Mark Rylance vies with Aidan Turner for Broadcasting Press Guild Awards success
Wolf Hall's Mark Rylance will battle Poldark heartthrob Aidan Turner for the best actor accolade at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards (BPGs).
The Kent-born actor recently caused an upset at the Academy Awards when he beat much-fancied Creed star Sylvester Stallone to the best supporting actor Oscar.
The 56-year-old won for his role in Bridge Of Spies.
A win at the BPGs will seal an incredible awards season for Rylance, who also took home a Bafta for the Steven Spielberg film.
The best actor category at the BPGs is rounded out by nods for Enfield Haunting's Timothy Spall and London Spy's Ben Whishaw.
Hit TV drama Wolf Hall leads the nominations at Friday's industry awards bash, which celebrates work commissioned in the UK and is voted for by journalists.
The BBC Two show, which merged Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, has received nominations in four categories - including best drama series.
Lauded for its production values and performances, it faces competition from BBC One's Doctor Foster, Sky Atlantic's Fortitude and Channel 4's Humans.
The period drama's two other nominations have gone to Claire Foy for best actress, and Peter Straughan for best writer.
Stockport-born Foy is up against Gemma Chan from Humans, Hunderby's Julia Davis, Suranne Jones from Doctor Foster and River's Nicola Walker.
In the best entertainment/factual entertainment category, First Dates competes against The Great British Bake Off, The Graham Norton Show and Wild Things.
The best single drama award will be contested by BBC One's An Inspector Calls, BBC Two's The Dresser and The Vote - Live From Donmar Warehouse on More 4.
Sky Atlantic's documentary about Scientologists, Going Clear, has been nominated for best single documentary, alongside Love You To Death: A Year Of Domestic Violence on BBC Two, My Son The Jihadi on Channel 4, and BBC Three's Professor Green: Suicide And Me.
Bob Monkhouse: The Million Joke Man on Gold is nominated for best documentary series, with Inside The Commons on BBC Two, Face Of Britain By Simon Schama, also on BBC Two, and The Murder Detectives on Channel 4.
The annual BPG award for innovation in broadcasting will be contested by BT TV for its UHD Channel, ITV's The Sound Of Music Live, More 4's The Vote - Live From Donmar Warehouse and Russell T Davies.
The former Doctor Who executive producer has received recognition for his multi-platform series: Cucumber, Banana And Tofu, which reached out to audiences across Channel 4, E4 and on demand site All 4.
The winners will be announced today at the 42nd BPG Awards lunch in central London.
