TV Moments of 2012: Arrow

Batman meets Smallville sounds a bit rubbish on paper, but Arrow is the surprise hit of 2012, throwing in a nice mix of action, twists and drama that remains an easy watch but never straying into being too dumb. Add in the casting of John Barrowman in a recurring role for a rare case of nominative determinism in television drama.

TV Moments of 2012: Adam Buxton's BUG

If you didn't like Adam Buxton's mix of his his own jingles, the most innovative music videos from up and coming directors, and the even more weird YouTube comments that went with them, you must be an ALIEN OR SUTIN!

TV Moments of 2012: Drugs Live

13 minutes in and Jon Snow promising to take us DEEP INSIDE YOUR BRAIN and swinging open the middle of a giant model brain was the moment I was convinced I had accidentally stumbled onto the return of Brass Eye.

TV Moments of 2012: Homeland

Season 1 of Homeland was a smart and suspenseful thriller which was hard to believe came from the creators of 24. Season 2 made those origins a little more obvious, with plots becoming increasingly far-fetched that you wouldn't have shocked to see Jack Bauer pop up for one of his infamous integration scenes - even though some of the initial intrigue has gone, Homeland knew how to drop a 24-style cliffhanger to keep viewers coming back.

TV Moments of 2012: Line Of Duty

With Neil Morrissey as part of the cast and a story focusing on dodgy police officers, the could've been the plot for the greatest comedy spin-off that never was - Policemen Behaving Badly.

But in reality Line of Duty followed in a similar vein to last year's The Shadow Line and added in a splash of The Departed, resulting in one of the year's finest dramas - Even if Martin Compston looking like the double of Michael Owen was a hard visual to shake at times.

TV Moments of 2012: Olympic Opening Ceremony

Though we didn't quite get The Queen and Daniel Craig recreating the start of For Your Eyes Only, the danny Boyle directed Opening Ceremony set the mood for arguably the whole summer of sport.

London 2012 was such a success that it meant everyone forgot the closing ceremony which was a bit of a car crash (which might have been preferable considering some the names they had on vehicles at various points).

TV Moments of 2012: Phil On Remand

It's no surprise at 3 mins 50 seconds Phil makes his cellmate turn of the Katy Perry song - we all know from his time on crack the only CD Phil owns is by The Who.

TV Moments of 2012: Sherlock

Sherlock avoided any second series syndrome, upping the quality from an already awesome first series. The first episode gave the Daily Mail something to get wound up about with Lara Pulver's Irene Adler in the buff before 9pm, whilst the second episode was a fantastically creepy reworking of the Hound of the Baskervilles that had some convinced they'd seen a TARDIS.

But the highlight was the series finale that had viewers on the edge of their seats and Sherlock on the edge of a rooftop, notable for a stellar turn by Andrew Scott as Moriarty - who after a 2012 which saw him cast alongside Martin Freeman (Dr Watson), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who) and Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) is surely set to star alongside Dr Legg in something at some point in 2013.

TV Moments of 2012: The Thick Of It

Maybe expectations were too high for Armando Iannucci and co. sticking it to the coalition Government, but the fourth series of The Thick Thick Of It relied a bit too much on slapstick-style humour for laughs - the 3 Stooges style running down corridors jokes were overdone in particular.

On the plus side however, we saw a lot more of Peter Mannion as a central character and the hour long Goolding Inquiry, spoofing recent events at Chilcott and Levison hearings was one of the show's, let alone series stand out episodes.

TV Moments of 2012: Welcome To The Places Of My Life

The pick of the Partridge specials (Open Books was a bit rubbish really) - Welcome To The Places Of My Life expanded on Alan's guide to Norwich from Knowing Me, Knowing Yule - delving into his East Anglian upbringing, those the omission of Puppet Man from his guide to Norwich was a slight letdown