Adam Hills' 'The Last Leg' Nominated For British Comedy Award

Aussie comedian Adam Hills and his acclaimed Channel 4 series The Last Leg have been nominated as the year's Best Comedy Entertainment Programme in the forthcoming British Comedy Awards.

Hills is the only Australian to make the cut — even among the US-centric 'Best International Comedy Programme' category — but it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise; The Last Leg has been almost universally praised since its inception in 2012, when it was conceived as a comedic companion piece to the Paralympic Games.

Those who are familiar with Hills' performance as host on the show will know that he deftly straddles the chasm between biting satire and heartfelt honesty, sometimes in the space of a single rant, and his increasingly infamous spiels against, for example, the late Joan Rivers and the Westboro Baptist Church have gone on to be viral sensations online.

The Last Leg faces off against Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe, Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and The Graham Norton Show, and is the only show in its division to have the humility to drop its host's name from its title (it was formerly known as The Last Leg With Adam Hills).

Other programs well-known Down Under up for awards include QI and Would I Lie To You (Best Comedy Panel Programme), Cardinal Burns and Horrible Histories (Best Sketch Show), The Trip To Italy (Best Sitcom), The Wrong Mans and Inside No. 9 (Best Comedy Drama, Best New Comedy Programme), and the International Comedy Programme contenders (Girls, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Modern Family and Veep). In addition, the awards recognise the year's best comedy film, comedy moment, male and female TV comics, breakthrough artist, and best TV comedy actor and actress.

The 2014 British Comedy Awards will be held on Tuesday, December 16, at London's Fountain Studios.