Okay, a bit harsh maybe. But television production in the UK has covered numerous attention-grabbing news events this year – the Arab Spring, the Libyan intervention, the summer riots, the phone-hacking hoo-ha – meaning it is therefore perhaps surprising to discover that the UK’s biggest shows of 2011 were almost exclusively celebrity/talent show-centric.

The big winner was Simon Cowell’s answer to Frankenstein’s monster, The X Factor, now run amok from its creator, with Barlow and those other people attempting to fill the void vacated by the evil baron himself.

But if ratings are the bar by which Cowell’s heirs are to be measured, then they can be said to have risen to the challenge – The X Factor final having been the year’s most-watched television production, drawing ratings of 13.6 million.  

Reality programmes continued to bring home the ratings bacon in a big way in 2011: the third, fourth and fifth most-watched shows were, in order, Strictly Come Dancing, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m a Celebrity.

And even the one thing in the top five which wasn’t a reality format was still just so much showbiz flim-flam, it being the Royal Wedding, the second most popular programme this year with 13.5 million viewers. The nuptials of Kate ‘n’ her geezer spawned a subsidiary hit in the ratings too, with that day’s BBC News placing as the year’s tenth most popular broadcast.

As is perennial, soaps continued to do well, with those old stagers Easties and Corrie Orrie respectively making spots eight and six their own. Also big were the pair of Downton Abbey (seven) and Martin Clunes-starrer Doc Martin (nine), both of which added to the ITV1 tally; Britain’s biggest terrestrial commercial broadcaster claimed nine slots in the top 20 for itself.   

That was one slot shy of BBC1, predictably dominant with ten places – which left just one place for Channel 4, in at 17 with Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. Sadly there was no placing at all for this TV highlight of 2011… 

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Video advertising on YouTube is blockbuster business these days, with the top clips earning beaucoup bucks for their creators. And now the lights are dimming on 2011, YouTube has revealed the ten videos which accrued the most views over the course of the last twelve months.

It is very unlikely that those in touch at all with video advertising this year will be surprised by the identity of the most viewed YouTube ad, it being the all-conquering ‘The Force’ clip, created in service of German car giant, Volkswagen. Not much of a surprise in second spot either, with T-Mobile being proven entirely right to cash in on the paparazzi event of 2011 with its ‘Royal Wedding’ video.  

Counting down from three, and next came Chrysler’s ‘Imported from Detroit’ ad, then ‘Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four’ for DC Shoes, the Jennifer Aniston-fronted clip for smartwater, and ‘Team Hot Wheels’. In seventh was ‘Old Spice – Scent Vacation’, while the eighth and ninth slots were taken by rival phone makers Apple and Samsung.      

And in tenth was the Adidas/D. Rose video, in which basketball is brought to the bull-fighting arena. Enjoy!

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The perils of filmmaking can be as treacherous as the acts which they tend to replicate, and this is perhaps truest of actors. Struggling to find reality in any number of dangerous acts, from sword-fighting to jumping from buildings, perhaps the least glamorous of these risks is trench-foot. As Jeremy Irvine, star of Steven Spielberg's new period film production War-Horse, has just found out.

Irvine was shooting the Oscar-tipped tale of a boy and his horse in the wind and cold of Dartmoor and at an airfield in Surrey (doubling for No Man's Land) for several weeks earlier this year, amid appalling weather conditions. "As soon as your big woollen uniform gets wet, the weight is unbelievable," he told the magazine. "And you'd be running across no-man's-land, right through the mud and dirt. There were sequences where explosions would take place next to me and three or four stuntmen would fly through the air – and then there'd be other scenes where you're just soaking wet. I got trench foot. The soldiers used to get it all the time."

Though this is undoubtedly unfortunate for the young actor, it remains to be seen whether all this strife will shine through in the final product, and result in the Oscar glory sought by the film studio behind the project. It certainly sounds like this level of unintentional realism may be a catalyst for a fresh approach, as Spielberg himself fell into a particularly deep trench built for the purpose of explosives too. All this chaos could definitely be a nod towards a truly visceral filmic experience when the film is released this christmas.

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Modern television production is hardly a realm renowned for a razor-sharpness of intellect, yet over the weekend just-gone, Virgin Media’s Electronic Programme Guide (that thing that tells you what show you’re watching) developed its own artificial intelligence and took it upon itself to save we filth-minded Britons from our own potty mouths. Either that or the EPG was just bust. One or the other.   

So whose were the same-rudie names which were blotted out? For starters, legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, legendary author Charles Dickens, and legendary Michael Jackson-botherer Jarvis Cocker – they magically becoming Hitchc**k, D***ens and C**ker respectively.  

Far from being finished there, the maladroit EPG was only just warming up: a documentary about the joys of navigating the inland waterways of Britain was renamed The Golden Age of Ca**ls, while Will Smith’s 2008 superhero blockbuster was rechristened Hanc**k. And which teams were involved in the weekend’s big footy game? Only Manchester City and A***nal. Mmm, that’s right.

In truth, as ba**l and b*mptious as the world of UK television production can often be, it’s probably not yet so outrageously offensive that the EPG’s high-minded ministrations were required. It is likely merciful therefore that the swear-spotting glitch has apparently now been rectumfied… sorry, rectified.

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There have been some great web video advertisements in 2011 as agencies really began to harness the power of online video and put effort into creating interesting viral video productions that got people sharing and viewing by the millions.

The number one, most shared advert in 2011 was rather disappointingly the Volkswagen Darth Vader effort, it’s a well put together piece but I can’t help but think it’s sort of cheating to put such a massive Star Wars reference in to gain popularity on YouTube, plus it aired at the Superbowl; the most viewed sporting event in the world, before it hit the Internet.

The hilariously bizarre Chuck Testa taxidermy web video is my video advertisement of the year. Proving that you don’t need a big budget or high production values to create a viral hit for your brand. Its popularity has skyrocketed since its release and has become a fixture of the Internet Meme-universe.

Just in time for the holiday season, in-between all the saccharine Christmas ads Converse have released a fantastic web video advertising their holiday shipping rates. This is a perfect example of how to advertise using web video. Original, snappy and funny:

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