Little Britain is up for two awards at the Swiss TV festival

The annual festival, which moved from Montreux to Lucerne last year, runs from 3-8 May.

Lucas and Walliams are up for best male comedy performance while Kay is up for best male performance in a sitcom for Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere.

Other British stars in line for awards include Nighty Night star Julia Davis.

My Family actress Zoe Wanamaker and Pippa Haywood from the Channel 4 sketch show Green Wing are also in the running for awards.

Performance awards

Outside of the performance awards, British shows picked up a total of 48 nominations - 26 of them for BBC programmes.

Little Britain is up for best comedy programme alongside The Catherine Tate Show, Green Wing and Borat and Bruno starring Sacha Baron Cohen of Ali G fame.

Strictly Come Dancing competes for best variety programme with The Keith Barret Show and Lenny Henry's BBC One sketch programme.

Peter Kay (right) is nominated for Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere

And while EastEnders and Coronation Street miss out in the best soap category, Doctors and Family Affairs keep the British flag fluttering.

ITV's Hell's Kitchen, C4's Supernanny and Sky One's football challenge The Match are among the reality shows vying for honours.

And BBC programmes on Mozart, Agatha Christie and The Sound of Music lead the field in the Arts and Specials category.

More than 40 countries are represented at the event, at Lucerne's Culture and Congress Centre, which annually attracts programme producers and entertainment executives from all over the world.

Special awards will be bestowed this year on Sir Bob Geldof, the Monty Python team and the ITV network.