Well, at least there was some good news at the International Emmys bestowed last night at the Hilton Hotel in New York: Poland won its first Golden Girl ever when a live-action fairy-tale program, "The Magic Tree," took the prize for best children's show.

French star Muriel Robin won best actress for portraying the real "black widow" serial killer in "Marie Besnard — The Poisoner" and Dutch star Pierre Bokma tied for best actor when hailed for his role as a religious software entrepreneur in "The Chosen One," but otherwise British TV — as usual — swept the International Emmys.

The U.K. won all other awards — seven of its eight nominations.

That's really unfortunate, even embarrassing, because English-language TV's annual, predictable sweep of these U.S.-based awards is getting downright boring and it telecasts an obvious reality wide and far: this Emmy really isn't international at all. Let's just call this award what it is — the British Emmy — and end this yearly charade.

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has tried hard to fix this problem by setting up judging panels in various locations worldwide, but it obviously hasn't tried hard enough. In the past, some academy officials have actually tried to quiet outcries by claiming that we should all just face facts: Brit TV is superior to other international tube fare. And that's that.

Balderdash!

But now let's get back to how Britannia ruled most Emmy categories again last night. Following up on its recent victory at BAFTA's TV awards in May, "The Street" won another top industry prize as best drama series. Each episode focuses upon the occurrences within a different house on a terraced street in Salford, northern England. Jim Broadbent shared the best-actor Emmy for portraying a warehouse foreman forced into retirement with a worthless pension, but he did not show up to accept this Emmy. Could he possibly still be sore that he lost best actor at the Primetime Emmys two months ago? (Robert Duvall won best actor in a TV movie/mini for "Broken Trail" over Broadbent in "Longford.")

After "Little Britain" won best comedy program last year, this year the category was claimed by "Little Britain Abroad." Well, at least that's one way Emmy, begrudgingly, recognizes overseas environs!

Best docu went to Stephen Fry's "The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive." "This documentary was very important to to," he said, accepting the Emmy. "We need to understand much more about it and most of all we need to address the urgent problem of the stigma."

BBC1's " How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" — a reality-TV talent search to cast "The Sound of Music" — won the trophy for best non-scripted entertainment.

The only British program winner not produced by the BBC was More F's controversial "Death of a President," which imagined the assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush. It won best TV movie/mini series.

Its producer-writer Simon Finch insisted that the film isn't really "anti-Bush" or "a liberal fantasy," adding, "It was meant to be a film which was trying to say that there was something about the age of fear in which we live, about the danger of rushing to judgment."

That Emmy victory was perversely amusing considering who was present to accept the Emmys' honorary Founders' Award: Bush's former political foe, a man who "was elected president in 2000 and voted out of office by the Supreme Court," according to Robert De Niro, who presented the tribute to Al Gore in recognition of his work launching the news channel Current TV.

See the full list of winners — CLICK HERE.

(Photos: iEmmys, FilmFour/More4)