It's been a bonkers year.
Where do you begin?
2022 was yet another year of COVID - albeit one where nations started to gradually get back to what existed before.
Despite this, 2022 will principally be remembered for five things.
It was a year when Europe experienced its worst conflict for 27 years, as Russia bombarded its neighbour Ukraine with missiles and dispatched tanks and soldiers over the border.
It was a year when Britain changed Prime Ministers not once but twice, with Boris Johnson earning the dubious distinction of becoming the first head of government to have been fined for breaking the law - only to be replaced by Liz Truss who fell from power after her economic policy sent the pound tumbling, mortgages soaring and pension pots faltering.
Across the Atlantic, Donald Trump notched up another ignominious first - becoming the first former President to have his home raided by law enforcement officials as the FBI unearthed sensitive files in Mar-a-Lago from his time in office which should have been handed over to the US National Archive.
Will Smith turned a night of triumph at the Oscars into a night of shame after slapping the comedian Chris Rock and yelling at him for making a joke about his wife in a jaw dropping moment of live TV.
Finally, 2022 marked in Britain the end of the second Elizabethan age and the accession of King Charles III to the throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.
That came just months after the UK held Platinum Jubilee celebrations for her 70 year reign.
At the start of the year, all eyes were on eastern Europe as Russian President Vladimir Putin started to mass his troops around the Ukraine border.
In February, Putin set in train a full scale war but quickly saw Western governments immediately rally behind President Volodymyr Zelensky's Ukrainian government and its people - providing military and humanitarian aid as well as homes for refugees throughout Europe.
By November the war had claimed 240,000 lives, according to the US military, including the Ukrainian journalist Yevhenii Sakum and the actor and TV presenter Pasha Lee who died in Kyiv just days after joining his country's territorial defence force.
Among those killed were Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin, the American and Lithuanian documentary filmmakers Brent Renaud and Mantas Kvedaravicius and the Irish cameraman Pierre Zakrewski.
After an initial assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Putin's Army concentrated efforts on the south of the country.
However by October they were stunned when the Ukrainians recovered Kharkiv and other occupied territories in the south in a counter offensive.
While China and India were careful not to denounce Russia's actions, they were wary too about endorsing them.
Putin undoubtedly lost the propaganda war as the west overwhelmingly opposed his military actions.
His news channel RT was also pulled from the airwaves in Britain, while President Zelensky, a former comedy actor turned politician and his wife Olena became feted international figures.
Zelensky was applauded as he addressed by satellite Parliament after Parliament across the world and in a rare trip outside his homeland paid a visit to Capitol Hill and the White House in December.
Putin, meanwhile, faced uncomfortable questions on his own doorstep about the war as Ukraine scored a number of successes.
As Russia's oligarchs had their assets frozen in the west and sports teams were chucked out of competitions, Putin still doubled down - even threatening nuclear war.
The conflict accelerated an economic downturn across the world which many had expected as a result of the costs incurred by governments during two years of COVID.
Oil and gas prices shot up along with electricity prices, with Putin making life uncomfortable by reducing supplies to many European Union countries.
Celebrities did their bit though to boost Ukrainian morale, though, with U2's Bono and the Edge going to the cities of Bucha and Irpin to show solidarity and play music - inspiring the usual bout of Bono-bashing.
Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn and Liev Schreiber also angered Russia by paying visits to the war torn country.
Normally neutral Ireland's regular condemnation of Russia's actions hit a nerve in Moscow and saw Putin impose sanctions on the then Taoiseach Micheal Martin and other politicians.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv in August, a month before leaving office after a spectacular series of events that resulted in his resignation in July.
For much of 2022, the beleaguered Prime Minister had been under pressure from Opposition MPs and the media over what he did or did not know about parties in Downing Street during the COVID lockdown.
This included one on the night the Royal Family mourned the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.
Amid claims that he had misled Parliament, it emerged Mr Johnson had attended some of the parties, prompting some rather creative defences of his behaviour, including Northern Ireland Office minister Conor Burns arguing on Channel 4 News that the Prime Minister had been "ambushed with a [birthday] cake".
When the Conservative leader and Prime Minister and his Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak were fined for breaking the law by the Metropolitan Police, Mr Johnson rapidly started to lose support among his own MPs including the Brexiteers who had helped him become party leader.
Surviving a vote of confidence in June with 41% of the Parliamentary Party opposing him, he limped on until another scandal erupted later that month.
The appointment by Mr Johnson of Chris Pincher as a Deputy Chief Whip in February suddenly came into the spotlight after it was alleged the MP groped two men in a club.
After initially denying it was aware of similar allegations against the MP when he was appointed, Downing Street was forced into an embarrassing climbdown that sparked a rebellion in the cabinet ranks.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned, insisting they could no longer serve a Prime Minister who was prone to bending the truth.
As Mr Johnson tried to ride out the scandal, a staggering 57 ministers resigned before he finally bowed to the inevitable and stood down, triggering a leadership contest.
A field of eight leadership candidates were whittled down to just two, as 60% rank and file members chose Foreign Secretary Liz Truss over Rishi Sunak after an exhausting series of hustings across the UK.
Taking over from Boris Johnson in September, Ms Truss held her first and only audience as Prime Minister with Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral Castle in Scotland before appointing her cabinet.
However within two days, her plans to cap energy bills were overshadowed by the Queen's death after 70 years on the throne.
When she did return to business after a period of national mourning, Truss and her Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng set a minibudget which saw them cut taxes, including for the top 2% of earners, increase borrowing and increase spending on a government support scheme for rising energy bills.
Unaccompanied by any independent analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility, Truss and Kwarteng's move sent the financial markets into turmoil.
The pound weakened considerably against the dollar and the euro, interest rates soared hitting people's mortgages and the Bank of England had to step in to buy gilts amid fears of pension pots being damaged.
The Conservatives took a massive hit in the opinion polls as Truss and Kwarteng initially doubled down at a shambolic party conference in Birmingham, only for the Prime Minister to sack her friend and bring in Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor to perform a series of u-turns.
A series of disastrous media interviews and press conferences by Ms Truss didn't help her cause and her fate as the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history was sealed in October after a chaotic vote on fracking in the House of Commons.
MPs were confused over whether it was a vote of confidence in the government or not and it was alleged ministers bullied and manhandled Parliamentarians to get them to vote.
After becoming the butt of jokes on satirical programmes and chat shows in the UK and around the world, Ms Truss resigned, lasting only seven weeks in office.
Within minutes of her resignation, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mourdant canvassed potential supporters to take over as the Tory leader and Prime Minister.
There was a brief moment where it looked like Boris Johnson might bid again to become Prime Minister, flying back from holiday to take soundings from MPs about whether a remarkable comeback was on the cards.
