Globes recognise British talent

Dench's portrayal of Murdoch has been tipped for an Oscar

British talent has had a good year in Hollywood, according to the Golden Globe nominations announced on Thursday.

Actors and songwriters received more than a dozen nominations with Richard Eyre's new film Iris receiving three nods.

Mirren: Nomination for period drama Gosford Park

Iris is the story of the late UK novelist and philosopher Dame Iris Murdoch, who died in February 1999 after succumbing to Alzheimer's disease.

Judi Dench's portrayal of the writer has already won critical plaudits. Now she has received a Golden Globe nomination, with two further nominations going to her co-stars Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet.

Drama

Ewan McGregor has capped a successful year with a nomination for his acting in the Baz Luhrmann musical Moulin Rouge.

Helen Mirren has received a nomination for work as supporting actress in Gosford Park, the Robert Altman-directed drama about 1930s England.

Branagh's Conspiracy role has already earned an Emmy

And supporting actor nominations also went to Ben Kingsley for Sexy Beast and Jude Law for Artificial Intelligence: AI.

A best comedy nod went to Sharon Maguire's Bridget Jones's Diary.

British songwriters also received nominations for the best original song: Paul McCartney for Vanilla Sky, and Sting for Kate & Leopold.

Wartime

In the TV nominations, Emma Thompson got a nod for Wit, and her former husband Kenneth Branagh for Conspiracy.

Hannah Taylor Gordon was nominated for playing the doomed wartime diarist Anne Frank, and Damian Lewis for his role in the Spielberg-produced war series Band of Brothers.

Taylor Gordon: 14 when she portrayed Anne Frank

The Golden Globes were launched in 1944 when a group of movie stars met foreign journalists at the 20th Century Fox studios to see what the journalists had found to be especially interesting and worthwhile during the year.

The journalists decided to make the retrospective a yearly event and, in order not to be swayed by other Hollywood opinions, arranged for the awards to be given before the Oscars.

This year's awards ceremony will be held on 20 January 2002, and broadcast live on US TV network NBC.