For British viewers, 'foreign' imports were traditionally really not something to be proud of. Commercial stations began screening action-adventure series from the USA in the 1950s in a bid to win the ratings battle without spending too much money on producing programmes themselves. The first American sitcom to be screened here was I Love Lucy, with dramas such as Dragnet and The Untouchables soon scoring highly in the viewer appreciation indexes.

Sometimes the shows would actually be British exports, reformatted and sold back to us - Sanford and Son and All in the Family being good examples. But even when shows such as M*A*S*H and Hill Street Blues came along, there was something sniffy about them in the eyes of British TV critics.

Now, however, few would argue that some of the best shows in any genre come from America. The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Frasier - all critically acclaimed and showing us Brits what we should be doing.

With some of the best TV around coming from outside of Britain, can our critics afford to be snooty about it any more? Is Britain still the home of the best TV in the world?

It's time to have your say...