© BBC2023 was a year of goodbyes.
In the world of the talk show, the hosts of two 'Late Late Shows' - James Corden and Ryan Tubridy - hung up their suits only to be replaced on CBS by Taylor Tomlinson and on RTE by the Northern Irish comedian Patrick Kielty.
Some big hitting dramas also bowed out.
The year began with a third and final outing for Sally Wainwright's BBC1 Yorkshire crime drama 'Happy Valley' with Sarah Lancashire, Jim Norton and Siobhan Finneran.
But while fans mourned the departure of the Yorkshire drama, its much anticipated climactic showdown between Lancashire's no nonsense Sergeant Catherine Cawood and Norton's offender Tommy Lee Royce proved a bit anti-climactic.
Apple TV+'s hugely popular football sitcom 'Ted Lasso' seemed to go out with a whimper, suffering from third season syndrome and some rather baggy elongated episodes.
The fifth and final season of Amazon Prime's comedy drama 'The Marvelous Mrs Maisel' with Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein did the same, as it unconvincingly tied up loose ends by shuttling between the decades.
Netflix split the final season of its British Royal Family drama 'The Crown' in two, with some episodes in November and some in December but both halves met with critical and audience dissatisfaction.
RTE's ropey thriller 'Smother' with Dervla Kirwan wrapped after three series and didn't improve with a tired tale in which Jason O'Mara joined the cast as the new dodgy man in the lead character Val's life while Seana Kerslake's character died offscreen.
At least Neil Forsyth's Caledonian Coen Brothers BBC Scotland drama 'Guilt' with Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives fared a wee bit better as, drawing a veil over the adventures of dodgy Edinburgh lawyer Max McCall.
Showtime's Bryan Cranston vehicle 'Your Honor' switched from Sky Atlantic to Paramount+ in the UK, with its writers appearing to take a very conscious decision to call it quits with the dark New Orleans tale after just two seasons.
Cranston and his fellow cast members Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis, Lilli Kay, Margo Martindale and Rosie Perez elevated an imperfect, yet at times inspired series.
AMC+'s 'Kevin Can F**k Himself' with Annie Murphy also decided to limit its tale of sitcom characters living grim lives offscreen to just two seasons.
At least that was their choice.
In a hugely disappointing move, HBO axed its wonderful LA Lakers basketball drama 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty' after another enjoyable second season starring John C Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, Adrien Brody, Hadley Robinson, Jason Segal, Jason Clarke, Solomon Hughes, Michael Chiklis and Sean Patrick Small charting the team's struggles after their initial NBA title win.
(SPOILER ALERT!!)
Unquestionably the biggest and best of the farewells of 2023 was HBO's 'Succession' which had the balls to kill off Brian Cox's media mogul Logan Roy three episodes into its fourth and final season.
The writers, cast and crew delivered ten note perfect episodes that really made the case for the show to credibly challenge 'The Sopranos' as the greatest TV dramas of all time.
Although as someone who is currently in the process of rewatching 'The Sopranos,' it's clear that show isn't going to be easily knocked off its perch.
Had 'Succession' not aired this year, the second season of AMC+ and RTE's tense Dublin gangster drama 'Kin' might have laid claim to being the best TV drama of 2023.
Claire Dunne, Charlie Cox, Emmett J Scanlan, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Sam Keeley, Yasmine Seky and particularly Francis Magee delivered bone crunching performances in a series that further raised the bar for Irish drama.
The series had one of the most explosive endings of any TV show this year, while the first series also got deserved exposure in the UK on BBC1 and the iPlayer during November and December.
North of the border, Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson's Police Service of Northern Ireland procedural 'Blue Lights' got off to an electric start on BBC1 with Sian Brooke, Martin McCann, Hannah McClean, John Lynch and Richard Dormer delivering terrific performances on the mean streets of Belfast.
Arguably the second season of FX's culinary comedy drama 'The Bear' had moments where it topped 'Succession', with episodes that saw the show dramatically change its pace and tone.
The decision of the writers to focus on the transformation of the Chicago sandwich takeaway into a more upscale restaurant meant Jeremy Allen White's Carmy Berzatto, Ayo Edebiri's Sydney Adamu and Ebon Moss Bachrach's Richie Jerimovich faced a whole new set of demands.
