Blunkett Affair Actor Vies for International Award

The Channel 4 drama A Very Social Secretary, a feature-length satire about the affair between David Blunkett and Kimberley Quinn, failed to win over the former home secretary but it could earn a gong at the International Emmy awards tonight.

Bernard Hill, who starred as the lovestruck government minister, is nominated for an International Emmy in the best actor category. Hill is competing against Briton Ray Winstone, for the ITV detective series Vincent, which also has a best drama nomination, France's Bernard Farcy for De Gaulle and China's Shen Lin (Feng Qi's Confession). The winner will be announced in New York at a ceremony hosted by TV personality Graham Norton.

British productions dominate the awards, with nominations in 17 of the 36 categories. The best actress nominees include Imelda Staunton, for My Family and Other Animals, and Lucy Cohu for The Queen's Sister, both UK productions.

In the comedy category, British shows The IT Crowd and the multi-award winning series Little Britain, starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas, are nominated.

Another British contender for best drama series, Life on Mars, starring John Simm, is competing against two Brazilian productions, Little Missy and Mandrake.

Germany and Brazil have five nominations each. France has three and Norway two. Japan, China, Sweden and the Netherlands have one nomination each.

The other main award categories include arts programming, children and young people, documentary, non-scripted entertainment and TV film or mini-series.

Among the celebrity presenters expected tonight are CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, CBS news anchor Katie Couric and actor Steven Van Zandt of The Sopranos.

Producer-director Steven Spielberg will be honoured by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with its Founders Award for his "long and distinguished career in television".

Although Spielberg is famous for films, he started on the small screen, directing episodes of TV series including Columbo. Later TV projects were the long-running medical drama ER and the mini-series Band of Brothers.

The academy is the largest organisation of broadcasters, with more than 500 members. It has already announced two winners. Sky News won the breaking news category for its coverage of the 7/7 attacks in London and NOVA/NPS/VARA Television of the Netherlands won for continuing news coverage with its story of US soldiers hunting for Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan.