Olivia Colman’s regal talent in The Favourite must be rewarded with Bafta Best Actress gong – it’d be Gaga not to

IT’S the type of Bafta battle entertainment columnists drool over.

In the blue corner, Olivia Colman. She’s the luvvies’ luvvie. The superb British television actor who toiled away for years without magazine covers or awards nominations.

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Only to, at the grand age of 44 (let’s be honest, ancient by movie standards), become an unlikely Hollywood darling.

Her body of work, versatility, comic timing, gut-wrenching dramatic performances and British down-to-earth nature could no longer be ignored.

And in The Favourite — as the probable lesbian/definitely mad Queen Anne — she’s finally been given a role to see her become a real leading lady.

I mean she even manages to outshine her two “bitches”, as she described them at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, both Oscar winners.

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In the red corner for the Baftas battle next month, it’s Lady Gaga. She’s the pop superstar who, at just 32, was already considered washed up by the brutal music industry so obsessed by youth. She’d been replaced in the charts by Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus — and her country concept comeback Joanne was a commercial flop, despite being brilliant.

But this multi-faceted talent was not going to allow herself to become yesterday’s news. After all, she can act. Like really act. Her one telly role in American Horror Story saw her win a Golden Globe.

Step forward Bradley Cooper who had spent years looking for a triple threat with the talent to reprise Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand’s leading role in the third remake of A Star Is Born.

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A remake that, quite frankly, no one in the industry really wanted or thought was going to work.

Especially after Beyonce turned down the role.

Now my regular readers will know I am a Gaga obsessive.

I was the first columnist in the UK to support her, back in 2008, before she’d had a hit or set foot in this country.

And my devotion has continued. Not because of the meat dresses or crazy stunts — but because she is a true talent. A songwriter and performer, the likes of whom we haven’t seen in many years.

But let me bring the T for just a moment — as someone who would dearly love Gaga to win a Bafta, in A Star Is Born, Gaga played Gaga. Or at least a version of Gaga, the wide-eyed working class gal Ally who becomes an overnight pop sensation.

It was an exquisite performance and it’s established her as a genuine force if she chooses to make acting her primary career going forward.

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But a Best Actress gong at the Baftas, following on from Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep in the last decade alone? Not yet.

Bafta voters surely have to realise this is the year for Colman to blossom from ugly duckling on quirky comedies like Twenty Twelve to the queen of British acting.

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