Friday 18th December 2009

Following on from my post last week, here are some of my favorites from the past decade, this time from entertainment.

UK Television programme of the decade - The Thick Of It
Fly-on-wall satire seems to have been the flavour of British comedy in the noughties and Armando Iannucci's dark political comedy just pips The Office as my favorite programme of the last ten years. Premiering on BBC4 in 2005, two series and two one off specials episodes later, The Thick Of It shows no sign of wanning and looks set to continue with an election special next year. For more information about the latest series, check out my blog entry from Monday.

US Television programme of the decade - The Sopranos
I'm not a huge fan of American TV, but after going through a phase of watching gangster movies a few years ago, I thought I would check out this popular HBO programme. I got into The Sopranos straight away and enjoyed all six seasons of the show, which ran from 1999 to 2007. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is a made member of the mafia who has difficulty juggling his two "families", with the wife,kids and mother on one side and his New Jersey crew on the other. The gripping storylines, the relationships between the many characters, the extremely dark humour and the subtle references to The Godfather films all make The Sopranos a TV programme of the highest quality.

Comedian of the decade - Jimmy Carr
I went to a live Jimmy Carr performance in 2005 and have been a huge fan of him ever since. His borderline, risky style encapsulates the British comedy scene of the last decade and a few of his jokes have got into trouble in the past, but you can't help but laugh. Sometimes I feel slightly guilty at laughing at his jokes and can see why people might get offended by them, but his deadpan tone and clever puns make him the funniest man to arrive on the scene in the last ten years.

Film of the decade - The Football Factory
A number of football hooligan films have been released in the noughties, such as Green Street, Cass, Away Days and most recently The Firm. But The Football Factory was the original football violence film to become popular and anyone who regularly attends football matches will be able to identify with the characters. Among others, there's the main character Tom Johnson, played by Danny Dyer, who sees hooliganism as a way of escaping from his medicore life, veteran Brighty and out of control youth 'Zeberdee'. The clever yet realistic dialogue, dramatic fight scenes and quality sound track put The Football Factory at the top of my list of favorite films of the decade.

Next week I will be picking who I think are the best football team and players are of the noughties, plus revealing what the game of the decade was for me.