Los Dos Bros and Kumars triumph in Montreux

Channel 4's Los Dos Bros has won the top sitcom prize at the Montreux television festival.

The show - which had a lukewarm reception in Britain - took the Silver Rose accolade ahead of a field that included My Family, My Hero, Gimme Gimme Gimme and Perfect World.

In the comedy category, Britain lost out to Swedish TV's Hipp Hipp!, although The Kumars at No 42 took the bronze, and animated satire 2DTV took the Press Prize.

Other nominations in that category included The Frank Skinner Show, The Sketch Show, Smack The Pony and Alistair McGowan's Big Impression

The event's top accolade, the Golden Rose, was won by Pop Idol.

Chairman of the judges Peter Bennett-Jones said: "Pop Idol is perfect television, and great entertainment - it is a worthy winner in a competitive field."

At last night's ceremony, Jennifer Saunders also accepted an honorary Golden Rose on behalf of herself and Dawn French.

They are the first women to receive the award, that has been given only ten times in the festival's 42 years, with recipients including Benny Hill, Monty Python and the BBC.

The secretary-general of the Rose d'Or Festival, Georges Luks, said "We are proud of this year's festival. Our live events went very well, especially Comedy Night, and we had such good quality shows across all the competition categories that our juries had some very intense discussions."

Published: 28 Apr 2002