Mr Johnson bailed out when it became apparent that he would not be able to lead a cohesive party and as the Conservatives sought to rally around a leader and avoid a contest, Rishi Sunak became the first Hindu, non Christian and non Caucasian to become Prime Minister following Penny Mordaunt's decision at the last minute to drop out of the race.
However with Keir Starmer's Labour Party significantly ahead in the polls and the Conservatives' economic credibility severely damaged during Ms Truss' tenure, the party's struggle to regain public confidence over the next two years appears gargantuan.
One of the first crisis Sunak faced as Prime Minister was in Northern Ireland where earlier in the year, Sinn Fein emerged as the largest Assembly party for the first time in elections in May.
Michelle O'Neill looked poised to become First Minister.
However the refusal of Jeffrey Donaldson's Democratic Unionists (DUP) to form an Executive over the handling of Brexit until the UK Government either overrode the Northern Ireland Protocol through legislation or renegotiated the trade arrangement with the European Union meant for seven months there were no First or deputy First Ministers.
And when ministers with a mandate from the previous power sharing Executive were legally obliged to step down in October from the running of their government departments because of the DUP declining to nominate a new Speaker, the Assembly teetered on the brink of a second election.
The May 2022 election not only saw Sinn Fein overtake the DUP as the largest party but Naomi Long's cross community, middle ground Alliance Party make significant gains, while the moderate nationalist SDLP, Ulster Unionists and the Green Party either lost ground or stalled.
With the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris backing out of plans for a pre-Christmas Stormont poll, he could be forced to call an election next April.
The political turmoil at Stormont came at a time when Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon challenged the UK Government to allow a second independence referendum to take place in October 2023, taking her case to the UK Supreme Court while Boris Johnson as Prime Minister refused to acede.
In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in November that Scotland could not hold its own referendum, with Sturgeon attempting to frame the next General Election as a de facto vote on independence.
In June, the UK celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee with a series of lavish events across the country.
These included the symbolic lighting of beacons across the kingdom, a service of Thanksgiving in St Paul's Cathedral, a concert outside Buckingham Palace with Duran Duran, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Lin Manuel Miranda, Nile Rodgers, Alicia Keys and Queen and Adam Lambert and a colourful street pageant in London.
Following her surprise appearance with Daniel Craig's 007 at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the Monarch pulled off another coup by filming a sketch with Ben Whishaw's CGI Paddington Bear which proved once again her sense of humour and also just how comfortable she was in front of a camera.
However pulling out of some events, it was also clear how increasingly frail the Queen was and in hindsight, there was a definite sense of the Royal Family preparing the world for the reign of King Charles III as he took on the lion's share of Jubilee events.
The passing of Queen Elizabeth in Scotland in September triggered warm tributes to her reign in the UK and across the globe - particularly in Ireland where President Michael D Higgins, former President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern waxed lyrical about her steadfast support for the peace process, her 2011 visit to the Irish Republic and her hugely symbolic series of handshakes and meetings with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness.
As "Operation London Bridge" flew into action, Britain's broadcasters overturned their normal schedules and filled them with programmes reflecting on Elizabeth II's reign as well as covering the pomp and ceremony of events across the UK proclaiming Charles III's ascendancy to the throne.
An estimated 37.5 million people in the UK watched coverage of the Queen's funeral across 50 terrestrial channels and around 4 billion across the world.
For the first time in 70 years, 15 million people in the UK tuned in to a King's speech on Christmas Day as the country geared up for his Coronation ceremony next May.
In March, after two years of adjusting to COVID, the Oscars returned to a more normal kind of ceremony... except this being the Oscars, it turned out to be far from normal.
While the story of the night should have been Sian Heder's AppleTV+ underdog drama 'CODA' becoming the first streaming movie to win Best Picture, the 2022 Academy Awards was all about "the slap".
Taking umbrage at a joke made at his wife Jada's expense, Best Actor winner Will Smith stormed onstage and hit the comedian Chris Rock.
Viewers, who initially thought it was a stunt, were stunned when Smith proceeded to harangue Rock and swear at him for making his wife, who suffers from alopecia, the target of a joke.
Later, as he received the Best Actor award, tears trickled down Smith's face while he delivered a rambling apology to the Academy but not to Rock (that came via social media a day later) and described himself as a defender of his family.
It was a toe curling speech in a ceremony that has continued to struggle in the age of social media - although Lady GaGa emerged with the most credit for her kindness towards a frail Liza Minnelli during the Best Picture announcement.
The Oscars did achieve better ratings than previous years but it'll be interesting to see if it retains its audience as chat show host Jimmy Kimmel returns to anchor the ceremony for a third time.
Smith spent the rest of the year trying to recover lost ground, even appearing on Comedy Central's The Daily Show in December to try and explain his actions in the hope that it didn't overshadow his Apple TV+ film 'Emancipation'.
The Oscars weren't the only awards ceremony to struggle.
BAFTA's Film Awards saw Rebel Wilson do a mediocre job as the presenter with incredibly naff jokes about her weight loss and having someone dressed as a sandworm from 'Dune' at the Royal Albert Hall.
Will Smith wasn't the only celebrity to lose their lustre either.
Ellen De Generes ended her 19 year talk show reign in May amid persistent claims that there was a bullying culture among staff working on the show.
In October James Corden, who announced in April he would leaving his 'Late Late Show' next year on CBS, apologised on the show after revelations that he was banned from a New York restaurant for being rude to staff.
Corden tried to prepare for a return to full-time acting with a high profile role in Jez Butterworth's Amazon Prime show 'Mammals' in November but despite having Sally Hawkins on board and a cameo from Tom Jones, it was a disappointment.
The Englishman wasn't the only talk show host to announce his departure.
Months after turning in a very funny performance on C-SPAN at the White House Correspondents Dinner in front of President Joe Biden, Trevor Noah announced plans in October to leave the satirical 'The Daily Show' on Comedy Central.
As talk show hosts returned to performing in front of studio audiences, John Oliver continued to reign in the Talk Variety Show category at the Emmys for his HBO satirical show 'Last Week Tonight'.
Stephen Colbert remained the most consistently funny of the bunch on CBS's 'The Late Show,' closely followed by ABC's Jimmy Kimmel who swapped shows for one night with the irritating Jimmy Fallon.
The latter's 'Tonight Show' on NBC mostly distinguished itself through booking more edgy rock bands like the Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and Fontaines DC.
Across the Atlantic, BBC1's 'The Graham Norton Show' continued to eclipse ITV's 'The Jonathan Ross Show' as they relaxed COVID restrictions like their US counterparts.
In Ireland, the host of RTE1's 'The Late Late Show' Ryan Tubridy also distinguished his show by continuing to highlight good causes during and after the pandemic.