It made for compelling drama, delivering a jaw dropping Christmas flashback episode that guest starred Sarah Poulson, John Mulaney, Oliver Platt, Jon Bernthal, Bob Odenkirk and a superb Jamie Lee Curtis.
In October, BBC1 and Philip Barrantini's four part TV version of the movie 'Boiling Point' also looked at the troubled lives of staff in a struggling restaurant.
Like the English feature film and short film that inspired it, it was an impressive piece of work with Vinette Robinson, Hannah Walters, Gary Lamont and Stephen Graham in sparkling form.
In June, comedian Alan Carr conjured up one of the surprises of the year with his semi autobiographical sitcom 'Changing Ends' on ITVx.
The comedy featured one of the best sitcom performances given by a child actor in any TV show this year, Oliver Savell as the 11 year old Carr.
ITV's streaming website also brought viewers top quality Britbox shows like Fran Harris' Dublin comedy drama 'The Dry' and Irvine Welsh's 'Crime' which had previously aired on Britbox.
A second series of 'Crime' landed on the streaming platform in September, with Dougray Scott turning in blistering performances over the course of both series as the haunted Edinburgh cop DI Ray Lennox, with the help of Ken Stott, Joanna Vanderham and a chillingly arrogant John Simm.
In addition to her superb comic turn as a recovering alcoholic in a dysfunctional Dublin family in 'The Dry' alongside Ciaran Hinds and Moe Dunford, Roisin Gallagher was also enjoyable alongside Johnny Flynn, Alice Eve and Conleth Hill in David Ireland's Sky Atlantic show 'The Lovers' which cast her native Belfast as an unlikely romcom city.
BBC1's conman drama 'The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies' was also huge fun, with Rebekah Staton and Marianne Jean Baptiste teaming up to turn the tables on Alistair Petrie's sociopath.
The same enjoyment could not be derived from Sky Max's woeful political thriller 'COBRA: Rebellion' with Robert Carlyle, Victoria Hamilton, David Haig and Jane Horrocks who seemed to act as if she was in a French and Saunders spoof of the show.
Sky Max gave us a 'Killing Eve' meets 'Derry Girls' and 'End of the F***king World' style thriller 'Then You Run' about four London ladies, some drugs and a pile of gangsters which wasn't perfect but showed some promise.
Harry and Jack Williams tried to pull off a similar trick on November with BBC1's primetime drama 'Boat Story' - a north of England 'Fargo' style drama with Daisy Haggard, Paterson Joseph, Tcheky Karyo and Joanna Scanlan that had its moments but didn't quite hit the heights.
Channel 4 delivered a disappointing second series of its prison drama 'Screw' with Nina Sosanya and Jdmie Lee O'Donnell which very quickly lost the run of itself with some frankly unbelievable storylines and dollops of mushy sentimentality.
By way of contrast, Jimmy McGovern and Helen Black teamed up for a gripping second series of 'Time' on BBC1 with Jodie Whittaker, Tamara Lawrence, Bella Ramsey and Siobhan Finneran which was set over three episodes in a women's prison.
Steve Coogan turned in unquestionably one of the best and bravest performances of his career by taking on the unenviable role of the prolific paedophile TV and radio personality Jimmy Savile in BBC1's 'The Reckoning'.
A chilling, yet sensitively made attempt to document how Savile cloaked his criminal behaviour in eccentricity and charitable work, the drama gave a voice to his real victims - interviewing them and reminding audiences of the trauma he inflicted.
Earlier in the year, comedian W Kamau Bell's Showtime docuseries 'We Need To Talk About Cosby' examined similar themes on BBC2 about Bill Cosby's cloaking of his crimes against women through a carefully constructed celebrity persona in the US.
ITVx's fixation with celebrity dramas this year saw Helena Bonham Carter play Noele Gordon and Jason Isaacs as Cary Grant in two stodgy biographical dramas 'Nolly' and 'Archie'.
Undoubtedly one of the best dramas to hit the small screen this year was HBO's apocalyptic thriller 'The Last of Us' with Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsay, Anna Torv, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman.
Based on a popular video game, it was really well written and produced some of the most breathtaking moments on TV this year.
Torv also starred in the second series of the rewarding Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 1980s television newsroom drama 'The Newsreader' with Sam Reid which didn't disappoint.
