The makers of hit TV quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has won a top business award for selling the programme to more than 60 countries worldwide.

London-based Celador Productions has been awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise after the show's format became a huge success in countries such as the United States, India, Japan and Australia.

Motor firm Land Rover won two awards, for trade and innovation, in recognition of its expansion of exports to more than 140 markets worldwide.

Trade Minister Richard Caborn said the organisers were pleased with number of applications compared with last year, but said businesses in the north of the country were under-represented.

Celador's chairman Paul Smith said that when host Chris Tarrant uttered the catchphrase "Is that your final answer?" on the first show in the UK in 1998, the company had no idea how successful it would become.

"Two years on, in half the countries in the world, you could ask someone, 'Do you want to phone a friend?' and they would know what you were talking about," he said.

Praising technology

This year's 133 award winners, selected from 893 enterprising applicants, came from varied business backgrounds.

The retailer Debenhams was a winner in the innovation award category.

It was praised for harnessing technology in its new wedding service, which offers the bride and groom the chance to register on-line and to compile their present list using a scanner.

Another winner in the category was Hampshire-based Fish Guidance Systems, which has developed a product to prevent fish from being sucked into power station inlets.

The acoustic system takes advantage of the sensitive hearing of fish to drive them away.

Betty's & Taylors Group of North Yorkshire, a family business famous for Betty's Tea Shops, was given an award for numerous environmental and social initiatives.