On the same channel the 'The Tommy Tiernan Show' was still hit and miss but occasionally unearthed the odd gem like his interview with Steve Coogan.
North of the border, former UTV chat show host Gerry Kelly made a surprise return to the format on the Belfast TV channel, NVTV in a programme made by students in the city's Metropolitan College E3 Studio.
Another talk show veteran Dave Letterman travelled to the Ukraine to interview Volodymyr Zelensky for Netflix after chatting earlier in the year to Billie Eilish, Cardi B, Ryan Reynolds, basketball player Kevin Durant, Julia-Louis Dreyfus and a pre Oscars controversy Will Smith.
As it celebrated 40 years of existence amid Conservative Government attempts to privatise it, Channel 4 revived its stand-up comedy show 'Friday Night Live' in October for one night only.
Timing was everything, though, as it aired on the week Liz Truss resigned, with Ben Elton, Harry Enfield, Jo Brand and Julian Clary joining a host of up and coming acts.
'The Last Leg' on the same channel continued to amuse with its satirical take on events in Westminster and around the world and its host Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe had a bit of a field day with the mess going on in the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss.
Brooker and Widdicombe also scored a hit with a show 'One Night In' on the same channel, where they were let loose on theme parks during an overnight stay with other comedians.
'Mock the Week' with Dara O Briain bowed out on BBC2 in October, while BBC1's 'Have I Got News For You' limped along.
Sky Max revived 'Fantasy Football League' with Elis James, Matt Lucas and Andrew Mensah stepping into the hot seats once occupied by Frank Skinner, David Badiel and Stato.
The trio lovingly recreated the blokish humour of the original with the help of celebrities like 'Succession' star Brian Cox, Jennifer Saunders, Gabby Logan, Ben Bailey Smith, Sir Mo Farah, Sir Trevor McDonald, Sally Lindsay, Russell Howard and former players like Darren Bent and Clinton Morrison.
As live music came back with a bang after two years of COVID disruption, 'Later With Jools Holland' on BBC2 and RTE2's 'Other Voices' continued to delight.
The Glastonbury Festival also returned on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC4 with superb sets from the likes of Crowded House, Wet Leg, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Olivia Rodrigo, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Fontaines DC, Sam Fender, the Pet Shop Boys and a fantastic Saturday night headlining slot by Sir Paul McCartney that featured guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen and the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl.
The Proms returned to BBC4, while Sky Arts distinguished itself by screening some great new documentaries on Gary Numan, Spike Milligan, Cleo Laine, Nina Simone and Richard Harris.
The world mourned the loss of a range of accomplished public figures.
In January, NFL player and coach Dan Reeves, Big Daddy Weave bassist Jay Weaver, Broadway star Joan Copeland, South Korean actress Kim Mi-Soo, 'The Last Picture Show' director and cast member of 'The Sopranos' Peter Bogdanovich, Oscar winner, 'Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?' star and 'Uptown Saturday Night' director Sidney Poitier, Oscar winning lyricist Marilyn Bergman, 'Full House' star and stand up comic Bob Saget, the Ronettes lead singer Ronnie Spector, opera singer Maria Ewing, the Dixie Cups' Rosa Lee Hawkins, Fred Parris of The Five Satins do-wop group, former Liverpool FC chair Peter Robinson, actress Yvette Mimieux, former Vogue editor André Leon Talley, French and German actors Gaspard Ulliel and Hardy Kruger, 'Bat Out of Hell' singer and actor Meat Loaf, US comedian and 'Family Feud' host Louis Anderson, fashion designer Thierry Mugler, former Feyenoord and Glasgow Celtic manager Wim Jansen, English comedy writer and performer Barry Cryer and former Miss USA and 'Extra' correspondent Chelsea Crist.
Italian actress Monica Vitti, Irish rugby legend Tom Kiernan, 'University Challenge' host Bamber Gascoigne, golfer Eduardo Romero, 'Ghostbusters' and 'Twins' director Ivan Reitman, DUP Northern Ireland Assembly member Christopher Stanford, music entrepreneur Jamal Edwards, the Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan, the Procul Harum frontman Gary Brooker and 'MASH' star Sally Kellerman all left us in February.
March saw the Australian cricket legend Shane Warne, 'Nationwide' presenter Bob Wellings, 'Game of Thrones' actor John Stahl, Hammer Horror actress Victoria Carlson, South African hip hop artist DJ Dimplez, former Leicester City and Manchester United manager Frank O'Farrell, 'Open All Hours,' 'Eastenders' star Lynda Baron, 'Dark Shadows' and 'Dharma and Greg' star Mitchell Ryan, Emilio Delgado who played Luis on 'Sesame Street,' 'The Fields of Athenry' songwriter Pete St John, 'To the Manor Born' and 'The Irish RM' star Peter Bowles, Canadian documentary filmmaker John Zaritsky and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
'Eastenders' legend June Brown, 'Seinfeld' star Estelle Harris who played George Constanza's mum, British World War II veteran and fundraiser Harry Billinge, Irish Olympic silver medal winning boxer John McNally, 'Convoy' singer CW McCall, singer Bobby Rydell, 'Mr Benn' and 'Elmer' creator David McKee, Con Cluskey of the British chart topping Irish trio The Bachelors, the Australian punk singer-songwriter Chris Bailey of The Saints, Mad Men' star Robert Morse, the French actor and director Jacques Perrin passed away in April.
May saw the deaths of the American actors Fred Ward of 'The Right Stuff' fame, Charles Siebert, June Preston and Andra Martin, the British Formula One racing driver Tony Brooks, the Irish farmers leader and former MEP Alan Gillis, the US R&B singer Jewell, former US National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, English actress and TV screenwriter Kay Mellor, the bassist Rick Price, Greek musician and composer Vangelis, Fatima Mansions lead singer Cathal Coughlan, American singer songwriter Bob Neuwirth, Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy, Hollywood actor Ray Liotta, singer-songwriter Ronnie Hawkins, English jockey Lester Piggott and English actor and 'Minder' star Dennis Waterman.
Football player and manager Billy Bingham who played for Northern Ireland in the 1958 World Cup and managed them in the 1982 and 1986 tournaments, the singer Julee Cruise who was best known for the 'Twin Peaks' theme tune, ITN journalist and broadcaster Sir David Nicholas, German actor Berndt Stubner, the British rapper Hypo, Bon Jovi bassist Alec John Such, British fashion designer John Bates, former English Catholic priest and nuclear disarmament campaigner Bruce Kent, US rappers Skull Duggery and Trouble, the US character actor Philip Baker Hall, Glasgow Rangers legend Davie Wilson, US born Irish guitarist Dennis Cahill of The Gloaming, Canadian actor and comedian Don Cullen, US actor Joe Turkel and the Welsh rugby legend Phil Bennett all died in June.