Meanwhile Harrison Ford provided plenty of laughs alongside Jason Segal, Jessica Walker and Christa Miller in Apple TV+'s excellent psychiatrists sitcom 'Shrinking'.
Ironically the psychiatrist sitcom that everyone was looking forward to on Paramount+, the 2023 reboot of 'Frasier' with Kelsey Grammer and Nicolas Lyndhurst turned out to be a huge disappointment, failing to come anywhere near the magic of the original.
It didn't help that after deciding to bring Frasier Crane back to Boston, it rather bizarrely ignored the existence of 'Cheers' and the friends his character made there.
In the wake of 2021's 'Dopesick,' Matthew Broderick took on the role of Purdue Pharma's Richard Sackler in Netflix's opioid crisis drama 'Painkiller'.
While it featured a terrific performance by Uzo Aduba as a federal investigator, the show directed by Peter Berg never quite eclipsed Hulu's award winning 2021 drama 'Dopesick' with Michaels Keaton and Stuhlbarg.
In April, Netflix gave audiences a jaw droppingly nasty but very fun black comedy 'Beef' with Steven Yuen's Korean American contractor and Ali Wong's Chinese American entrepreneur waging a very personal war against each other that escalated after a road rage incident in a parking lot.
Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez held out the prospect of a fourth season of their amateur sleuth sitcom 'Only Murders In The Building' after a third season with Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd that didn't quite live up to the standard of the previous two.
RTE's Irish Belgian co-production 'Hidden Assets' returned with Angeline Ball making way for Nora Jane Boone's Criminal Assets Bureau Detective Sergeant Claire Wallace to team up with Wouter Hendrickx's Inspector Christian de Jong in a far fetched tale about dodgy businesspeople and far right activists that somehow made it onto BBC4.
The biggest mystery, though, was how RTE's laughable thriller 'Clean Sweep' with Charlene McKenna and Barry Ward also made it onto BBC4 with its bizarre deployment of characters sporting dodgy disguises.
BBC1's thriller 'The Woman In The Wall' with Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack looked superb but didn't quite convince as a psychological thriller crafted around the real life scandal of Ireland's mother and baby homes, despite its stars' best efforts.
Irish actress Niamh Algar's meteoric rise as a lead actress continued, teaming up with 'Boiling Point' director Philip Barrantini for ITV's medical drama 'Malpractice' with James Purefoy.
Pitched as "Line of Duty in the NHS," the World Productions series was typically bombastic and prone to lots of hysteria, trotting out credulity stretching cliffhanger after cliffhanger.
World Productions also gave us a second series of the Suranne Jones led overrated thriller 'Vigil' with Dougray Scott turning up for a tale about drones.
Timothy Spall and Anne Reid were heartbreaking as easily manipulated senior citizens in BBC1's true crime drama 'The Sixth Commandment' with Irish actor Eanna Hardwicke particularly chilling as the predator Ben Field.
Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux popped up in another Watergate drama 'White House Plumbers' with Domhnall Gleeson but it ultimately was too skittish to impress.
Netflix's 'Obsession' failed to improve on the Louis Malle 1992 movie adaptation 'Damage' with a small screen version that felt like it had been interfered with too much by its producers.
However Shane Meadows' 'The Gallows Pole' was an intriguing take on the period drama with its stylish tale of counterfeit coin makers in 18th Century Yorkshire.
Apple TV+'s dingy London spy series 'Slow Horses' returned for a third season with Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden and Kristin Scott Thomas continuing to delight.
Meanwhile on the news channels, 2023 began as 2022 had ended, with the Russians bombarding Ukraine with missiles for much of the year.
The year ended, however, with another chilling conflagration that started to eclipse the war in Ukraine as Israeli troops invaded the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on a music festival in southern Israel in October which resulted in the taking of hostages and the firing of 5,000 rockets.
The West's support for Israel's subsequent aerial bombardment of Gaza and ground invasion caused deep unease in some countries as Palestinians fled to safety over the border with Egypt, sparking a major humanitarian crisis.
As regular protests took place over the scale of Israel's military response in Gaza, the amount of Palestinian civilian deaths, the humanitarian crisis and the lack of dialogue between the two sides, concerns were also expressed about rising levels of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in many countries including the UK, triggered by the conflict.
With the world's focus shifting from Russian military actions in Eastern Europe to events in the Middle East, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found himself flying to Washington in December to remind people of the importance of continued Western military aid to resist the actions of Moscow.
