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National Television Awards 2013: Downton Abbey beats Doctor Who, Sherlock and Merlin to top prize Julian Fellowes' drama was crowned the cream of the year's TV drama at the annual awards ceremony (RADIO TIMES)

Julian Fellowes' period drama beat Merlin to the prize and also made it an award-free night for Sherlock and Doctor Who after their stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith missed out in the Best Drama Performance category to Colin Morgan.

Phyllis Logan, who plays Mrs Hughes in the ITV series, accepted the award, saying "To be in such exhalted company as the other nominees is doubly exhalting". She also praised Fellowes for "capturing the imagination of you all, and everyone around the world".

READ MORE: (SPOILER) http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-01-23/national-television-awards-2013-downton-abbey-beats-doctor-who-sherlock-and-merlin-to-top-prize

Sherlock and Doctor Who go head-to-head in Television Awards 2013 Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith go head to head for male performance and drama awards at tonight's National Television Awards. (TELEGRAPH)

Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith are in direct competition in the 2013 National TV Awards. Photo: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

By Alice Vincent9:58AM GMT 23 Jan 2013


Tonight's National Television Awards will put Stephen Moffat creations Doctor Who and Sherlock head to head for the public vote. Both programmes are nominated for the drama and male drama performance categories, putting Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith in competition.

Doctor Who did well at last year's awards, with Matt Smtih and co-star Karen Gillan picking up awards for most popular performance, male and female respectively. Despite leaving the show in September, Gillan is nominated again for female perfomance.

read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9820253/Sherlock-and-Doctor-Who-go-head-to-head-in-Television-Awards-2013.html

Doctor Who and Sherlock battle for National Television awards BBC1 shows among those nominated for best drama alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Matt Smith for best actor John Plunkett The Guardian, Monday 7 January 2013 (THE GUARDIAN)

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch will be competing for National Television awards best actor against rival Matt Smith of Doctor Who. Both shows are also up for best drama. Photograph: AP

Sherlock and Doctor Who will go head to head later this month for two of the big prizes at the National Television awards, which will feature a special award to celebrate the success of the Olympics and Paralympics.

The two BBC1 shows are both nominated for best drama, along with ITV1's Downton Abbey and Merlin, which has just been brought to an end by BBC1.

Doctor Who's Matt Smith and Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch are in the running for the best drama actor prize, along with Merlin's Colin Morgan and Daniel Mays, who starred in ITV1's Mrs Biggs.

The nominations bode well for Steven Moffat, the Doctor Who showrunner who is also, along with former League of Gentlemen star Mark Gatiss, co-creator of Sherlock.

There is another Doctor Who nomination for Karen Gillan, who played the doctor's former companion Amy Pond and bowed out of the series last year.

Gillan is nominated in the drama performance female category, along with Miranda Hart of BBC1's Call The Midwife, Suranne Jones of ITV1's Scott & Bailey and Sheridan Smith (Mrs Biggs).

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/08/doctor-who-sherlock-national-tv-awards