The 9/11 footage

It's impossible to have a 24-hour news service without sensationalising banalities (there just isn't that much news to report), but it's much worse when it makes catastrophes seem banal. Did we need to see the planes hitting the towers again and again and again?

The Wire

David Simon turned a straightforward cop show into a multi-layered vision of urban decline. It was filled with humour and humanity and it tore up the rulebook for US drama.

David Attenborough

All his programmes have spectacular cinematography, a steady hand on the wheel, and plenty of life-and-death drama thanks to their lead character, an awful bastard called "nature".

Top Gear

Three middle aged white men live out their teenage Ferrari smashing fantasies and it's way funnier and more entertaining than it ought to be. Jeremy Clarkson, I hate you... Damn it... Kiss me, you fool.

The Office

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant took the comedy of failure to whole new levels with their pseudo-documentary tale of David Brent, the manager from one of the more banal and vain pockets of hell.

Sex and the City

Whilst beginning with a strong tale of female empowerment and friendship, it's real message was that all women were either a Carrie, a Miranda, a Charlotte, or a Samantha, and that whilst independence was fun, marrying a rich businessman was funner.

Mad Men

You can either enjoy this tale of 1960s advertising executives for the period detail, clean lines, and '60s fashion, or the dark picture it paints of a society smothering itself in conformity.

Lost

A plane crashes on an island with a monster. No, it's an island with a ghost. No, it's an island run by an evil corporation. No, it's an island with a rabid polar bear. Wait, they're going back in time. Hold on! They go returning from the island. Gaah, we've forgotten about the polar bear. Is that the polar bear again? No, it's Hurley. Lost is one of the more infuriating sci-fi hits of the past decade.

Big Brother

Ten years of Big Brother and what have we learned? That watching bored humans in an enclosure is actually less entertaining than watching bored animals in the zoo.

The Late Late Show

It's still here! And isn't Gay Byrne looking well.

AND THE WORST...

Naked Jungle

The decade kicked off with Channel 5's Naked Jungle, a nudist quiz show hosted by naked Keith Chegwin. "The worst career move of my life," said the portly television desperado.

The Swan

Insecure women are encouraged to have plastic surgery by beauty industry parasites. The people behind this show are all going to hell, including Ireland's own Amanda Byram, who presented it.

The Jeremy Kyle Show

Originally called Let's all Laugh at the Underclass, each episode sees Jeremy Kyle (left) parading life's victims before an audience who desperately want to feel better about their own, presumably also quite awful, lives.