2025’s Most Popular Celebrity With Schoolkids is...

Here are final comics of 2025, produced with kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses, at Heron Hall in Potters Bar. The celebrities these two classes chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Beyonce and Mr Beast. Leaving us with just one question: across all the schools I've visited and the classes I've done, of all the celebrities they've named, who is 2025's Most Popular Celebrity?

In every class I do a demonstration strip on the flipchart and ask for a celeb to draw in it. They give me four names, we do a quick knockout vote, and the winning one is the one I draw. It keeps them engaged, I like to think. 

2025’s Most Popular Celebrity With Schoolkids is...

This list of 165 mentions (suggesting I did 82 and a half days of Comic Art Masterclasses this year, and I must say it felt like more) is a fair representation of the names floating in the heads of school kids. So who has beaten last year’s winning pair of Michael Jackson and Taylor Swift?

Runners Up

Just outside the Top Ten, each having been chosen once only (and including the best and most original suggestions of the year obviously)…

Adam Sandler

Alexander Graham Bell

Ant McPartlin

Bruno Mars

Charles LeClerc (a racing driver)

David Attenborough

David Beckham

Diego Jota (recently deceased footballer)

George Washington

Gordon Ramsay

Harry Potter

James Hetfield out of Mettalica

John Cena

Justin Bieber

Keanu Reeves

Kim Kardashian

King Richard The First

Kurt Cobain

Mr Tumble

Neymar

Paul McCartney

Rick Astley

Ringo Starr

Ryan Gosling

Sherlock Holmes

Simon Cowell

Sir Francis Drake

Stephen Hawking

Strawberry (nickname of a pupil)

The Queen

Zendaya

In joint 10th place, chosen twice:

Alan Carr 

Caseoh (Youtuber) 

Drake 

Eminem 

Freddie Mercury 

Harry Styles 

Ice Spice 

Jesus 

LeBron James 

Lionel Messi 

Michael McIntyre 

Olivia Rodrigo  

Richard The Third 

Ryan Reynolds 

Tom Holland 

Joint 9th place, chosen three times apiece:

Ariana Grande 

Beyonce 

Billie Eilish 

Elvis Presley 

Jack Black 

8th place chosen 4 times: 

Angry Ginge 

(all four suggestions were on the same day, when I did talks instead of classes and he was the flavour of the week on I’m A Celebrity, forgotten soon afterwards)

7th place, chosen 5 times:

Elon Musk 

King Charles 

6th place, chosen 7 times: 

Sabrina Carpenter 

5th place, chosen 8 times:

Donald Trump 

4th place, chosen 9 times

Dwayne The Rock Johnson 

3rd place, chosen 10 times:

Cristiano Ronaldo

Joint second, chosen 13 times each:

Michael Jackson 

Taylor Swift 

And the winner, chosen 15 times, is…

Mr Beast

Mr Beast tops the chart for the first time, having come in joint third place last year, behind Dwayne Johnson in second place, and and Swift and Jackson sharing the top spot. 

TV Of The Year 2025 - Part 5: The Top Ten

 TV Of The Year 2025 - Part 5: The Top Ten

We've seen The Podcasts, the ones where I See The Title But..., The Sequel Zone, and numbers 25 to 11. So, what are my Top TV Shows of 2025? Let's see The Top Ten...

10 - Cassandra. (Netflix) - This year’s surprise foreign language find came from Germany. Zapping between 1972 and the present day, it’s about a family and a house operated by a killer robot. If you haven’t discovered it yet, you’re in for a treat.

9 - How are You? It’s Alan Partridge (BBC) - Steve Coogan’s comic creation at his agonising best. Some of the comedy set pieces in this series, especially when Alan regresses to childhood, are the pinnacle of physical comedy. Preparing these pieces on film made the end result more satisfying than his previous in-studio as-live excursion. Merits several rewatches. A comedy masterclass.

8 - Riot Women (BBC) - Sally Wainwright’s comedy drama is a delight. Admittedly it might chime more with the over 60s, and people who’ve ever been in bands, but I’m hoping it reached more than just that. I have but one quibble: that signature tune. It’s really hard to do original pop music convincingly in a drama, and “Riot riot, we won’t be quiet” was pretty cringeworthy.

