TV Of The Year 2024 - Part 2: The Staples, The Podcasts, and The Sequel Zone
We've already seen the I See The Title, Sorry Gave Up, & Lost It categories for 2024 (my previous years TV lists are listed below). Now we move on to...
The Staples (being TV shows that we never miss and, in all honesty, give more pleasure than most shows in the rest of the chart)
6 - Have I Got News For You (above) - Thirty years on it remains the most reliable comedy show on TV. Also it’s the one where you know it’s not a repeat, unlike Would I Lie To You and QI, which I now always assume are old episodes.
5 - Taskmaster - This year saw two seasons, one better than the other (Zaltzman/Aleshe/Sidi/Dee/Jones wasn’t as strong as McNally/Robins/Mohammed/Willan/Pemberton, but neither was bad), and the first Junior Taskmaster, which was more enjoyable than you thought it was going to be.
4 - University Challenge - Amol Rajan continues to distinguish himself, in this his second season, and I’d go as far as to say he’s the best presenter the show’s ever had. He’ll be, I guess, the first to have grown up watching it as a kid, and knows the importance of being nice to people and keeping up the speed.
3 - Strictly Come Dancing - This year with Chris McCausland, and nobody dropping out halfway, has been particularly strong, especially given as it was preceded by a Curse Of Strictly summer, with dancers being fired after being accused of inappropriate behaviour, and chaperones being appointed. (Pity the poor chaperones, we’ve never seen a single one once!)
2 - Richard Osman’s House Of Games - We watch an episode of this every night at teatime. As, I’m told, do Marina Hyde’s kids, but not when she’s there cos she disapproves of such behaviour.
1 - Only Connect - Society is divided into people who watch Only Connect and people who I don’t really think I could really be proper friends with. Rarely has a show defined its demographic so clearly. “The sort of person who watches Only Connect” is short hand for my kind of person.
The Podcasts (being, for the first time, the favourite of this year’s podcast listens)
10 - Brain Of Britain / Counterpoint - The quizzes of Radio 4 remain the only quizzes I’ve yet found that work on audio. If there’s someone out there doing them, I’d like to know about it, cos I love a good quiz.
9 - No Such Thing As A Fish - The QI Elves just make it seem effortless to talk about their favourite facts and keep it entertaining. Then you listen to almost any other “people round a table chatting” podcast, and they’re all too indulgent, or meandering, or something. Again, if you can find a fact based light entertainment podcast as good as this, let me know.
8 - Unbelievable / News Quiz / Now Show / Paul Sinha’s Pub Quiz - Radio 4’s panel games are the best. And, as far as I have yet heard, the only studio audience panel games out there. As above, if you know of others please tell me. As it is, Unbelievable Truth is the most reliably funny show on radio, News Quiz comes close, and Paul Sinha is excellent. The Now Show, topical comedy rather than quiz obviously, is a good example of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” In as much as it was going great, then some idiot tried to fix it by sacking some of the best contributors (Mitch Benn, John Holmes) thus breaking it. Then when the replacement people weren’t as good, as anyone could have told them they wouldn’t be, they cancelled it. Attempts to replace it have largely failed.
7 - Cautionary Tales + More Or Less - Tim Hartford delivers well scripted, well researched, fact based material which I can listen to endlessly. More Or Less has been a staple for years, and now Cautionary Tales (from Pushkin) gives more of the same.
6 - World Of Secrets/ various true crime - This is where I will have to start keeping a note of the shows I’ve listened to through the years, like I do with TV shows, as there’s no way to look back at your listening history. I have listened to long series about murders and missing bodies from Australia to California, from the 19th century to the present day. I’ve heard great shows about The Branch Davidian Cult, a cult in Hampstead, gang crime that included illegal fly tipping in Northern Ireland… I mean so many it’s impossible to remember even a few of them. I drive a lot!
5 - Screenshot - Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones have been running an exemplary movie programme which gets great interviews, looks at surprising angles and subjects, and really knows what it’s talking about. It’s the single best radio show about movies that I think I can remember. Again I’ve had many movie podcasts recommended to me, and to date they have waffled, gone off-topic, been way too chummy and over-indulgent, or lacked content and facts. As ever, if it’s out there, do let me know.
4 - Uncanny - Danny Robins, who we’ve known since he was a student, has become the king of haunting and ghosts, and his radio series on the subject is simply the best. From the theme tune by Lanterns On The Lake, to his unique style of delivery - “Bloody hell, Ken!” - it has acquired a much deserved cult following and is a joy to listen to.
3 - Things Fell Apart - Jon Ronson has done two series of this exemplary work, easily as good as any of his books, but written for radio first. He has explored the roots of the Culture Wars riddling society in the 2020s and gets inside his subject with brilliant insight, explaining it beautifully.
2 - The Master, The Allegations Against Neil Gaiman (above) - Ouch, this was a squirm fest from start to finish. Neil does come across as a bit creepy in this. I’ve met him, and the worst I could say is that he’s world-beatingly charming, and you should never try getting into a name-dropping contest with him. According to this series (from Tortoise) he’s also handsy, gaslighty, exploity, and not someone you want to get into a hot tub with. Allegedly. (Since the show aired, many people have gone very quiet on the subject, so who knows what’s going on behind the scenes?)
1 - The Rest Is Entertainment (below) - My new favourite podcast (from Goalhanger) is Marina Hyde and Richard Osman explaining everything about the world of entertainment. They just seem to know it all, and are a joy to listen to. The only thing they haven’t answered yet is what they really think about season one of The Franchise (see Part 3 of my TV Of The Year). But I’m sure they’ll get round to that.
The Sequel Zone (being shows that could have made the chart higher up, but really are just subsequent seasons of something that was better the first time round)
10 - Winning Time The Lakers Dynasty 2 (Sky/Now) - This had the feeling of a show that was cut off early.
9 - Blue Lights 2 (BBC) - Very good, again.
8 - Wolf Hall 2 (BBC) - Not as compelling as the first series, as if someone had given the instruction “walk slower, and leave more pauses between every bloody line”
7 - Sherwood 2 (BBC) - A hard one to spin off into a second series, which they managed with a totally different cast, in a different location, telling a different story. Mostly worked.
6 - Show Trial 2 (BBC) - More so than with Sherwood, only the title remained. Quite why they even gave it the same title as a totally different play from three years ago, I don’t know. Still, into the Sequel Zone it goes.
5 - Curb Your Enthusiasm 11 & 12 (Sky/Now) - It’s taken a long time to get to the end of Curb, and the final two seasons have been its most variable. But, as ever, parts of it were excellent.
4 - Barry 5 (Sky/Now) - It’s hard for a fifth and final season to have the impact of the first, and this show has morphed from a comedy into a very dark drama. Good to have the story rounded off, and a very odd journey for it to have gone on.
3 - The Devil’s Hour 2 (Amazon) - I would have said it was an impossible show to make a second series of. It was certainly hard to follow if you’d missed any of it or not been paying attention. But it rewarded the diligent and remains one of the cleverest sci fi concepts for many years.
2 - Reacher 2 (Amazon) - Lost its oomph part way through, but still great entertainment
1 - The Responder 2 (BBC) - This was excellent, really powerful stuff by author Tony Schumacher.
Next up in TV Of The Year 2024:
- Part 3: Low end of chart + Biggest Disappointment
- Part 4: My Top Ten TV of 2024
My Top TV of... 2021 2020 2019 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011 • 2009
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
2 comments:
No mention for the Here Comes The Guillotine podcast after they mentioned Socks in a recent episode?!
Did they? I had no idea. I've only listened to one episode. What did they say?
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