Despite this, Senate Republicans blocked requests for financial aid from US President Joe Biden's administration as they geared up for yet more bitter White House, Congressional and Gubernatorial races next year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had troubles of his own in June, falling out with the Wagner Group of mercenaries led by Yevgeney Prigozhin over his strategy in the Ukraine War.
It resulted in a short lived coup, with Putin hastily striking a deal to enable Prigozhin and his supporters to head to Belarus.
By August, Prigozhin was dead - killed in a plane crash, triggering suspicions that he was assassinated in retribution for defying the Kremlin.
The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry published a memoir 'Spare' in January which came hot on the heels of last year's Netflix special.
The publication of the book saw the Prince make an appearance on CBS's 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' and contained some eye popping claims about his time in the Army, how he lost his virginity and, in particular, his fractious relationship with his father King Charles III and brother, Prince William.
It was a bestseller but it did little to heal the rift in the Royal household.
The memoir landed just months before the UK celebrated in May the Coronation of King Charles III and Camilla as Queen consort.
The publication, however, of another book 'Endgame' by Omid Scobie sparked a further crisis in November after a Dutch edition named two Royals who were alleged to have made racist comments about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's son.
Talk TV's Piers Morgan subsequently named the Royals identified in the Dutch edition of Scobie's book on his current affairs chat show, sparking speculation that the Windsors might sue over the allegations.
Weeks later, Morgan faced scores of reporters after Prince Harry won a phone hacking case in the British Courts against the Daily Mirror covering the period when the TV host was its editor but he continued to deny knowledge of it taking place on his watch.
Throughout 2023, despite no longer being in office, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump still managed to hog the limelight.
Trump faced a barrage of accusations in the US courts over sexual assault, financial impropriety, the inappropriate handling of White House documents, electoral fraud and the storming of Congress by supporters.
Nevertheless despite these legal woes, he continued to dominate the polls for the Republican Presidential race.
In fact, he was so dominant he didn't even bother to turn up at GOP candidate debates and remarkably appears on course to sweep aside rival bids for the nomination by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Nikki Halley, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Whether there will be a rematch of the 2020 Presidential Election with Joe Biden is the question.
US President Joe Biden might have felt energised by an April visit to Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and his ancestral homes of Carlingford and Ballina but his advancing years appeared to be undermining his prospects for re-election, with opinion polls repeatedly questioning whether his age is impairing him as a leader.
President Biden also faced in December rather predictable moves by Republicans in the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against him over allegations of corruption when he was Vice President to President Barrack Obama.
Congressional Republicans played out their own internecine warfare throughout the year, with California's Kevin McCarthy taking 15 attempts in January to be elected Speaker of the House, only to be ousted in October and replaced by Mike Johnson from Louisiana.
In December, New York Republican George Santos also became the sixth lawmaker in US history to be expelled from the lower house following an ethics report and while facing a barrage of criminal charges over alleged fraud.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, British politics continued to be turbulent, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government struggling to regain support against Keir Starmer's Labour Party.
Lingering anger over Boris Johnson and Liz Truss's Premierships continued to undermine his government and he appeared to stake the Conservatives' re-election hopes on an economic revival.
The UK economy made tentative steps towards a recovery.
However the electorate continued to punish the Tories in the local government election in Many and Westminster by-elections for the COVID lockdown scandals under Boris Johnson, the 2022 mortgage meltdown under Liz Truss and a messy immigration policy.
That immigration policy backfired in November when the Supreme Court declared a law enabling migrants to be sent to Rwanda was unlawful.
With a General Election looming in 2024, many political pundits are predicting a 1997 landslide for Labour.
The COVID inquiry's public hearings did little to boost the Tories chances, with Boris Johnson, his former senior aide Dominic Cummings, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak facing questions about evidence that revealed backbiting and indecision at the height of the health crisis and the flouting of the Government's own lockdown rules in Number Ten.
Former BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg reflected on the dysfunction at the heart of Westminster and the Conservative Government in her three part 'State of Chaos' docu-miniseries on BBC2 which focused on Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss's time in Number Ten.
Her Sunday current affairs show also delivered a jaw dropping interview with Baroness Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman about the COVID PPE scandal which only compounded the Conservatives' woes.
