saw the series four opener ‘The Six Thatchers’ than any other show this Christmas period – barring the New Year’s Eve fireworks, which pulled in 11.6 million. The episode had an average audience of 8.1 million, ahead of the Queen’s Christmas message with 7.7 million people, according to the BBC. However, the new episode was slightly below last year’s New Year’s Day Sherlock special, which had 8.4 million.

Mrs Brown’s Boys was another big hit viewed by an estimated 6.7 million, ahead of EastEnders’ dramatic Ronnie and Roxy deaths at 6 million. Coronation Street drew in slightly more than EastEnders with 6.2 million.

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