Cranford, broadcast in the US as part of public service broadcaster PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre strand, features the lives of the residents of a small Cheshire market town in the 1840s.

The BBC1 costume drama will be up against HBO’s John Adams, Sci-Fi Channel’s Tin Man and A&E’s The Andromeda Strain in the best miniseries category.

Dench, nominated in the best actress in a miniseries or movie category for her role as kindhearted spinster Matty Jenkyns, will compete against Susan Sarandon in HBO’s Bernard and Doris; Laura Linney in John Adams; Catherine Keener in Showtime’s American Crime; and Phylicia Rashad in ABC’s A Raisin in the Sun.

Dame Eileen Atkins, nominated in the best supporting actress in a miniseries or movie category for her role as Cranford’s Miss Deborah, will compete with against fellow Briton Ashley Jensen for her role in the final Extras, screened on HBO in the US; Laura Dern in HBO’s Recount; Alfre Woodard in CBS’s Pictures of Hollis Woods; and Audra McDonald in A Raisin in the Sun.