LONDON: Victor Hugo, Moliere, Marie Curie and Charles de Gaulle are still in there fighting. But Alexandre Dumas, Jean-Pauls Sartre and Belmondo and even — bit of an upset, this one — Napoleon are sadly out of the running. Nearly three years after the BBC’s hit Great Britons series, the French, not without some rather Gallic misgivings, have been asked to choose Le plus grand Francais de tous les temps, or The greatest Frenchman ever.

“Dial one for Zizou [Zinedine Zidane], 2 for Zola,” was the headline in Le Figaro, unimpressed by the latest British televisual export to hit French screens. “It’s by no means certain the French will take to this game as willingly as the English ... There’ll be no suspense on this side of the Channel. The General will win hands down.”

The TV channel France 2 unveiled numbers 100 to 11 on Monday. Voting is under way and will continue through 10 documentaries in which selected celebrities — including the interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, and actor Antoine de Caunes — will champion their chosen contender.

Selected by a representative sample of 1,038 people, France’s top 100 contained some surprises. “What the hell were they thinking of?” Asked Le Parisien, noting that the anti-globalization activist Jose Bove (87) and film director Luc Besson (91) were deemed to have contributed more to Gallic glory than Jean-Paul Sartre (96) and Simone de Beauvoir, who did not even make the list.

The full list contains 90 men and 10 women. Sixty-eight of the candidates are dead, and 32 alive. Even in a country which turns philosophers into household names, the world of show business comfortably tops the French poll with 44 representatives, while the arts and literature muster 22, politics 17 and sport just eight.

The top 10 contains few major upsets, with the possible exception of the anarchic comic and one-time presidential candidate Coluche, and the legendary comedian and actor Bourvil, who starred in 55 films and recorded 300 songs.

France’s favourite priest, the Abbe Pierre, who founded the Emmaus charity for the poor and homeless, is in there, as are undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, General de Gaulle, the great romantic poet and novelist Hugo, the 17th-century dramatic genius Moliere, groundbreaking chemist Louis Pasteur and singer Edith Piaf.

Among the notable also-rans, the late president Francois Mitterrand (24) trounced the incumbent, Jacques Chirac (42). However, the diminutive Corsican emperor who created modern-day France could only manage an undistinguished 16th — while the show’s two hosts, TV presenters Michel Drucker and Thierry Hardisson, both made the top 70.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.