Acclaimed naturist Sir David Attenborough will go head to head with Sir Paul McCartney and Morrissey to be named as Britain's greatest living icon.

The three men have been named on the final shortlist of three to take the overall award after 75‚000 public votes were collected to determine a top ten for BBC2's The Culture Show.

An eventual winner will be announced on December 16th.

Other luminaries already ranked in the top ten include musician David Bowie at four and author Alan Bennett at eight.

Sir David has been at the BBC for more than half a century‚ including a tenure as controller at BBC2. He was knighted in 1985 and can currently be heard narrating BBC1's flagship nature programme Planet Earth.

Ex-Beatle Sir Paul meanwhile has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons this year with his high-profile divorce from Heather Mills McCartney.

In April 2006 former Smiths frontman Morrissey was at number one in the UK album charts with Ringleader of the Tormentors‚ 24 years after forming the famous band‚ whose work continues to resonate in Britain's music scene today.

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