Wuthering Heights named Britain's favourite love story of all time

Emily Bronte's 1847 tale of thwarted love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, set on the Yorkshire moors, beat classics by Daphne du Maurier, DH Lawrence and Bronte's elder sister Charlotte.

Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen's comic novel about the love affair which develops between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, came second.

Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet, the oldest work in the Top 20, is third.

The poll, commissioned by UKTV Drama, found the 1595 play also contains the favourite romantic moment of all time: The star-crossed lovers' balcony scene.

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Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was fourth, followed by Margaret Mitchell's American Civil War epic Gone With The Wind.

The film version, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, won eight Oscars.

The English Patient, set in the Second World War, was sixth, followed by du Maurier's 1938 classic Rebecca and the Russian tale of anguished love Doctor Zhivago.

DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, the story of a passionate affair between an aristocrat and gamekeeper, was ninth and Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd tenth.

The remainder of the top 20 features My Fair Lady, the musical screenplay of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, The African Queen, The Great Gatsby, Sense And Sensibility and War And Peace.

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The poll found only 16 per cent of women have never read a romantic novel, compared to two-thirds of men.

Thirty-nine per cent of women admit romantic stories involving hapless heroines make them weep, while 37 per cent said they would rather have a Darcy-type figure sweep them off their feet than a modern man.

The survey also found 10 per cent of women admit to boosting their lacklustre love lives with romantic fiction.

Richard Kingsbury, channel head at UKTV Drama, said: "It's heartening to see that these classic stories have the power to captivate 21st century audiences."

The survey of 2,000 people was carried out to mark a three-week Summer of Love by Andrew Davies season on UKTV Drama.