KEIRA KNIGHTLEY and Dame Judi Dench are leading a powerful British showing at the nominations for the Golden Globe awards, the prizes regarded as the best indicator for success at the Oscars next year.

They are joined by Rachel Weisz and Bob Hoskins in a band of nine actors and actresses and five films and television series representing Britain in the shortlists announced yesterday.

Knightley, 20, who can already charge fees of £6 million a film, can expect to increase her rates yet again after being nominated in the Best Actress category for her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice.

The nominations also celebrate six films shown at The Times bfi London Film Festival, including The Constant Gardener and Good Night, and Good Luck, the opening and closing galas.

Nominated British films include Mrs Henderson Presents, the story of a widow who saves a moribund theatre by arranging the first nude shows on the British stage, and Working Title’s adaptation of the novel Pride and Prejudice.

The triple nomination for Mrs Henderson Presents is a surprising triumph for Bob Hoskins, who also funded the film.

The actor has not been shortlisted for a big award since he was nominated for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? at the Golden Globes in 1989.

Hugh Laurie also continues his career revival with a nomination for his portrayal of a sardonic doctor in the American medical drama House.

The actor’s profile waned in the 1990s when he exchanged television comedy roles for voice-acting, but he has become a darling of the American media for his mumbling American accent.

His voice was so convincing during his audition that the director, Bryan Singer, declared: “See, this is what I want: an American guy.”

Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald were both shortlisted for their roles as awkward lovers in Richard Curtis’s made-for-television film The Girl in the Café.

Kenneth Branagh is competing with Nighy in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture made for Television category for playing Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Warm Springs. He narrowly missed an Emmy award in July for the same role.

Polly Walker, who disrobed for the BBC’s co-production Rome, also impressed the judges enough to be shortlisted, alongside Glenn Close and Geena Davis, for Best Actress in a television series.

Two British musicians have also been nominated.

Bernie Taupin, who is best known for his collaborations with Elton John, was named for his lyrics for A Love That Will Never Grow Old, which featured in Brokeback Mountain.

Harry Gregson was ranked alongside musical giants such as John Williams in Best Original Score for his music for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The BBC added to the British nominations tally with Rome, a co-production with HBO, and Viva Blackpool, a crime drama starring David Tennant that was broadcast domestically as Blackpool.

Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee’s film of homosexuality among cowboys on a ranch in Wyoming, led the field yesterday with seven nominations. The film, based on E. Annie Proulx’s short story and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, will now be tipped as a top contender for the Academy Award nominations, which will be announced on January 31.

The Golden Globes is judged by about 90 reporters belonging to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, but it is the second most prestigious American film awards because of its record for predicting the choices of the Academy.

Two years ago the Golden Globes predicted winners in all acting categories and the best picture category.

Actresses from Desperate Housewives dominated the category for Best Performance in a Television Series with nominations for Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria.

The fifth nominee is Mary-Louise Parker for Weeds.

Irish actors claim two nominations: Pierce Brosnan for Best Performance in a Motion Picture for The Matador and Jonathan Rhys Meyers was nominated for Best Performance in a Mini-series or a Motion Picture made for Television for Elvis.

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