The Telly Addict Awards 2011–PART 5

 

The Peoples Choice Telly Addict Show of the Year 2011

So here we are, finally, after nearly 2 months of voting across a number of different websites we have a Show of the Year. I’ll announce the winner shortly as well as those shows that came close before falling at the final hurdle. First though I’ll say a few things about the vote. Overall there were 100 votes exactly with these votes being split over 48 different shows. That gives you some kind of idea over the diversity of the shows we all enjoy. There were shows from all genres ranging from Downton Abbey to the Carling Cup Final that people voted for. There were one or two surprises, the biggest being that none of the soaps received a single vote. Despite the spread of voting the winner received 12% of the vote with the runner up coming in close with 10%. In fact between 1st and 3rd place there were just 4 votes! Anyway it’s time to announce 3rd place which received a respectable 8% of the vote.

3rd Place

DOCTOR WHO

   After David Tenant left, the show experienced a bit of a reboot. All of the old characters we’d grown to love such as Captain Jack, Martha Jones among others were all written out as new show runner Steven Moffat put his own stamp on things. It is fair to say that the show is far different to the one which Russell T Davies left. It’s not just the doctor that changed, it’s the whole show. The episodes are often more confusing with each one moving the series along to it’s thrilling confusion. This series opened spectacularly with an America set episode that saw the doctor die, killed by the impossible astronaut. That set the series up as we followed it on to the conclusion and the answer to the mystery. We knew that the doctor couldn’t die but how could he cheat his own death?

     The doctors death wasn’t the only mystery. We finally found out who River Song was. She had popped up repeatedly over the past 3 or 4 years as hers and the doctors timelines criss-crossed. All in all, this was a good series and hopes are high for the next one.

 

2nd Place

THE BIG BANG THEORY

     When Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady pitched the idea for The Big Bang Theory there must have been one or two sniggers in the room. By rights, The Big Bang Theory shouldn’t really work these days. Not only does it work though, it works to perfection. Set around the lives of 4 geeks and the ‘hot’ next door neighbour it possibly belongs in the 70’s. To clear it up, I’m actually a huge fan of the show. Although it maybe shouldn’t work, it does and that’s testament to it’s brilliance and the characters. There’s Howard, a Jew with a funny haircut who thinks he’s got the gift of the gab. Sheldon is the ‘brains’ who suffers from a lack of understanding of irony while Rav will only speak to girls if he’s had a drink. Holding it all together is Leonard who has a long running on-off thing going with Penny, the next door neighbour.

 

1st Place

FROZEN PLANET

     In 2004 filming began on what would become one of the biggest shows of 2011, namely Frozen Planet. It was a joint venture by the BBC, the Discovery Channel and the Open University and was huge in scope. Let’s not forget that the Artic is perhaps the most inhospitable place on earth. It’s little wonder that it took so long to film.

     When you watch a show like this though it’s as much for David Attenbourgh than anything else. His name alone virtually guarantees a big audience. It’s quite hard to believe that he’s 85 years old as he still shows such passion for the subject he talks about. The fact that he actually did a bit of filming himself in the Artic is slightly astonishing.

     The series was broadcast in 7 parts from October to November and focused on the changing seasons of the Artic. It also showed whales hunting and the polar bear family unit. All in all it was a fascinating series and worthy winner of the first ever Telly Addict Show of the Year Award.

Notable Mentions

     As I said earlier, there were 48 different shows voted for in this vote. A lot of these only received 1 vote but there were some that I thought should’ve done better. Some of the schedules traditional big hitters such as Out Numbered, X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Never Mind The Buzzcocks only got 1 mention each. One of my favourite shows, Billy Connelly's Route 66, only received 2 votes which surprised me somewhat.

     At the other end of the scale Downton Abbey narrowly missed out on a place in the top 3 while Spooks, Top Gear and The Walking Dead all got respectable scores. My Transsexual Summer looked like it could gate-crash the medal places before it fell by the wayside. One thing that this vote did show is that despite the influx in American shows on our screens, we still enjoy home-grown with 3/4’s of the shows voted for being British.