Further confirmation came yesterday, if it were needed, at just how spellbound British cinema-goers are with the Lord of the Rings.

The Two Towers, the second in Peter Jackson's adaptation of JRR Tolkien's trilogy, heads a list of this year's top 10 films.

The pre-Christmas release of the Oscar-touted final part, The Return of the King, was too late to be eligible in the BBC1 Film 2003 viewers' poll.

Yesterday, in a special edition of the show which attracts more than 1.5 million viewers in its late-night slot, presenter Jonathan Ross called the trilogy a "phenomenon".

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 was runner-up while Pirates Of The Caribbean, starring Johnny Depp, came third.

Sir Ian McKellen appeared in two films in the top 10 (The Two Towers and X-Men 2) as did British actress Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually).

Spirited Away, by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, came eighth. Ross called it the "art film of the year".

Last December, Ross described the Two Towers in the Daily Mirror as "one of the greatest action adventure fantasy spectaculars ever", but the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw was less keen: "Warning! Film contains ... long-haired men smoking unfeasibly long pipes, women with pointy ears and lots and lots of interminable nerdish nonsense."

Yesterday it emerged that some youngsters face being barred from seeing The Return of the King because of a complaint that it is too violent.

South Oxfordshire district council is considering changing its certificate from 12a to 15. A council spokesman said: "The [British Board of Film Classification] rating is advisory. Normally we accept it but we have had a complaint the rating is too low."

Top 10
1 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2 Kill Bill: Volume 1
3 Pirates of the Caribbean
4 City of God
5 Finding Nemo
6 Love Actually
7 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
8 Spirited Away
9 X-Men 2
10 Gangs of New York