BROADCHURCH’S DI Alec Hardy is to battle it out in an award for best TV detective.

The character played by David Tennant in the popular drama starring West Bay has been nominated for the new category in the National Television Awards, along with DS Ellie Miller, played by Olivia Colman.

Broadchurch is also a contender for the Best Drama category.

Series creator Chris Chibnall said: “We're delighted to be nominated in the National Television Awards but we're up against some amazing shows: we need the Bridport vote!

“You can vote online and maybe we'll be able to bring a bit of Dorset pride to the awards in January!”

Superfan Becca Overton, from Lyme Regis, is urging people to cast their votes in the competition.

The unofficial Facebook page she created in January now has almost 60,000 ‘likes’ and she credits the surge in hits to the increasing number of American fans, where the drama is currently being screened.

Miss Overton even got to meet Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall following her efforts.

She said: “I was in West Bay, which seemed appropriate, and I saw him there with his wife.

“I was a bit nervous about approaching him, but he couldn’t have been nicer.

“He knew me from the Facebook site as soon as I told him my name, and actually thanked me for everything I’ve done.”

She is also recognised in Lyme Regis by fans of the drama.

Speaking about the nominations, Miss Overton said she was ‘thrilled’.

“I can’t believe how much it’s taken off. I was gutted Olivia did not get best actress at the TV Choice Awards, but you never know with this.”

Broadchurch has already won a host of awards, scooping best new drama at the TV Choice Awards earlier this month.

The series is proving very popular in America, Miss Overton added.

“A lot of the new ‘likes’ I am getting on the Facebook site are coming from there.

“It’s also been shown in Croatia, Australia, Brazil. It’s great that West Bay is getting such a lot of publicity.”

The fictional Dorset detectives are up against super sleuths Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, David Suchet’s Hercule Poirot and Jonathan Creek, portrayed by Alan Davies.

The murder mystery is one of 36 nominees in the running for Best Drama, and contenders include Homeland, the White Queen and Downton Abbey.

The winners will be announced at the National Television Awards at the O2 Arena in London on January 22.

To cast your vote, visit www.nationaltvawards.com before October 11.

THE Americans are coming to West Bay – or at least logging on – to see where Broadchurch was filmed.

John May, webmaster for the westbay.co.uk website, had been originally puzzled by the number of hits the site has been getting in the past few weeks.

Although nothing like the 200 visitors a minute when the show was on here, the USA factor is nevertheless accounting for 200 hits an hour.

He said: “A few days ago I was checking the ‘real time’ visitors to the website in the evening.

“As usual, visitors were looking on the Broadchurch pages but when I broke it down to location I found many were from the USA, with some also from Canada. Initially I was puzzled until the ‘penny dropped’ and realised Broadchurch must be on air on their TV.

“The activity during the early hours was showing a six-fold increase in August compared to July.

“At least our American friends now know we exist, are checking us out and discovering we have some beautiful coastline.”

At its height 9.5million UK viewers tuned into the see who killed Danny Latimer.