Golden Globe Awards: What you need to know

The 77th Golden Globe Awards take place in Los Angeles, California on Sunday evening.

The awards, which celebrate excellence in film and television, are dished out on behalf of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) - who'll be hoping to set the agenda once again ahead of next month's Oscars (they're right about that roughly half the time).

And despite it being #DryJanuary for some, many Tinseltown stars have traditionally been known to enjoy a drink or three on the night, making for interesting viewing.

But if you don't have an invitation (or even a tuxedo) then don't worry, as we're about to tell you what you need to know.

Ricky Gervais is back to present the Golden Globes for the fifth time this year. He says this will be his "very last" time fronting it, though we'd take that assertion with a shovel of salt as he's said it before.

The English comedian, actor and writer has entertained and offended in equal measure on his previous four outings since 2010.

The 58-year-old told The Hollywood Reporter that once US broadcaster NBC asked him to host again, he thought "that's Christmas ruined", as he had to start work right away on scripting his best put-downs.

"People think that I'd go out there and I'd get drunk and say off-the-cuff [things]," he said. "I don't. I write jokes."

The Office and After Life creator admitted it's fun to poke fun at some of the "privileged egos in the room" on behalf of the millions of people watching at home, but that he's ever more conscious of making sure his jokes are "bulletproof".

"Nowadays, you've got to make sure they're bulletproof in 10 years' time, with people going through saying: 'He said this once, 10 years [ago]'. Kevin Hart [lost] his job [as Oscars host] for 10-year-old tweets that he said he was sorry about and deleted at the time."

On Thursday, the Golden Globes announced a raft of celebrities who will hand out individual awards on the night, including nominees Margot Robbie, Rami Malek, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlize Theron and Daniel Craig.

They'll all be praying for kinder introductions from Gervais than the likes of Mel Gibson, Johnny Depp and Matt Damon have endured in previous years (gulp!).

Harvey Keitel, Chris Evans, Glenn Close, Reese Witherspoon and previous host Amy Poehler would be wise to have something witty up their sleeves too, as well as Salma Hayek, Will Ferrell, Dakota Fanning, Tiffany Haddish and Pierce Brosnan.

Let's hope none of the above have just vowed to take themselves more seriously as their New Year's resolution.

A lot of the focus this year will be on the many British stars who have taken US screens by storm, receiving a combined 27 nominations.

Olivia Colman's regal performance in The Crown, Dame Helen Mirren's Catherine the Great and Jodie Comer being dead-set on Killing Eve sees them all listed in the acting categories, alongside Fleabag star and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

The darkly comic show, which recently returned to the West End as its original one-woman stage show, is also nominated for best musical or comedy series.

Kit Harrington is the "loner Throner", as he put it. In other words the only member of Game of Thrones cast to be nominated this year, in the best drama actor category for his role as the longsuffering Jon Snow.

Rocketman star Taron Egerton is going to be hi-i-igh as a kite (emotionally speaking) if he takes the best actor gong, in the musical or comedy section.

The freshly-knighted Sir Sam Mendes, meanwhile, could pick up best director for his war film 1917.

Another interesting subplot to this year's awards is the emergence of streaming giants Netflix as an original creative force to be reckoned with, having 17 nods apiece in both the TV and film sections.

Marriage Story, directed by Noah Baumbach, is the most nominated film all told, being up for six awards, while Martin Scorsese's similarly Netflix-backed epic, The Irishman, is up for five. Their Vatican drama, The Two Popes, has four nods too, while Eddie Murphy is the frontrunner to win best comedy actor for the blaxploitation biopic Dolomite Is My Name.

All of which demonstrates that Netflix - who previously only really had the Oscar-winning Roma to show for their investment since 2015 - aren't messing about.

Away from Netflix, Quentin Tarantino's movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is bound to interest plenty of the Hollywood types in the room and that has five nominations, including nods for stars Pitt and DiCaprio - who remarkably acted alongside each other for the first time.

Joaquin Phoenix winning best drama actor for his portrayal of the pre-Batman Joker would almost certainly put a smile his face.

One thing we can be certain of already is that the award for best director will (once again) not be going to a woman.

Since 2000, the awards show has nominated more than 100 men for the category, and only four women. Five men are nominated this year alone.

Two years ago, when presenting the award, Natalie Portman delivered a pointed: "Here are the all-male nominees".

HFPA president Lorenzo Soria recently told Variety: "What happened is that we don't vote by gender. We vote by film and accomplishment."

With that in mind, the omission of Little Women filmmaker Greta Gerwig from the list was particularly notable this time around.

"There are so many beautiful films made by women this year," Gerwig told AFP last month, adding the overall low number of female-directed movies was "dreadful" for the industry.

While #DryJanuary may well be ditched for the night, in a move that appears to have maddened some of the UK tabloids, the Golden Globes have decided to fully embrace #Veganuary.

Guests on Sunday will be having a completely meat free plant-based Sunday dinner. Soria told The Associated Press the menu change was in order to raise awareness of climate change.

"If there's a way we can, not change the world, but save the planet, maybe we can get the Golden Globes to send a signal and draw attention to the issue about climate change," he declared.

Food for thought indeed.

There's bound to be some spuds and sprouts leftover from the Christmas celebrations at the Beverly Hilton, whatever happens...

The Golden Globe Awards are broadcast in the US from 20:00 EST on Sunday.

Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].