In July, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated.
The month also saw the passing of Glasgow Rangers, Manchester United and Scotland goalkeeping legend Andy Goram, 'The Man from Del Monte actor Brian Jackson, Hong Kong film director Alex Law, theatre and film director Peter Brook, 'Twin Peaks' cast member Lenny Van Dohlen, 'Las Vegas' lead man and Oscar nominated movie star James Caan, 'The Sopranos' cast regular Tony Sirico, composer Monty Norman, former Studio 54 owner Mark Fleischman, model and businesswoman Ivana Trump, comedy actress Rebecca Balding of 'Soap' fame, screenwriter and director William Reichert, Basque MP Igor Lopez de Munain, 'Judge Dredd' comic book writer Alan Grant, Kanas City Chiefs SuperBowl winning Hall of Fame player Jim Lynch, rally driver Paddy Hopkirk, singer Shonka Dukureh, 'Hill Street Blues' cast member Taurean Blacque, film director and producer of 'The Monkees' Bob Rafelson, BAFTA award winning 'Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment' and 'Masala' star David Warner, Suicidal Tendencies bassist Paul Heathcote, former Northern Ireland First Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lord David Trimble, 'Law and Order' cast member Paul Sorvino, former British Ambassador to the US Sir Christopher Meyer, veteran 'Wombles' and 'Doctor Who' star Bernard Cribbins, ormer Arsenal player and manager Terry Neill, 'Star Trek's' Nichelle Nichols, Emmy award winning actress Pat Carroll, ex Boston Celtics coach Bill Russell and former Filipino President Fidel Ramos.
In August, we said goodbye to the former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the Australian poet Evan Jones, the British chef and restaurateur Alastair Little, 'Days of Our Lives' actor Richard Roat, the Earl of Suffolk Michael Howard, Australian broadcaster and politician John Tingle, American singer songwriter Sandy Dillon, Judith Durham of the Australian folk-pop group The Seekers, 'The Snowman' author Raymond Briggs, heavy metal singer Steve Grimmett who was in Onslaught and Grim Reaper, English comedian and actor Duggie Brown, Scottish rock singer Rico, Norwegian writer Per Knutsen, Welsh rugby player Ken Jones, US filmmaker Amy Stechler, singer and children's television actress Judy Valentine, Belfast-born TV producer Leslie Megahey, Scottish pop singer Darius Danesh, former BBC Breakfast presenter Bill Turnbull and the Hollywood actress Anne Heche.
September saw the passing of the celebrated author Hillary Mantel of 'Wolf Hall' fame, French New Wave director Jean Luc Godard, American author Barbara Ehrenreich, the Iranian writer Abbas Maroufi, the Russian Olympic boxing champion Boris Lagutin, the US novelist Peter Straub, German concert pianist Lars Vogt, French film director Just Jaeckin, English robber turned writer John McVicar, the US comedian and writer David A Arnold of 'Fuller House' fame, the actress Marsha Hunt, the former CNN journalist Bernard Shaw, Welsh writer and broadcaster Mavis Nicholson, 'Grange Hill' and 'Man Down' actress Gwyneth Powell, BBC Northern Ireland presenter Kim Lenaghan, Japanese playwright Akio Miyazawa, the rapper PnB Rock, controversial US lawyer and Monica Lewinsky affair investigator Ken Starr, Greek actress Irene Papas, Welsh rugby union player and commentator Eddie Butler, Mexican French actor Alex Jodorowsky, US actor and playwright Jeff Weiss, Scottish golfer Russell Weir, Welsh dance music DJ Stu Allan, Scottish Labour MP Jim Sheridan, the rapper Coolio and Oscar winning actress Louise Fletcher who was Nurse Ratched in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.
'Murder She Wrote' star Angela Lansbury died in October, as did the much loved Scottish comic and dramatic actor Robbie Coltrane, the legendary country singer Loretta Lynn, Clannad member Noel Duggan, R&B singer Joyce Sims, the US astronaut James McDivitt, the UK Subs drummer Steve Roberts, the Irish Examiner's publisher Ted Crosbie, the actress and mother of Sean Penn Eileen Ryan, former RTE radio personality Val Joyce, US actress Ann Flood, American Olympic shot putt champion Bill Nieder, Indian comedian Parag Kansara, US pro wrestler Sara Lee, British born Canadian crime writer Peter Robinson, Mexican poet David Huerta, English comedy screenwriter Raymond Allen, acclaimed British photographer Eamonn McCabe, 'Will and Grace' cast member star Leslie Jordan and rock n'roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis.
Veteran British actor Leslie Phillips, Canadian professional hockey player Brent Pope, the rapper Takeoff, 'Last of the Summer Wine' actor Tom Owen, Boomtown Rats guitarist Garry Roberts, Northern Irish motorcycle racer Keith Farmer, Jennifer Anniston's father and 'Days of Our Lives' star John Aniston, American broadcaster Jim Bohannon, French playwright Guy Vassal, 'Top Gear' presenter Sue Baker, Irish cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan, US journalist Michael Gerson, Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, 'Fame' and 'Flashdance' singer Irene Cara, Scottish rugby legend Dodie Weir and Fleetwood Mac singer songwriter Christine McVie passed away in November.
The Specials' lead singer Terry Hall and 'Cheers' and 'Veronica's Closet' star Kirstie Alley died in December, with The Stranglers drummer Jet Black, tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, French racing driver Patrick Tambay, singer Jamie Freeman, Primal Scream and The Charlatans keyboard player Martin Duffy, Tottenham Hotspur and England World Cup legend George Cohen and comedian John Bird, Irish journalist Brian Hutton, Brazilian soccer legend Pele and fashion designer Vivien Westwood passed away in December.
On New Year's Eve Pope Benedict XVI and American broadcaster Barbara Walters also died.
The author Salman Rushdie survived a shocking attempt on his life at a lecture in Chautauqua in New York state in August, losing his sight in one eye and the use of one hand in a stabbing incident after years of living under the spectre of a fatwah from Iran and Muslim extremist supporters for writing 'The Satanic Verses'.
Thankfully, sport provided some respite from 2022's noisy and depressing news cycle.
The year began with Australia on their home turf crushing England in The Ashes.
Australia was also the focus of one of the year's most highly charged dramas away from the sports arena when tennis player Novak Djokovic was the subject of a dramatic court battle over whether he could defend his Australian Open title.
Djokovic had been given an exemption to play in a tournament where most of the competitors had to prove the vaccination status because he had had COVID but the resultant brouhaha saw Scott Morrison's federal government step in and try to withdraw his visa.
The Serb was deported from the country and barred from defending a title which was won by Rafael Nadal who also went on to win another French Open.
