The British Comedy Awards are set to be aired on Channel 4 on December 12th, hosted- as always- by Jonathan Ross. This year's nominations have a few surprises, but despite three contenders up for the King or Queen of comedy for 2012, everyone's talking about the amount of nominations for Twenty Twelve- four in total, where The Thick of It has only three- although in all three of those categories, they'll be compeating against one another.

The real star of the occasion though is Olivia Colman who has two nominations in the same category but for two different shows: Twenty Twelve and Rev. However, despite breaking records with those nominations, she's not up for the vote for Comedy Royalty. Instead, those go to Jack Whitehall, Alan Carr, Lee Mack, Graham Norton, David Mitchell and Sarah Millican, who'll be defending her title from 2011. The result is down to a public vote, but the strongest contenders are Jack Whitehall, David Mitchell and of course last year's winner. Jack Whitehall is the sproutling of the bunch, but 2012 really has been his year with BBC's Bad Education and Channel 4's Fresh Meat to his credit. 

Harry Hill's TV burp has also received three nominations for the final season of TV Burp. Hill said: "I am thrilled that my personality has been deemed entertaining enough to be nominated for a British Comedy award, particularly in this, the last year of TV Burp, and when I next see it I will be certain to let it know. It would be the icing on the cake if it won - but no pressure", the Guardian Reports.

You can find the full list of nominations on the British Comedy Award Website. Who do you think will win?