More surprising for a nation that prides itself on its sense of history and intellectual rigour, Coluche and Bourvil, two modern comedians, and Edith Piaf, the late chanteuse, were voted into the Top Ten in French TV’s version of the BBC’s Great Britons series.

Viewers of France 2 television, the main state network, picked a list heavy with modern celebrities and full of people who make the nation feel good — and French.

Napoleon and Joan of Arc, two martial leaders beaten by the British, did not make it into the final.

Second place went to Louis Pasteur, the 19th-century scientist, followed in third by the Abbé Pierre, a 92-year-old ecclesiastical helper of the poor who enjoys saint-like status. Marie Curie, the discoverer of radium, was the top woman in fourth place.

De Gaulle, who died in 1970, is revered for restoring French honour by leading resistance from London during the Nazi occupation and then by ending the Algerian War and reviving Gallic grandeur in the 1960s with nuclear weapons, a quarrel with the US and a veto against British membership of the European Community.

The dominance of entertainers reflects a mood of revolt against politicians and opposition to the EU constitution before a May 29 referendum.

TOP TEN GREATS

1 Charles de Gaulle

2 Louis Pasteur

3 Abbé Pierre (monk, aged 92, famous for charity work)

4 Marie Curie

5 Coluche (comedian, died in 1986, aged 42)

6 Victor Hugo

7 Bourvil (actor-singer, died in 1970)

8 Molière

9 Jacques-Yves Cousteau

10 Edith Piaf

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