Another year has come and gone, and we’re a few days into 2011, yet I have failed to come up with a top ten list of 2010. But I’m a blogger – I’m pretty sure that doing top ten lists of the year is a contractual obligation. I won’t say “better late than never”, because we all know that’s not true…
Anyway, some people say that the golden age of television is long-gone, something it would be hard to disagree with when looking at the top ratings winners of the year – a particularly dismal set of autotuned wannabes on the X Factor and a bigot being dragged across the floor in Strictly Come Dancing. But, a closer look at the schedules shows that 2010 was a vintage year for television and there were plenty of great programmes I’ve not been able to squeeze into the list. The Apprentice continued to be the perfect reality show, conflict, drama and absolute stupidity boiled down into its purest form. The final season of 24 was right up there with the best in its nine years on air and the few who stuck with FlashForward to the bitter end found that it had an answer to pretty much every question posed earlier in its run. This is England ’86 was a superb piece of television drama, Life proved that Attenborough is still the king of natural history documentaries, The IT Crowd continued to breathe life into the studio-based sitcom, Mongrels was a very funny and original comedy and both Strike Back and Thorne continued to improve Sky1’s credentials with original drama. Plus, of course, Big Brother bowed out after a decade on air, in its final weeks reminding us just why it was so loved in its hayday.
And that’s not to mention the many shows I have to admit to not having the time to see. Being usually averse to costume dramas, I gave Downton Abbey a miss, only to find everyone raving about it. Rev, The Trip and Moving On were all apparently brilliant but somehow passed me by, while I also still need to find the time to catch up with the latest seasons of Mad Men, Fringe and Dexter.
Anyway, on to the top ten… Continue reading
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