Wild sex, chimps and award ceremonies top the list of the best UK TV exports, but they also prove that, as far as viewers are comncerned, crime does pay.

MICHAEL Jackson was on top in the 2003 list. Gillette World Sport, a round-up of global action from football to snowboarding, took premier position the following year. But a decidedly odd mix of film awards ceremony, chimps and wild sex proved the biggest UK TV exports of 2005.

Detectives, with Midsomer Murders policeman John Nettles as our top of the cops export, continue to be consistently popular with overseas buyers. The growth in the sale of TV formats is also booming, along with revenues for DVD and video sales.

The exploitation of TV programmes internationally reached £632m last year, a massive 21 per cent increase on 2004, according to figures collated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Creative industries minister James Purnell believes the results make it clear that audiences outside the UK love British TV.

"We make some of the most diverse and creative programmes around the world," he says. "We're not just good at classic sit-coms and whodunits, we're also great at creating new formats."

Comedies and drama remain the mainstay of TV exports but reality shows are proving a hit overseas too. Jamie's School Dinners, in which celebrity chef Jamie Oliver took on the Government in a bid to improve the quality of school meals, is just one of the home-made programmes making an impact worldwide.

The series, along with Jamie's Kitchen, will make its debut on a US cable channel later this year. His latest show, Jamie's Great Escape, in which he travels around Italy sampling and cooking local dishes, will also debut in the US, having been sold to 25 other territories already.

Previous documentaries that have done well include Living With Michael Jackson, the controversial ITV programme featuring Martin Bashir's encounters with the singer at his Neverland Ranch. This was seen in more than 120 countries, proving 2003's biggest export.

The 2005 top ten found a three-way tie for first place with The Bafta film awards ceremony emerging as big a seller as two wildlife series, Chimps and Wild Sex.

In recent years, the organisers of The Baftas have repositioned the event to try to rival the American Oscars. The overseas success of the Baftas coverage must come as a relief as viewing figures here slumped to around three million for BBC1's broadcast.

British detective series have always attracted foreign buyers, with John Thaw's Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders joined by two Agatha Christie sleuths, Poirot and Miss Marple, among the top earners proving crime can pay.

BBC2's big reality hit The Apprentice, featuring bloodshed in the boardroom with mentor Sir Alan Sugar, also makes in the latest top 20.

New to the list is Wild At Heart, ITV1's set-in-Africa drama that failed to meet with critical approval but achieved the lion's share of Sunday evening ratings earlier this year.

It's not just dramas like Midsomer Murders, which has been sold to more than 200 countries, that do well. So do documentaries such as the BBC's historical reconstructions, including Pompeii - The Last Day, and the award-winning documentary, The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off. More than 60 countries have screened the moving story of Jonny Kennedy since the first showing on C4 in 2004.

The sales market for TV formats was up 60 per cent. This is particularly important in countries where cultural differences make it more difficult to sell finished products.

Everyone is looking for a reality format that will top the daddy of them all, Big Brother - although that's from the Netherlands. Shows from That'll Teach 'Em and You Are What You Eat to It's Me Or The Dog and Changing Rooms turn up in locally-made versions around the world.

The UK-originated Idols format has sold globally, with American Idol achieving record ratings. Versions in other countries, notably Singapore and Australia, have scored with viewers too. Strictly Come Dancing, Wife Swap and Supernanny have all been remade in the US with success. Ricky Gervais's The Office had two bites of the cherry - the original was popular on cable TV and led to an American-made version, which was then shown on TV over here.

Other programmes are re-edited for foreign channels . Domestic hits being "re-versioned" to attract global sales include Fifth Gear and the BBC series Days That Shook The World, which has been reworked into 22 different versions to attract overseas buyers.

TOP UK TV EXPORTS 2005

1 Baftas/Chimps/Wild Sex

2 Midsomer Murders

3 Wild At Heart

4 American Idols/Idols

5 Naked Science

6 When Hitler Invaded England

7 Ancient Egyptians

8 Miss World

9 Brainiac

10 Agatha Christie's Poirot