Djokovic would triumph at Wimbledon but was not allowed to compete in the US Open because of his refusal to take the vaccine, with the title going instead to up and coming Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz.
The sport also saw the retirements of Serena Williams and Roger Federer, while British tennis sensation Emma Radacanu struggled to find the form that led to her shock US Open win in 2021.
In football, Liverpool did remarkably well to contend for four big trophies.
In the end, Jürgen Klopp's side captured the Carabao Cup with an epic penalty shootout win over Chelsea and won again against them on penalties in the FA Cup.
However they were pipped at the post by Manchester City on the final day of the Premier League and were outclassed by Claudio Ranieri's Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris.
As the new season got underway, Manchester City appeared to have discovered a goal machine in the form of Erling Braut Haaland but in a season paused because of the World Cup, Mikel Arteta's Arsenal got off to the most impressive start of all the teams.
Following the departure of Steven Gerrard for Aston Villa, Giovanni van Bronkhorst magically steered Glasgow Rangers to a Europa League cup final in Seville against Eintracht Frankfurt - only to lose on penalties in a heartbreaking defeat.
Later in the year, the Dutchman would lose his job in November after falling behind Celtic in the league.
Gerrard would also lose his job in Aston Villa.
Rangers did have the consolation of a Scottish Cup triumph over Hearts but in the league they were eclipsed by Australian Ange Postecoglou's Glasgow Celtic who, after losing the title to Gerrard's side the previous season, romped home to recapture it, as well as winning the Scottish League Cup.
Celtic automatically qualified for the Champions League, with Rangers also making it though, but both sides were given a harsh lesson about the gulf between them and other European teams as they suffered heavy defeats from the likes of Real Madrid, Napoli, Ajax Amsterdam and Liverpool.
On the international scene, Scotland failed to make it to make it to the World Cup in a play-off semi-final against Ukraine but they tasted Nations League group success under manager Steve Clarke, putting them among Europe's footballing elite in the next version of the competition.
Gareth Southgate's England went the other direction - falling into the second tier.
But what really mattered for Southgate, though, was the Qatar World Cup in November with England and Wales being drawn in the same group.
When it really mattered, England turned on the style in Doha against Iran, Wales and Senegal.
However Southgate's side was eventually knocked out by France after Harry Kane missed a second penalty in the game that left their fans wondering again what might have been.
While the competition proved to be a tournament too far for Wales' Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey, it was Lionel Messi's Argentina who made it all the way to the final in December to face France.
And what a final.
Messi scored twice and fellow veteran Angel di Maria also scored, as a hat trick from Kylian Mbappe sensationally earned France a 3-3 draw.
In the end, it went to penalties and Messi wasn't to be denied the trophy that had been missing from his cabinet in an accomplished career for club and country.
It was a good tournament too for the minnows with Japan, the USA and Australia advancing beyond the group stages and Morocco becoming the first African and Arab team to reach the last four, knocking out Belgium, Spain and Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal along the way.
The tournament was marred, though, by controversies over Qatar's human rights record, its attitude to LGBTQ rights and the deaths of migrant workers.
European footballers were banned from wearing pro LGBTQ armbands and comedian Joe Lycett, who had already hit the headlines for sending up Liz Truss on Laura Kuensberg's BBC1 Sunday morning politics show, brilliantly trolled David Beckham for being an ambassador for the tournament.
FIFA's shabby record of corruption was the spotlight of a Netflix documentary 'FIFA Uncovered' on the eve of the tournament.
And while Qatar 22's organisers might have been delighted by the spectacle, they never quite shook off allegations of sportswashing.
After dismal World Cup qualifying and Nations League campaigns, Northern Ireland sacked Ian Baraclough and persuaded Michael O'Neill to return to the dugout again, while south of the border Stephen Kenny held onto his job while failing to shake off his many critics.
English football fans finally had an international trophy to sing about during 2022 as their women's team the Lionesses, managed by Sarina Wiegman, captured the Euro 22 title on home turf beating Germany 2-1 in a taut final.
Northern Ireland got to compete in the finals but it was their neighbours in the Republic of Ireland who qualified for next year's women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand by defeating Scotland at Hampden Park.
However the Football Association of Ireland and their manager Vera Pauw were forced to profusely apologise after their play-off win, when some of the Irish players were filmed in their dressing room chanting a pro IRA slogan as they sang a Wolfe Tones' song.
Lioness Beth Mead captured the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for her heroics, while her teammate Jill Scott would notch up another honour in 2022 as she was crowned "Queen of the Jungle" as ITV's 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' which returned to Australia with Boy George and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock among the contestants.
Away from reality TV, Irish rugby fans had plenty to celebrate in 2022 when Andy Farrell's team notched up their first win in New Zealand over the All Blacks in July and then captured the test series with a second victory.
Four months previously, the squad won the Triple Crown but lost to France in the Six Nations who took the Grand Slam and should, with some justification, feel aggrieved they weren't on top of the rankings list by the end of the year.
Irish victories over South Africa and Australia in November cemented their place as the world's top team but next year's World Cup will be the real acid test.
Defeat at the hands of the Springboks capped a terrible year for England who sacked their coach Eddie Jones, while Kiwi Warren Gatland returned in December for a surprise second spell as Wales' head coach.
French club side La Rochelle, coached by former Ireland international Ronan O'Gara, denied Irish side Leinster another European Champions Cup title by defeating them 24-21 in a nail biting encounter.
Birmingham hosted the Commonwealth Games which saw Australia edge out England in the race for the most medals - 178 to 176.
Taking place between July 28 and August 8, the English Midlands city did a good job as the host, with impressive opening and closing ceremonies featuring a mechanical bull, Sir Lenny Henry, Duran Duran and another cheeky quip from Joe Lycett.
Northern Ireland celebrated a record medal haul at the Games, with a total of 18 - seven gold, seven silver and four bronze.
Ciara Mageean would win silvers in the 1500 metres at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
After picking up a silver in the Commonwealth Games, gymnast Rhys McClenaghan restored his confidence by winning gold on the pommel horse at the World Championships.
However, it was the boxers who most impressed for Northern Ireland in Birmingham with Amy Broadhurst, Aidan and Michaela Walsh, Dylan Eagelson and Jude Gallagher all taking gold.
Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor continued to make waves in the professional game in May along with her rival Amanda Serrano, becoming the first women to headline a fight night at New York's Madison Square Garden.
The Co Wicklow boxer triumphed in a very tight contest, sparking rumours of a Dublin rematch next year - possibly at Croke Park.
In GAA, the All Ireland Championships were brought forward to July with Limerick reasserting their dominance over hurling and Kerry returning to the summit in Gaelic Football.
Kilkenny triumphed over Cork in a thrilling Camogie final in August, while Meath romped home in the Ladies Senior Football Final.
