Brits Saying Thank You

I blame my parents and being British for seeming to spend an inordinate amount of time thanking people for everything but all us Brits seem to be at it because new research demonstrates that Britons really do say thank you more often than anyone, coming top of eight cultures studied.
The study showed that in situations where expressing gratitude is an option, the British deploy thank you 14.5% of the time, whereas Russians say it just 3% of the time, and Cha’palaa speakers of Ecuador never do as their language doesn’t even have a word for it.
Luckily us Brits have plenty of ways of saying 'thank you' and some make it possible to say thank you without conveying any gratitude at all which confuses non-Brits no end.
You can say 'Thanks' or lengthen it to 'Many thanks' or even 'Thanks so much' but 'Thanks a lot' is usually reserved for conveying sarcasm.
Another saying for a show of gratitude is 'Cheers' and usually comes with 'mate' attached to make 'Cheers Mate' which is very informal as is 'Nice One' and both are really only used when someone had done you a favour or gives you an unexpected gift.
'Ta' is a thing for Northerners and children under 7 so might be better to avoid this unless you are geographically above Birmingham or have a Power Rangers duvet set. 
'Appreciate it' or 'much appreciated' is used more in writing so you would write: 'Thank you for not mentioning what happened in the store cupboard, i appreciate it'.
Something that is becoming more common is to call someone 'a lifesaver', 'a star' or 'a hero' and is something you would say to someone to thank them when they do you a favour along with much obliged but it's quite rare to hear that nowadays.
A minefield is 'You Shouldn’t Have!' which can be said dripping with sarcasm as well as appreciatively as is 'You're too kind' so it's a bit of a guess whether a Brit genuinely likes that gift if we say 'you shouldn't have' because we could very well mean that seriously, you really shouldn't have.
As we have so many ways to say 'Thank You', it's no surprise that we say it the most and have even developed a way of saying it while meaning the opposite.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, seriously, you really shouldn't have.