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THIS is your last chance to vote for the Times/South Bank Show Breakthrough Artist of the Year in this unique collaboration between The Times and Britain’s leading TV arts show.

Thousands have voted for their favourite. In fact, so many let their enthusiasm run wild that they found a way to vote more than once. Sorry, it means we have had to replace the online votes with e-mail. The phone line is still valid.

The award will be presented by comedian Lee Evans, star of The Producers, on Thursday, January 27, at the Savoy Hotel in London. Among the presenters of the awards at The South Bank Show’s annual ceremony will be Maxim Vengerov, Chris Offili, Lenny Henry, Alina Cojocaru, Rhys Ifans, Sue Townshend and Michael Crawford.

And here’s a bonus: there are two tickets to attend the glittering lunch for anyone who votes today — whether by e-mail or phone. The name of the winner will be chosen at random.

Here’s the line-up for the first Breakthrough award.

James McAvoy, TV actor

After his performances in State of Play and Shameless, as the wheeler-dealing charmer Steve, you’ll later be able to boast of having played a slender part in this actor’s triumph when he finally attains the summit — like, say, the outfitter who furnished Sir Edmund Hillary with the socks he wore on his ascent of Everest?

Andrea Levy, novelist

British fiction is pretty fit these days — one of its glories is the wealth of new voices that are bringing all kinds of meanings to the word British. And Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island shows that she’s playing at the top of her game, or anyone else’s game, for that matter.

Will Smith, comedian

While most of his comic peers are still content to go for bad-taste overkill, the self-deprecating Smith proves that there’s still plenty of mileage in quiet under-statement, with a clever approach to the art of generating social embarrassment. He has the potential to be an upmarket Pooter for the Happy Hour set.

Nicola Benedetti, violinist

A vote for this 17-year-old isn’t just a vote for outstanding talent, years of preparation, dazzling potential and glamour. It’s also a vote for Britain as a country that isn’t entirely immersed in trivia, but one where it is still possible to celebrate serious musicians — people who make more demands on our brain and our ears, but give us something profound and beautiful in return.

Mark Stone, opera baritone

There are opera singers who can sing. There are others who can act. There are even a few who can look good. But there aren’t many who can do all of these and more. For an art form in dire need of sex appeal, theatrical pizazz and star quality as well as top musical standards, Stone is a godsend. Just as important, he works best with directors determined to show that opera is the most vibrant form of theatre going. Used right, he could be at the centre of a renaissance of British opera.

Lauren Cuthbertson, dancer

If we are to preserve any kind of national style in our ballet, we need all the English dancers we can get and Lauren Cuthbertson is a real English rose of ballet. Born in Devon and trained at the Royal Ballet School, the young Covent Garden soloist, who danced Juliet at the age of 19 last year, is already making audiences take notice.

Ben Whishaw, actor

He was only 23 when he gave us the rawest, most vulnerable Hamlet the British theatre had seen for 40-odd years. Reedy, sulky, bewildered, grieving, intense and painfully honest, here was an actor built to last.

Amma Asante, film director

She is one of the most exciting prospects in British cinema to emerge in the past 12 months. She is a brassy talent whose debut film, A Way of Life, paints a scorching portrait of teenagers who’ve done too much, much too young. This is exactly the kind of promise that this award should nurture. In fact, our film industry demands it.

Razorlight, pop group

Forget all the arguments about musical technique, artistic excellence and high cultural significance. As pop idols since Elvis Presley and the Beatles have shown, if you put a great song in the right hands you can change the world. Razorlight have the songs and the divine sense of mission necessary to brush aside all competition.

Lali Chetwynd, artist

This is a difficult time for new British artists to make a real breakthrough. Brit-art was like a brand. We bought into it. And the market boomed. But who next? Lali Chetwynd doesn’t offer any easy answers. Her work isn’t easy to package. It’s messy, exotic, flamboyant, ambitious. It bursts like a flashbulb on to the brain. It’s exactly the sort of dynamism needed now.

So get voting. By e-mail: breakthrough@thetimes.co.uk or phone: 0870 9093819 (national rates apply)