Across the Atlantic in American Football, the Los Angeles Rams squeezed home in a thrilling Super Bowl 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, while the Houston Astros captured baseball's World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics to take another NBA title, although the best drama in basketball was unquestionably HBO's miniseries 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty' with John C Reilly.
Returning to the boxing ring, Britain's world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury announced in August his retirement from the sport after defeating Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium four months earlier - only to walk back on his decision by the end of the year.
Anthony Joshua's efforts to regain his crown, though, suffered a setback when he was defeated on points in a fight in Jeddah against the Ukranian fighter Oleksandr Usyk.
In the world of motor racing, after being dislodged last year by the Dutchman Max Verstappen, seven time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton struggled to contend for the title this year.
Their rivalry, however, didn't hit the same levels of bitterness that infected golf.
The sport dominated the headlines this year, thanks to an acrimonious split at the upper echelons of the game that saw leading professionals like Brooks Koepka, Bryson de Chambeau, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson and the Open champion Cam Smith defect from the PGA Tour to the Saudi backed LIV golf series run by Greg Norman.
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods were particularly vocal in their condemnation of LIV which proved highly lucrative for those who took part in its 54 hole competitions on a tour that was accused of sportwashing Saudi money and ignoring international concerns over human rights in the country.
Phil Mickelson and other LIV rebels faced awkward questions from golf journalists about the morality of joining the new tour, while Greg Norman frequently rubbed many of its critics up the wrong way with a series of abrasive interviews.
The row overshadowed a year when McIlroy came close to finally winning another major at Augusta and at the Open in St Andrews but in the end, the US Masters green jacket went to Scottie Sheffler, the USPGA title to Justin Thomas, the US Open to England's Matt Fitzpatrick and the claret jug to Australia's Cam Smith.
Former US President and golf fanatic Donald Trump also figured in the LIV controversy, hosting two of its events in his Bedminster Club and the Trump Doral in Florida.
He continued to deliver a host of bizarre news stories throughout the year including the burial of his first wife Ivana on the grounds of his Bedminster course.
It was a year of legal woes, however, for Trump and his supporters, as the New York Attorney General sued him and three of his children in September for "acts of staggering fraud" in the Trump corporation.
A jury in New York found the Trump Organisation guilty of fraud in December.
Perhaps the most jaw dropping development was the dramatic raid on the former President's Mar-A-Lago resort by the FBI a month earlier over his failure to hand over documents taken from the White House to the National Archive.
While Trump and his supporters characteristically tried to claim the raid was a breach of his human rights and part of a campaign of harassment by President Joe Biden and his administration, a bitter legal battle erupted with the US Department of Justice over the examination of the material.
On Capitol Hill, the January 6th Committee continued to release video footage of the 2021 storming of Congress by Trump supporters and broadcast other material which cast a poor light on the former President's behaviour during the insurrection.
Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger's criticisms of their own party's cowardice around Trump earned them a lot of admirers but ultimately cost Cheney her selection to defend her Congressional seat in the midterms.
While the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in the election by the narrowest of margins, Trump's endorsement of shrill, extreme right, 2020 election denying candidates undoubtedly cost them the Senate.
And while he announced a third bid for the White House, GOP members and Fox News looked increasingly to be turning to Florida Governor Ron De Santis to be their flag carrier in 2024.
Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and his sacking of a lot of its staff meant he vied Trump for a lot of coverage towards the end of the year.
The billionaire got a huge backlash for opening the door to Trump returning to the platform, resurrecting the Hunter Biden laptop story, trying to charge celebrities $20 for blue ticks declaring their accounts official and banning CNN and New York Times journalists despite claiming he would uphold free speech.
Not surprisingly, he made 'The Last Leg's' 2022 Dick of the Year shortlist.
Away from politics and social media, true crime documentaries continued to fascinate audiences.
The year began with Netflix creating a stir on social media with its romantic conman tale 'The Tinder Swindler' about the Israeli fraudster Simon Leviev- or was it David Sharon or Shimon Yehuda Hayut?
Prior to Netflix's movie 'Rogue Agent,' the streamer gave subscribers the real story behind the drama with the rather excellent 'The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman' about the really devious fraudster Robert Freegard.
Netflix's 'Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story' was a thorough and very disturbing examination of the life of the TV and radio personality and extensive paedophile Jimmy Savile.
'House of Maxwell' on BBC2 chronicled the dodgy behaviour of the newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell and his daughter Ghislaine who became a close associate of the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Jamie Crawford's three part Netflix series 'Trainwreck: Woodstock 99' was a grim retelling of an ill advised effort to revive the famous rock festival in upstate New York, with corporate sponsorship and poorly chosen facilities.
In October, BBC Scotland gave British audiences a fascinating two part examination of 'The Ice Cream Wars' in Glasgow that claimed the lives of six members of the Doyle family and resulted in a miscarriage of justice controversy.
RTE delivered a compelling three part examination of the Irish Civil War 100 years on, narrated by Brendan Gleeson.
David Baddiel tackled the downplaying of anti-Semitism on Channel 4's 'Jews Don't Count' with the help of Sarah Silverman, Miriam Margoyles, Stephen Fry and David Schwimmer.
For those looking for lighter fare, Rob McIlhenny and Ryan Reynolds delivered a charming FX and Disney+ sports documentary 'Welcome to Wrexham' about their efforts to transform the fortunes of a North Wales football club.
2022 was a year when a number of beloved TV shows bade farewell to viewers.
Ricky Gervais drew the curtain on his popular but morose Netflix dramedy 'Afterlife' after three very flawed seasons, delivering a rather wistful ending.
BBC1's uneven Birmingham gangster drama 'Peaky Blinders' with Cillian Murphy certainly bowed out in style in April with Tommy Shelby returning to his Gypsy roots one more time with a memorable parting shot.
Its creator Steven Knight also launched 'SAS: Rogue Heroes' on BBC1 to much success about the founders of the special services military unit and their deeds of derring do in North Africa.
BBC1's 'Killing Eve' continued its downward spiral in its final season in April, despite Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh's best efforts.
On Channel 4, the final episode of Lisa McGee's sitcom 'Derry Girls' in May actually eclipsed the rest of a series that featured a cameo from Liam Neeson, with a genuinely touching conclusion framed around the 1998 referendum on Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement.
Australia's cheesiest soap 'Neighbours' said goodbye in June, with many of its best known alumni - Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie, Natalie Imbruglia reprising their breakthrough roles.
However Amazon announced at the end of the year that it was reversing the axing of the soap and it would soon return to its free streaming service Freevee.
Jodie Whittaker said goodbye to 'Doctor Who' on BBC1 and, in a surprise move, regenerated back into David Tennant.
