JUDGING by the Golden Globe television awards, the prize for best free trip and luxury hotel stay should go to . . . the BBC.

It has emerged that the corporation spent tens of thousands of pounds flying directors, producers and stars from one of its leading costume dramas to Hollywood so that they could lobby for prizes at award festivals.

A seven-strong contingent from the BBC1 series Cranford – including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins and Imelda Staunton – flew business-class to lobby for nominations to the Emmys and Golden Globe awards last year. They and the BBC production team stayed at luxury hotels favoured by some of Hollywood’s biggest names. A second trip was made to the Golden Globe ceremony itself.

The PR offensive garnered just one acting award.

The stars of Cranford are only the highest-profile beneficiaries of a widespread BBC policy of flying large delegations of executives and actors around the world to lobby for prizes and attend ceremonies. Destinations for other groups have included New York, Berlin, Cannes and Lucerne.

The trips have been disclosed by insiders concerned that, even if the lobbying had been more successful, they have few benefits for the licence fee-payers who fund them; instead they mainly benefit the careers of individual BBC executives.

The corporation argues that lobbying for awards is a vital part of drumming up foreign sales. However, Ed Vaizey, a Conservative culture spokesman, described the spending as “inappropriate” and criticised the BBC’s focus on prizes.

“The BBC should not be spending so much time trying to win awards. It doesn’t need the affirmation in the same way a commercial company does.” One senior television executive, who declined to be named, said: “The sole purpose of this suspect trip was to boost the egos of people at the top of the BBC.”

Disclosure of the lobbying trips adds to growing concerns that the BBC, with its guaranteed income from the licence fee, has lost the ability to control its spending, particularly when it benefits senior staff.

Last week, The Sunday Times reported the extravagant parties the corporation has thrown for favoured executives. Its send-off for Lord Birt, the former director-general, included a £50,000 bash at Hamp-ton Court Palace and an event hosted by Stephen Fry that cost an estimated £100,000.

Cranford, an adaptation of three Victorian novels that drew more than 8m viewers in 2007, was one of the most successful of the BBC’s string of “bonnets and bustles” dramas.

On the first Hollywood trip for the production team and members of the cast, Dench and Sue Birtwistle, the show’s producer, flew with British Air-ways and stayed for two nights in the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills. It is understood that their rooms cost about £360 a night. BA charges up to £7,000 for a business-class return ticket to Los Angeles.

Atkins and Staunton, with a group including Simon Curtis, the show’s director, and Heidi Thomas, the writer, flew Virgin Atlantic and stayed at the five-star Raffles L’Ermitage hotel, also in Beverly Hills. The corporation insists its staff need to stay in such locations to lend it stature in the eyes of international television moguls.

Despite their exertions, the show won no Golden Globes although Atkins did win an award for best supporting actress at the Emmys.

A spokesman for the BBC said: “To suggest travel related to the BBC’s role in promoting British creativity and exports abroad is somehow unnecessary is nothing more than mischievous artifice.” The BBC is “short-changing” its audience by filling schedules with “formulaic, emotionally dishonest junk” according to Tony Garnett, the producer responsible for BBC shows such as Cathy Come Home, This Life, Between the Lines, Ballykiss-angel and The Cops. He accuses the corporation of “opportunistic cynicism”.

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