You praised David Attenborough, moaned about The Night Manager, and gnashed your teeth at The Crown as we unveiled our list of the best TV shows of 2016, a countdown that ended with Planet Earth II on top.
Now it’s time for our readers’ choices. Some of you thought we should have included Better Call Saul, BoJack Horseman, The Americans, Ripper Street, Luke Cage, Gomorrah and Horace and Pete. But having crunched the numbers and read a huge number of comments, here is the reasonably scientific top five shows you all seemed to agree on in 2016.
If you’re the sort of person who worries about spoilers for shows that have already aired, be warned: the list below contains spoilers.
Thanks to everyone who commented on our articles this year. Happy Christmas, and happy watching.
1) Happy Valley
A lot of you were really, really surprised this didn’t come in higher than no 4 in our list, so good news: it’s at the top of yours. Sarah Lancashire “deserves every award going” for her performance as Sgt Catherine Cawood. Gritty, realistic and believable, Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley is a crime drama done right.
2) Fleabag
The show a lot of you were expecting to be our number one is Fleabag, which “justified BBC3’s existence,” according to one commenter, and rightly turned Phoebe Waller-Bridge into Britain’s breakout comedy star.
I watched Fleabag because I'd enjoyed Crashing so much. I wasn't aware of Waller-Bridge's reputation --- I just really liked Crashing. And man, I'm glad I did. What a thing of blackened, twisted beauty it was. That scene between Waller-Bridge and Dennis at the retreat was one of the most perfectly formed, heartbreaking piece of writing, performed with unbearable vulnerability. It was an absolute work of genius, and I can't think what could be No. 1 if this is only no. 2.
3) Black Mirror
The almost-now, brought grimly to life by someone adept at twisting the zeitgeist to show us the horrors that may lie in wait. Thousands of years ago (in internet terms), Charlie Brooker wrote satircal telly listings imagining the very worst things that could be done with the genre. Now, he’s writing shows himself that do the opposite.
Black Mirror is, mostly, a fantastic watch. Really clever stuff from Brooker. Most of it is close enough to reality at present to be believable, which makes it all the more frightening. The one with Bryce Dallas Howard 'rating' everything was probably the most prophetic, and the one with the killer Bee's was great but the one mentioned in the article about the lad Kenny was the one that really stayed with me. I just didn't see that coming in the end and it really smacked you in the face to realise the kind of person you had been sympathetic to just moments earlier. Great stuff.
4) Planet Earth II
There were some quibbles about the soundtrack (too bombastic?), but otherwise an extremely popular choice. “You could freeze-frame any randomly chosen moment of Planet Earth II and frame it,” said elywhitley. “Utter majesty from any angle.”
The license fee is worth it for this and David Attenborough alone
A cornucopia of sublime and stunning camera work, informative commentary and scientific realities of the changes humanity is inflicting on our planet.
No doubt the Americans when they show this will edit out any science or anything that many not support their anti-science GOP Trump agenda.
We are better when we work together, Uk, Europe and humanity and need to fight to ensure the scientific realities are know to all .
Hope David Attenborough lives for at least another 10 years.
5) HyperNormalisation
Some of you really hate Adam Curtis, but those of you who enjoy his work put him on a pedestal with Attenborough – a one-off, the kind of figure that modern television must continue to find room for, even when you don’t agree with all his methods or conclusions. In a year that ended with Donald Trump poised to take the presidency, one reader said HyperNormalisation was “thought-provoking and beautifully edited, its most compelling observation being that, faced with perpetual chaos, we have withdrawn into private bubbles which reflect our view of reality back to us.”
This was really a summation of all his work so far. If he has an overarching point to all his work it's that those in power are always trying to simplify everything be it politics, economics or human beings and this is always doomed to failure as things are just too complicated and chaotic, mainly because people are complicated and chaotic themselves. It was far less tone poemy than Bitter Lake and more like his previous films in style. Absolutely gripping and fascinating. People have to realise that Curtis is essentially a polemesist so doesn't really make documentaries in the traditional sense. He may however be the finest film maker operating in the UK.
Brilliant series. Those responsible for the cliched mush that makes up just about every other crime/murder drama on British TV should look at how to construct plot out of characters (rather than the other way round - yes, I'm looking at you, The Missing), sidestep cliches, put the comic and the painful together, and portray people who actually seem to have had relationships with each other before the cameras rolled.
I'm wondering what three programmes you have ranked above it.