It remains to be seen how he will transform into the next Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa.
Fans of HBO's 'Westworld' were devastated when the plug was finally pulled on the show.
Netflix's 'Better Call Saul' bowed out on a high with a mesmerising final season that brilliantly wove all the narrative strands together, featuring great performances from Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks.
However as dazzling as the writing, acting and the direction were, the show, which split its final season into two parts, still walked away with no Primetime Emmy to its name throughout its entire run as this year's ceremony instead rewarded 'Succession' and 'Squid Game'.
The fact that 'Better Call Saul' couldn't win an Emmy in six groundbreaking seasons only emphasises just how much of a golden age we really are experiencing on TV.
Not everything, though, on TV, as we have seen, has been gold.
British TV again found it hard to shake off regular bouts of 'Line of Duty'-itis.
'Line of Duty' star Vicki McClure's latest vehicle was an ITV bomb squad drama in March called 'Trigger Point' which exhibited alk the usual traits of a World Productions show with big explosive set pieces, bombastic music, compromised characters and cliffhangers galore.
However far from being dynamite, it actually felt more like a sparkler - quickly fizzling out after an initial thrill.
With its Asian heroine, ITV's 'DI Ray' in May with Parminder Nagra had quite an interesting take on race dynamics within the police but could have done with being much tighter and compressed into three episodes rather than four.
Keeley Hawes' holiday resort terror tale 'Crossfire' in September on BBC1 felt woefully undercooked, as it clumsily tried to squeeze sensational twist after sensational twist out of a very thin plot.
BBC1 gave us in September and October Stanley Tucci and David Tennant in 'Inside Man' - a frankly daft thriller about a prisoner who solves mysteries while on Death Row and a Church of England vicar who is accidentally sucked into imprisoning a woman in his basement.
October gave us a second series of the execrable Northern Ireland thriller 'Bloodlands' with James Nesbitt, Victoria Smurfit, Lorcan Cranitch, Chris Walley and Charlene McKenna.
The show barely improved on a very weak first series, thanks to a ridiculous plot about IRA weapons and Boston gangsters' gold.
Nesbitt also gamely struggled through a disappointing Channel 4 series ,'Suspect' with Niamh Algar, Joely Richardson and Richard E Grant as a grieving dad trying to understand why his daughter wound up in a morgue.
Channel 5 continued to invest in drama with the Sheridan Smith miniseries 'The Teacher' in January and February about the Head of an English Department in a Leeds school who is accused of having sex with a pupil.
The show veered into soap opera, though, with occasionally ear scraping lines of dialogue.
Graham Norton's West Cork murder mystery 'Holding' hit our screens on ITV in March and April, with Conleth Hill playing a slob of a Gardai and Kathy Burke directing but it just underwhelmed.
After the 2020 lockdown phenomenon that was BBC1, RTE1 and Hulu's erotic adaptation of Sally Rooney's 'Normal People,' another one of her books made the small screen.
However 'Conversations with Friends' with Alison Oliver and Joe Alwyn was as limp as a damp box of tissues and about as much fun. Mm
In August, Channel 4's 'The Undeclared War' saw Mark Rylance, Adrian Lester, Alex Jennings and Simon Pegg join newcomers Hannah Khalique-Brown and German Segal for a timely but uneven tale about Britain being thrown into chaos by Russian state sponsored hacking.
ITV's rebooted streaming service ITVx gave us David Tennant, Mark Bonnar and Neil Maskell, though, in the gripping 'Litvinenko' about Russia's assassination in 2006 in London of the former intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive pollonium.
Ryan Murphy's Netflix series 'The Watcher' in October with Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts and Jennifer Coolidge took a true story about a New Jersey family threatened in their dream home and turned it into an over the top psychological thriller.
'Stranger Things' returned for a penultimate season that was again tiresome but did spark a revival of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill'.
As frustrating as most of these were, they weren't as terrible as some other shows.
Fresh from a compelling performance as the Hillsborough football disaster campaigner Anne Williams in ITV's solid miniseries 'Anne,' Maxine Pique turned up alongside Alison Steadman in the workplace drama 'Rules of the Game' which cackhandedly tackled misogyny and sexual harassment in business.
Just edging it, though, for worst TV show of 2022 was Netflix's surreal English-set Harlan Coben thriller 'Stay Close' which featured James Nesbitt as a singing detective and also featured a pair of ballroom dancing assassins called Ken and Barbie.
Fans of fantasy series finally got a 'Game of Thrones' spin-off with HBO's 'House of the Dragon' and Amazon Prime's 'Lord of the Rings' series.
Disney+ continued to squeeze every drop out of its Marvel and 'Star Wars' franchises, with Oscar Isaac starring in 'Moon Knight,' 'Ms Marvel,' 'She Hulk,' 'The Mandalorian' and Diego Luna starring in 'Andor'.
On the plus side, Netflix revived the Danish political drama 'Borgen' and gave us 'Dahmer' in which Evan Peters gave us an impressive performance as the infamous US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in a series which also boasted terrific turns from Richard Jenkins as his bewildered father and Niecy Nash as his horrified neighbour.
Stephen Merchant was also impressively creepy in January as the real life murderer Stephen Port in BBC1's sensitive and well crafted drama 'Four Lives' with Sheridan Smith which focused on the victims and their families.
In July, series two of another Merchant vehicle, BBC1 and Amazon Prime's Bristol crime caper dramedy 'The Outlaws' with Christopher Walken and Claes Bang once again didn't quite feel the sum of its parts despite offering up the odd laugh.
Martin Freeman popped up in February in a gripping BBC1 corrupt cop drama 'The Responder,' sporting a Scouse accent and delivering a brilliantly nervy performance alongside the always excellent Ian Hart.
Riding high on the back of his big screen success with Kenneth Branagh's 'Belfast,' Jamie Dornan scored a ratings success in February with the taut Australian Outback thriller 'The Tourist' which featured a delightful performance by Danielle MacDonald as a sweet natured, small town cop.
Branagh got the chance to play Boris Johnson for Sky Atlantic in Michael Winterbottom's pandemic drama 'This England,' while Colin Firth was compelling as Michael Petersen in the true crime inspired HBO drama 'The Staircase' with Toni Collette and Juliette Binoche.
Jamie Lee O'Donnell carved out her post 'Derry Girls' career in January with a promising prison drama series on Channel 4 'Screw,' with Nina Sosanya also on top form.
While RTE basked in the glory of its 2021 Belgian co-production 'Hidden Assets' with Angeline Ball making it onto BBC4's Saturday night schedules in January, the channel turned to Sweden for another Euro thriller during September and October.
With its tale of a drug gang operating in a West coast of Ireland fishing community in Co Galway, 'North Sea Connection' with Lydia McGuinness, Stuart Graham and Sinead Cusack was a surprisingly solid piece of work.
