Harry & Paul, Star Stories, That Mitchell & Webb Look, The Kevin Bishop Show, The Wrong Door, Touch Me I'm Karen Taylor and Peter Kay's Britain's Got The Pop Factor... are all shortlisted for the award, one of the most respected in international TV.

The only non-UK shows up for the accolade are Canada’s Rick Mercer Report and Israeli TV’s The Saddest Sketch Show In The World, which its makers describe as ‘one of the most outrageous and darkest comedy formats ever conceived’.

Britain has also done well in the best sitcom category, with five of the eight nominations. Shortlisted here are Channel 4’s Free Agents, Plus One and The Inbetweeners, BBC One’s My Family and BBC Two’s Beautiful People.

The other shows up for this award are South Africa’s City Ses 'la Black, Canada’s Little Mosque on the Prairie and German’s Turkish For Beginners.

A record 424 programmes were entered for this year’s awards, which will be handed out in Lucerne, Switzerland, in May.

Festival director Urban Frye said: ‘This marked increase in entries stands testament to the international importance of winning a Rose d’Or. The prestige attached to winning represents a significant business advantage to a programme, particularly in complicated economic times.’