7 - The Paper (Now/HBO) - The idea of a follow up to The Office didn’t bode well, especially after last year’s dreadful Australian version, but this show by US Office creator Greg Daniels truly delivered. Turns out Domnhall Gleeson can do comedy, and so can the rest of this marvellous ensemble cast, including the Italian woman from season two of White Lotus. Who saw that coming?

6 - This City is Ours (BBC) - The first thing I’ve seen from a writer called Stephen Butchard, excellently taking the family crime drama seriously and putting some twists on it. An impressively strong cast, splendidly directed.

5 - The Rehearsal (Now/HBO) - Every review you’ll see of Nathan Fielder’s bizarre documentary comedy series will tell you it’s impossible to explain and you really have to see it. That’s because it’s impossible to explain and you really have to see it. We were lucky enough to see seasons one and two in a row this year. I’d tell you more but, well, see the sentence before last.

4 - The Gold 2 (BBC) - The first season of Neil Forsyth’s The Gold was my Number One in 2023, and the follow up maintained that quality and originality. His Shakespearian style of breaking up the drama with soliloquies elevates the drama without ever disturbing the pace. This storyline, deviating a lot from the known facts, enabled some enjoyable flights of fancy.

3 - Pluribus (Apple TV) - Apple his one good show every 6 months, but when it’s this good you can almost convince yourself it’s worth keeping up the subscription. One of the most innovative science fiction concepts in years, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul’s Vince Gilligan, it has you “what-iffing” along with it throughout. At time of writing I have no idea how it ends, but it’s going so well it’s made the top three already.

2 - Blue Lights 3 (BBC) - This show won the tear-jerking award hands down. I’m welling up at every turn, and it’s never through sentimentality. It’s the tension of following characters you really care about being put through excruciating drama. It has what the early series of Line Of Duty used to have, with the extra spin of being set in Belfast and really getting inside the situation there. I have no idea what else authors Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson have written, but they are talents to look out for.

1 - The Studio (Apple TV) - Did I say something about Apple having one good show every 6 months? I realise there are five of their shows on my chart, so I may have exaggerated. I have watched every episode of The Studio at least twice, and will no doubt watch them again. It is quite simply perfectly made film comedy. And anyone who thought the one-take shots in Adolescence were an achievement, you ain’t seen nothing till you’ve seen The Studio. The comedy makes you cringe and laugh out loud, the film-making had me applauding at one point, and the Emmy Awards episode may be 30 of the best minutes of television comedy made this century.

And there we have it. I'm sure you'll disagree, how couldn't you? Here's to another great year of TV. See you in twelve months time with my verdict.

Part 1: The Podcasts

Part 2: I See The Title, Sorry Gave Up, & Lost It
Part 3: The Sequel Zone, and Jury’s Out
Part 4: 25 to 11
Part 5: My Top Ten TV of 2025

*****

My TV Of The Year 2024

My TV Of The Year 2023

My TV Of The Year 2022 

My Top TV of... 2021 • 2020 • 2019 •  2018 •  2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011 • 2009

My Books And Where To Find Them...

Richard The Third (Colour) Paperback • signed	Doctors Who? Colouring Paperback • signed	Socks Do Shakespeare Paperback	Kids Comics Annual 2026 Paperback
Richard  The Third (bw) Paperback • signed	Findlay  Macbeth Paperback • signed	Prince of  Denmark Street Paperback • signed	Midsummer Night's  Dream Team Paperback • signed
Shakespeare Omnibus Paperback • signed	Comic Tales From The Bible Paperback • signed	Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories Paperback • signed	Space Elain Paperback • signed
Book Of Esther	Who Notes	Sweet Smell Of Sockcess	Attack Of The Sausages
My 1975 Diary Calendar	Colouring Books Paperback • signed	Scottish Falsetto Socks Annual	Tales Of Nambygate

Colouring Books: Doctors Who, Hollywood Legends, Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop,  1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Royalty, Rom Coms