The Co Clare family drama 'Smother' with Dervla Kirwan and Seana Kerslake earned a second series in January and February but remained a terribly frustrating watch, with its tendency to veer into soap opera.
'Only Murders in the Building' returned for a second season on Hulu and Disney+ and the caper sitcom didn't disappoint with Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin delivering plenty of laughs with an all star cast that included Tina Fey, Amy Schumer, Nathan Lane and Shirley MacLaine.
The trio also nicely teed up a third and possibly final outing with Paul Rudd.
The first series of ABC's Australian 1980s journalism drama 'The Newsreader' with Anna Torv and Sam Reid really impressed, with its tale of a fragile Melbourne TV news anchor and a wet about the ears reporter.
Keeley Hawes and Samuel West starred in a genuinely creepy adaptation of John Wyndham's sci-fi horror tale 'The Midwich Cuckoos' on Sky Max.
Billie Piper also returned in 'I Hate Suzie Too' - a second series of her dark comedy drama with writer Lucy Prebble about a celebrity whose terrible choices in life play out in the media pushing her to the brink of mental exhaustion.
Consisting of just three episodes, the Sky Atlantic show confirmed how Piper has become one of the most daring and interesting actors working in British TV and film right now.
The British sitcoms 'Motherland' and 'The Detectorists' returned for Christmas specials, with the former switching to BBC1.
Channel 4 gave Dylan Llewellyn a new sitcom vehicle after 'Derry Girls' as a gay student adjusting to university life in 'Big Boys' which showed a lot of promise and earned a second series.
What other shows were the cream of the crop in 2022?
In addition to the final season of 'Better Call Saul,' the final episode of 'Derry Girls' and 'The Responder,' there were seven shows that stood out.
While Amazon Prime gave us another enjoyable season of 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel,' the streaming giant double gifted another show in April and June that turned out to be the best on its platform.
Subscribers were treated to the first two seasons of HBO Max's 'Hacks' about a US comedy legend and an up and coming writer who write material, bicker, bond, fall out again, bond etc.
Starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, the comedy drama had some of the funniest writing on TV this year - particularly the lesbian cruise episode in its second season - and some of the most poignant.
But it was Smart who really impressed in a role that has won her two consecutive Primetime Emmys - brilliantly capturing the vulnerabilities of a Las Vegas comedy legend in an industry that can be exploitative, mean and breed insecurity.
Amanda Seyfried turned in the best performance of her career as the disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes in Hulu and Disney+'s 'The Dropout' which also featured fantastic performances from Naveen Andrews, William H Macy, Elizabeth Marvel, Sam Waterston and Stephen Fry.
In February and March, BBC1 and AMC+ gave us the superb medical drama 'This Is Going to Hurt' with Ben Whishaw, Ambika Mod, Alex Jennings and Ashley McGuire.
Set in a London hospital, former emergency doctor Adam Kay's outstanding drama was an eye opening account of the pressures NHS staff experience every day and it delivered one hell of a gut punch towards the end of its run.
Sean Bean and Nicola Walker were compelling in Stefan Golazewski's challenging BBC1 kitchen sink drama 'Marriage' as a couple trying to get by while wrestling with grief, anxiety, empty nest syndrome, sexual harassment at work and job loss.
Patricia Clarkson and Brendan Gleeson explored a marriage which had run out of road in bitesize episodes of the Sundance Channel's 'State of the Union' which got a second season but which felt a little stale even with Stephen Frears and Nick Hornby involved in the American version.
Kate Winslet and her real life daughter Mia Threapelton made a late surge into our top ten by teaming up with Dominic Savage for 'I Am Ruth' which honestly tackled an unhealthy teenage obsession with social media and body image.
The same was true for the second season of HBO's 'The White Lotus' which brought Jennifer Coolidge, Aubrey Plaza, F Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli and Tom Hollander to Sicily for another messy tale of imperfect marriages, prostitution and death.
In leaner years, Danny Boyle's 'Pistol,' a suitably raucous and vivacious FX drama about the rise and fall of the Sex Pistols might have made our list of Top 10 TV shows of the year - not least for Anson Boon's electric portrayal of John Lydon.
Cases could be also made for the inclusion of Hulu and Disney+'s comedy drama 'The Bear' and Apple TV+'s espionage drama 'Slow Horses' or it's office satire 'Severance'.
ITV's tongue in cheek revival of 'The Ipcress File' with Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander was also a bit of a blast.
BBC1's mining community drama 'Sherwood' and Hugo Blick's stylish BBC2 Western 'The English' with Emily Blunt were impressive shows that might also have made the grade in other years.
However the best show of 2022 was on Apple TV+ and was an Irish adaptation of a Flemish show that previously aired on Channel 4.
Sharon Horgan's black comedy 'Bad Sisters' relocated the Belgian show 'Clan' to North Dublin and gave us one of the nastiest villains of all time in the shape of Claes Bang's manipulative, bullying, malicious husband John Paul or JP or "the Prick".
Not only did it mine its black humour superbly, it also featured some of the best writing and best acting this year from a cast comprising of Bang, Horgan and Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene, Eve Hewson and Ann Marie Duff as the Garvey sisters.
Not only did they deliver a convincing depiction of sisterhood as four of the siblings tried to bump off JP but Daryl McCormick and Brian Gleeson also conjured up a compelling portrayal of half brothers trying to avoid making an insurance payout which could cripple them financially.
With its twists and failed murder bids, 'Bad Sisters' felt like a brilliant fusion of 'Road Runner,' 'Fargo' and 'This Way Up' and didn't just create one stunning TV moment but several.
The show was just the escape we needed from a world which seemed even more bonkers than the two years we experienced of COVID.
That ability to momentarily take us away from the grim realities of life meant TV has never felt more precious.
Even though we hope for a better, calmer and saner 2023, long may that medium keep delivering quality.
Pomona's Top Shows of 2022
1 Bad Sisters (Apple TV+)
2 This Is Going To Hurt (BBC1)
3 Better Call Saul, Season Six (Netflix)
4 The White Lotus, Season Two (HBO)
5 Hacks (Amazon Prime)
6 The Dropout (Disney+)
7 The Responder (BBC1)
8 I Am Ruth (Channel 4)
9 I Hate Suzie Too (Sky Atlantic & HBO Max)
10 Derry Girls - The Finale (Channel 4)
Worst Show: Stay Close (Netflix)
Honourable Mentions: Sherwood (BBC); The Staircase (HBO); Dahmer (Netflix); The Irish Civil War (RTE); Screw (Channel 4); The Ice Cream Wars (BBC); Anne (ITV); Marriage (BBC); Pistol (FX); Only Murders in the Building (Hulu & Disney+)
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