Costume drama Cranford, comedian Harry Hill's zany TV Burp and Jimmy McGovern series The Street are among the shows hoping to scoop Bafta TV Awards later.

Cranford has four nominations - including two in the best actress category for Dame Judi Dench and her co-star Dame Eileen Atkins.

Strictly Come Dancing, Britain's Got Talent, Gavin and Stacey and Peep Show are all up for two prizes.

The ceremony, hosted by Graham Norton, will be held at the London Palladium.

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Dame Judi, who played Matty Jenkyns in the adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's work, has now received 12 Bafta TV nominations and won four.

Dame Eileen, who played elder sister Miss Deborah, was last nominated in 1969 and has never won.

They will face competition in the best actress category from The Street star Gina McKee - who won in 1997 for Our Friends in the North - and newcomer Kierston Wareing for Ken Loach's It's A Free World.

All four contenders in the best actor category are first-time nominees.

They are Sir Anthony Sher for Primo, Matthew Macfadyen for Secret Life, Andrew Garfield for Boy A and Tom Hardy for Stuart: A Life Backwards.

The Street was named best drama series last year, and is nominated again, alongside Life on Mars, Skins and Rome.

Coronation Street has been left off the best continuing drama shortlist, with that trophy to be contested by The Bill, Emmerdale, EastEnders and Holby City.

Harry Hill, who has become a Saturday night fixture with his wacky round-up of the week's TV, is nominated for best entertainment performance and best entertainment programme.

His rivals in the entertainment performance category are Stephen Fry for QI, Simon Amstell for Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins for The Friday Night Project.

The other contenders for entertainment programme are Britain's Got Talent, Strictly Come Dancing and Have I Got News For You.

In the comedy categories, Extras agent Stephen Merchant, David Mitchell from Peep Show, The Thick of It's Peter Capaldi and Gavin and Stacey's James Corden are in the running for best performance.

Gavin and Stacey is also in contention for the audience award - the only category where the winner is chosen by the public.

But it will have to beat TV heavyweights The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing, Britain's Got Talent, Cranford and Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain.

Bruce Forsyth will receive Bafta's highest accolade, the Academy Fellowship, in recognition of Forsyth's "outstanding body of work".

Last year, Victoria Wood, Ricky Gervais and The X Factor won some of the top prizes at the Bafta TV Awards.

(BBC)

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