The BBC One series Sherlock has topped the Radio Times critics' poll of the 40 best TV shows this year.

The listings publication has been gradually revealing the results since Christmas Day, with the final ten announced today. The BBC took six of the top ten places, including Twenty Twelve, starring Hugh Bonneville, Olivia Colman, and Jessica Hynes, at number three and The Thick Of It, starring Peter Capaldi, at number four. Doctor Who came in at 15, Being Human, starring Lenora Crichlow and Russell Tovey, at 36, and Episodes, starring Tamsin Greig, at 39.

A delighted Steven Moffat, who co-created Sherlock with Mark Gatiss, told Radio Times:


The full list is as follows:

• 1: Sherlock (BBC One)
• 2: Homeland (C4)
• 3: Twenty Twelve (BBC Two)
• 4: The Thick Of It (BBC Two)
• 5: Fresh Meat (C4)
• 6: Borgen (BBC Four)
• 7: The Great British Bake Off (BBC Two)
• 8: Downton Abbey (ITV1)
• 9: The Bridge (BBC Four)
• 10: Girls (Sky Atlantic)
• 11: Line of Duty (BBC Two)
• 12: 56 Up (ITV1)
• 13: The Hollow Crown (BBC Two)
• 14: The Cricklewood Greats (BBC Four)
• 15: Doctor Who (BBC One)
• 16: Alan Partridge: Welcome To The Places Of My Life (Sky Atlantic)
• 17: Grandma's House (BBC Two)
• 18: The Secret History Of Our Streets (BBC Two)
• 19: Murder (BBC Two)
• 20: Veep (Sky Atlantic)
• 21: Peep Show (C4)
• 22: Call The Midwife (BBC One)
• 23: Parade's End (BBC Two)
• 24: Stella (Sky1)
• 25: Tales Of Television Centre (BBC Four)
• 26: Exposure: The Other Side Of Jimmy Savile (ITV1)
• 27: Moone Boy (Sky1)
• 28: Roger and Val Have Just Got In (BBC Two)
• 29: 24 Hours In A&E (C4)
• 30: Getting On (BBC Four)
• 31: Toast Of London (C4)
• 32: MasterChef: The Professionals (BBC Two)
• 33: She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (BBC Four)
• 34: Accused (BBC One)
• 35: A Mother's Son (ITV1)
• 36: Being Human (BBC Three)
• 37: Mad Men (BBC Four)
• 38: The Killing (BBC Four)
• 39: Episodes (BBC Two)
• 40: A Touch Of Cloth (Sky1)

The votes were cast by the magazine's print and online critics: Alison Graham, David Butcher, Tim Glanfield, Paul Jones, Jack Seale, Patrick Mulkern, Mark Braxton, Gill Crawford, James Gill, Claire Webb, David Crawford, Tom Cole, Susanna Lazarus, Ellie Walker-Arnott, David Brown, and Emma Sturgess.

Fans of the BBC Three supernatural drama Being Human have the chance to bid for a costume worn by Lenora Crichlow as ghost Annie.

An entire outfit, as seen right worn by Crichlow, has been donated by the programme to raise money for this year's Children In Need appeal.

People have until 22 seconds after 8.04pm on Sunday 18th November to place their bids as part of this year's official BBC Children In Need online auction.

Anyone wanting simply to donate to the appeal, rather than bid for the costume, can do so via the button below.



UPDATE - 19TH NOVEMBER: The winning bid for the outfit was £226.

Being Human won the Best TV Drama Series trophy for the third time at today's Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards.

Created and co-written by Toby Whithouse, the show previously won the gong in 2009 and 2010. This year, it saw off opposition from Scott & Bailey (starring Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones) and Prisoners' Wives (whose supporting cast includes Iain Glen).

Included alongside Whithouse in the citation were Tom Grieves, John Jackson, Lisa McGee, and Jamie Mathieson.

In addition, although Sherlock lost out to Appropriate Adult in the Best Short-Form TV Drama category, co-creator Steven Moffat, who was cited alongside Mark Gatiss and Stephen Thompson for the reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective classic, was given the Writers' Guild Special Award For Outstanding Writing.

The event took place at The Tabernacle in London.

The three episodes of Sherlock Series 2 were the three most-requested programmes on the BBC iPlayer for January 2012.

In figures released for the January-April period, episode 1 – A Scandal In Belgravia – broadcast on New Year's Day was top with 2,528,000 requests, episode 3 – The Reichenbach Fall – shown on 15th January was second with 1,913,000 requests, and episode 2 – The Hounds of Baskerville – which aired on 8th January was third with 1,689,000.

This meant that with A Scandal In Belgravia, Sherlock also had the most-requested episode per series that month, receiving more than twice as many as the second-placed Top Gear India Special of 28th December 2011 (included in January's figures with a figure of 1,116,000 requests, downgraded from the December 2011 figure of 1,311,000). The next most-requested episode of January 2012 – and next most-requested episode per series of January 2012 – was the New Year's Day edition of EastEnders, which received 1,097,000 requests.

The premier episode of Being Human Series 4 received 593,000 requests in February, and the first episode of the comedy series Pramface, co-starring Yasmin Paige, received 389,000 requests, making them the tenth and 17th most-requested episodes per series of that month, while in March, episode 2 of Pramface received 541,000 requests, Being Human Series 4 episode 7 had 403,000 requests, and the first episode of Dirk Gently received 343,000 requests, making them the ninth, 13th, and 20th most-requested episodes per series of that month respectively. The film version of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, co-starring Bill Bailey, got 349,000 requests when it aired in March. Finally, April saw the film Kidulthood, written by and co-starring Noel Clarke, get 342,000 requests.

Monthly performance packs have not been published by the BBC since December 2011. They will return to a monthly publication schedule from next month, said the corporation.

Total requests between January and April this year averaged around 190 million per month, with more than 140 million for TV and around 46 million for radio programmes - up by 24 per cent on the same period last year.

There was a massive increase in requests from mobile and tablet devices. These went up by 94 per cent on April 2011, with 15 per cent of total programme requests coming from mobiles and tablets in April 2012.

Apple announced that the BBC iPlayer app for iPads was the top free app of all time in the UK.

The BBC also reported that demand from internet-connected devices such as Smart TVs, games consoles, and Blu-ray players had continued to grow, with 11 per cent of all requests in April 2012 – up by 57 per cent on April 2011.

The full breakdown for January to April 2012 is available as a PDF here.

Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss told Digital Spy at the BAFTA TV Awards on Sunday that he was writing the first episode of Series 3, adding that it would be based loosely on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Empty House. He said:

A "very definitely new and nasty, chilling edge" is promised for the next series of Being Human.

The show's official blog reports that story lining, scripting, and pre-production are now under way for Series 5, with the first episode having been written.

It adds that the new series will be "bigger, better, bolder, braver and definitely more terrifying than anything that has come before" but that it will still have "laughs and fun" as previously. It also teases that "calls for a new villain have been answered".

As previously reported, Series 5 will only comprise six episodes - two fewer than all the previous series apart from the first one.

BBC Three has commissioned a fifth series of Being Human for next year - but it will only comprise six episodes.

Series four, which ended last night, was eight episodes long, as were series two and three. The reduction in the number of episodes for series five will see the show return to its first series length.

Of the characters seen in series four, creator and executive producer Toby Whithouse would only say that werewolf Tom, played by Michael Socha, and vampire Hal (Damien Molony) would be back. He added:
Zai Bennett, the controller of BBC Three, said:

The show is made by Touchpaper Television for BBC Cymru Wales, and managing director Rob Pursey said:Series four's viewing figures averaged 950,000 per week.