Every now and again there's a TV series that lives up to the hype, and in 2011 it was Channel 4's Top Boy. Although this crushing saga of gang violence, drug dealing and conflicted loyalties in Hackney was written by Irishman Ronan Bennett, it felt hauntingly authentic, though Bennett admitted that he'd almost despaired of getting the street-level patois right. Television's treatment of urban lowlife frequently comes across as trite or preachy, but Top Boy handled its entwined narratives with a fluency and authority which carried you through its four parts with barely a false note. Even if some disgruntled Hackney residents felt that it portrayed the entire borough as a savage drug-dealing collective.
The comic event of the year was, by a landslide, the Nicholas Hytner production of One Man, Two Guvnors, which migrated from the National Theatre to the Adelphi. Some find that a little of the bumptious James Corden (pictured right) goes a long way, but rarely can man and role have been so uncannily attuned. Corden's slapstick stew of low cunning, beady-eyed greed and fearless improvisation rang all the right bells, but what propelled the piece into comic nirvana was the amazing strength of the supporting cast. Oliver Chris is immaculate as the louche, languid con-man Stanley Stubbers, while Tom Edden's performance as the indescribably ancient waiter, Alfie, deserves its own TV series. A big hand for writer Richard Bean, obviously. I laughed until they threatened to call an ambulance.
There are a few movies I still need to catch up on, not least the raved-over Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but Source Code was both touching and ingenious while The Ides of March was a sleek expose of political cynicism. Unusually, though, it was a batch of sports movies that stuck in the mind most.
The short, fast life of Ayrton Senna (pictured left) was vividly resurrected in Senna, which fully exploited access to Bernie Ecclestone's treasury of historic footage to create an unmatched sense of immersion in one of the most intense periods in Formula One history. Then there was Fire in Babylon, a searing ode to the greatness of Clive Lloyd's classic West Indies cricket team which destroyed all-comers in the Seventies and beyond. The film was nakedly polemical and made no pretence of being balanced and reasonable, but that only made it more awesome. Finally came Moneyball, which accomplished the considerable feat of making baseball statistics seem interesting. It was driven by a mature and powerful central performance from Brad Pitt as Oakland A's manager Billy Beane, suggesting that the older Brad may prove more interesting than his younger, prettier self.
2011 highlight: Books by raddled old rock stars are notoriously unreliable, but Duff McKagan's It's So Easy and Other Lies is a total hoot. I loved the way McKagan, former bassist with Guns n'Roses, decided to cut down on his half-gallon-a-day vodka habit and drink a daily case of wine instead.
2011 letdown: The Hour (BBC Two) surfed in on a tide of hype (unfounded Mad Men comparisons and all) but proved to be confused, hysterical and plagued with anachronisms. Naturally they're making series two.
2012 recommendation: The Iron Lady. Streep's Thatcher demands to be seen.
Watch trailer for The Iron Lady