British stars of film and television were rewarded with a host of nominations for the Golden Globes yesterday.

Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet will vie for the Best Actress award, while Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen’s tale of a fictional Kazakh journalist, earned nominations for Best Comedy Actor and Best Comedy Film.

Sophia Okonedo is nominated for Best Performance in a TV Series for Tsunami, The Aftermath and Emily Blunt for Best Supporting Actress in The Devil Wears Prada.

The Globes, awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have a record of choosing many of the films that go on to be nominated for Oscars. All four winners of the last acting Oscars — Reese Witherspoon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and George Clooney — had just won Golden Globes.

Dame Helen is nominated as Best Actress for her leading role in The Queen, which portrays the Royal Family’s reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Dame Judi was nominated for Notes on A Scandal and Winslet for Little Children. Other contenders are Penélope Cruz for Volver and Maggie Gyllenhaal for Sherrybaby.

Dame Helen also earned two nominations in the TV mini- series category for her roles in Elizabeth I and Prime Suspect: The Final Act.

“I am extremely honoured,” she said. “This has been an unprecedented year for me, and I am grateful to have had such well-written roles and to have worked with wonderful directors, actors and crews. I am amazed by the timeliness of The Queen, a story about a leader out of touch with the people, and how the film has struck such a chord with audiences around the world.”

Baron Cohen said: “I am extremely honoured. I have been trying to let Borat know this great news but for the last four hours both of Kazakhstan’s telephones have been engaged.”

Peter O’Toole, the Irish-born star of classics such as Lawrence of Arabia, was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama. His portrayal of an incorrigible rogue in Venus, hailed by critics as irreverently playful and profoundly affecting, was widely tipped for awards glory.

Hugh Laurie was nominated in the TV drama series category for his role in House.

Bleak House, Elizabeth I and Prime Suspect were all listed in the Best TV Series or Film category, with Gillian Anderson nominated for Bleak House.

Babel, a drama that explores cultural gaps, was showered with seven nominations, including Best Dramatic Picture and acting honours for Brad Pitt and Rinko Kikuchi.Also nominated for Best Dramatic Picture were the Robert Kennedy story Bobby, the Mob tale The Departed and the suburban drama Little Children.

Chiwetel Ejiofor earns a nomination as Best Comedy Actor for his role in Kinky Boots and another for Tsunami.

Sir Ben Kingsley is nominated for Mrs Harris and Bill Nighy for Gideon’s Daughter. Jeremy Irons is nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series or Film for Elizabeth I.

The cast list of starring contenders

Best Picture (drama): Babel, Bobby, The Departed, Little Children, The Queen

Best Actress: Dame Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen), Penelope Cruz (Volver), Kate Winslet (Little Children) Maggie Gyllenhaal (SherryBaby)

Best Picture (musical or comedy): Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, Thank You For Smoking

Best Actor (musical/ comedy): Sacha Baron Cohen, (Borat), Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest), Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots), Will Ferrell (Stranger Than Fiction)

Best Director: Clint Eastwood (Flags of our Fathers), Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima), Stephen Frears (The Queen), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Martin Scorsese (The Departed)