The French guard their native culture with a steely resolve: no foreign incursions into their language go unpoliced and radio stations must commit to play a set proportion of French tunes. And yet, this weekend television audiences across the country will be sitting down to enjoy programmes created on the other side of the Channel – by British producers.

"There is a widespread view that British creative talent is the best around at the moment," said Catherine Wright, an expert in French television who has written for Le Film Français, the country's leading trade publication for the film and TV industry. "It all started with drama, which they started buying in a lot. The French audiences loved ITV's Broadchurch in particular and people talked about it all the time, even though as a general rule the French don't talk as much about TV as the British do."

Three shows originated by the BBC – covering the disparate subjects of antiques, sewing and ballroom dancing –were on air on Saturday night, while The Voice, a singing talent show that is an established schedule favourite in Britain but started life in Holland, remains one of France's most popular entertainment shows. By next month there will be an astonishing five BBC formats at the heart of the French evening lineup across four different channels – including a new French version of Top Gear to run in conjunction with the already highly popular dubbed British version. The key BBC entertainment shows this weekend are Vos Objets Ont Une Histoire, based on Antiques Roadshow, which goes out from this month on France 2 on Saturday evenings; Cousu Main, based upon our Sewing Bee and shown on M6 on Saturdays. Strictly Come Dancing, known in France as Danse Avec Les Stars, will be starting its fifth season of Saturday night outings this weekend on TF1, just as the new season of the original British show gets into its swing post-Brucie, while The Weakest Link, or Le Maillon Faible, is aired on D8. Returning next month also by popular demand is France's take on The Great British Bake Off, Le Meilleur Pâtissier. The channel RMC Découverte's eagerly anticipated new version of Top Gear is due to air early next year.

Jean Louis Blot, executive managing director of production for BBC Worldwide France is behind much of this success, but said he has had to engineer a few differences to the British formats to get them to fit. "There is no humour in the French versions of Strictly, for a start," he said this weekend, speaking to the Observer from the set of the show in Paris. "There is no separate results show either. The whole thing takes place between 9pm and 11pm on the Saturday night with the results coming at the end. We have four judges and 11 celebrities. The judges include a Canadian a French choreographer who has worked on Strictly and Chris Marquez and the famous ballet dancer Marie-Claude Pietragalla, who would be the equivalent of Darcey Bussell I think in that she is well known in France and has even run her own dance company and Matt Pokora."

Blot suspects many French viewers are not aware that the shows they love are British by birth. "In fact I think they are sometimes more aware of the American versions of these shows, because they are more likely to have heard of the participants, for example Pamela Anderson on Dancing with the Stars." Blot is proud of the decision to create a French version of Top Gear next year, despite the French "petrolheads" devotion to their dubbed Jeremy Clarkson version. He has also watched the growing fanbase for the French bake-off show, which started in 2012 and is judged by France's answer to Jamie Oliver, Cyril Lignac. He believes that there is no end in view to the boom in British entertainment formats.

"There is strong sense at the moment that the British are the best at creating both brands and content and not just in television but in music too, with One Direction's success," he said. "It's the same with story with franchises such as James Bond and Harry Potter, they really seem to work. I don't think it will stop any time soon because there are plenty more new ideas coming out and, perhaps most importantly, in this economic climate French television executives don't want to take any risks, so they are happier if they can see that a show has already worked in Britain."

Wright, who has chronicled developments in French TV, has seen the declining influence of the Dutch company Endemol, creators of Big Brother.

"Having said that, you have to be really careful about the way you introduce a British format into France," she added. "You have to work hard. When the French first heard about Strictly Come Dancing they said, "No, It is not what we do", but Jean Louis managed to convince them. It was a ratings success, with viewing figures of 5 million, but it took quite a while for the advertisers to come on board too."

Wright agrees that sense of humour is the biggest difference in tone. "Instead of making fun of yourself, the French would generally rather laugh at the expense of somebody else," she said. "There is also a feeling that people on television have to be very good looking. When Danse Avec Les Stars began they had two slightly more ordinary looking judges. They now have exchanged them for a more telegenic panel."

Differences between the two television cultures on either side of the channel are slowly disappearing, Wright thinks. "There are gradually more similarities between what we all watch," she said. To adapt a famous saying about the differences between America and Britain, it could now be said that where France and Britain were once divided by their shared television culture, they may one day be united.