As the inquiry pored over this detail, Channel 4 used a one off drama 'Partygate' to examine the cavalier attitudes of those who worked for Johnson in Downing Street during the COVID pandemic, recreating the wild parties that took place there documented in the Sue Gray Report.
Johnson, meanwhile, was forced to quit Parliament in June after a House of Commons Privileges Committee inquiry claimed he misled MPs about Partygate.
Mr Johnson, however, will not fade away with a presenting slot lined up for him next year on the right wing GB News Channel.
After the departure of Trevor Noah from its satirical 'The Daily Show,' Comedy Central opted for a series of weekly guest hosts from Wanda Sykes and Al Franken to John Leguizamo to Sarah Silverman, Al Franken to Michelle Wolf.
Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Jimmy Kimmel continued to amuse with their satirical monologues on their respective CBS, HBO and ABC shows.
Across the Atlantic, BBC1's current affairs panel show 'Have I Got News For You' regained its form while Channel 4's 'The Last Leg' was inconsistent but did pull off a hell of a prank on former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she was voted "Dick of the Year" by viewers.
The world of sport's biggest schism of recent years appeared to come to an end in June as the PGA and DP golf tours stunned their most loyal players by striking a deal with the Saudi owners of the breakaway LIV golf circuit.
Despite this attempt to unify golf, all its wounds were still plain to see on and off the course.
At the Majors John Rahm appeared to strike a blow for the PGA by becoming the fourth Spaniard to win the US Masters in April.
However LIV stalwart Brooks Koepka won the USPGA title a month later.
PGA players picked up the remaining two Major titles, with Wyndham Clark ensuring Rory McIlroy's nine year Majors drought continued at the US Open in June and Brian Harman producing an absolute masterclass in links golf at the Open Championship a month later.
McIlroy, however, and his European colleagues had plenty to celebrate in September after Luke Donald's team crushed Zac Johnson's United States in the Ryder Cup in Rome during an ill tempered clash which saw the Northern Irishman lose his cool over the behaviour of an American caddie.
A week before that Europe's women retained the Solheim Cup in Andalucia.
Keopka was the only LIV player to take part in the contest as Donald and Jonson shut out some of the biggest names in golf for playing on a tour with no ranking points.
All of this came on the back of a hit Netflix series 'Full Swing' whose episodes featured some of the personalities on either side of golf's big divide - Rory McIlroy, Scottie Schefler, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Ian Poulter.
LIV had the last laugh, though, in December, when the Masters champion and World Number Three John Rahm jumped ship from the PGA.
Allegations of sports washing reared its head in other sports as well.
Saudi backed Newcastle United captured a coveted Champions League place in the English Premier League, while the Qatari backed Manchester City finally won the Champions League under manager Pep Guardiola by beating Inter Milan, as well as the Premier League and FA Cup titles.
Concerns still continued to be expressed, however, about their owners.
Money flowed into Saudi League clubs as well with Steven Gerrard becoming the fourth highest paid manager in the world at Al-Etiffaq and players like Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane, Neymar and Jota leaving Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Paris At Germain and Glasgow Celtic to play there.
However Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Romelu Lukaku and Jose Mourinho rejected big pay cheques to join them.
Elsewhere Erik Ten Hag's Manchester United may have lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup final but at least the Dutchman had the consolation of winning the Carabao Cup in February by defeating Eddie Howe's Newcastle.
That didn't stop the club's fanbase from having their doubts about him, though after the Old Trafford giants got off to a rather underwhelming start to the 23/24 Premier League campaign.
While Mikel Artera's Arsenal rued the collapse of its 22/23 Premier League challenge, David Moyes' West Ham broke a 43 year trophy drought by becoming the only London team to win a cup with a thrilling 2-1 UEFA Conference League final victory over Fiorentina.
In Italy, Napoli won Serie A, while Barcelona took the La Liga title.
Bayern Munich snatched the Bundesliga title in a dramatic last day in Germany where they edged out Borussia Dortmund and subsequently signed England captain Harry Kane from Spurs, while in France the Qatari owned Paris St Germain captured a dramatic eleventh Ligue 1 title.
Ange Postecoglou's Glasgow Celtic powered their way to a treble in Scotland, only to see their Australian coach leave at the end of the season to become the manager of Tottenham Hotspur where he got off to a terrific start.
After a trophy winning spell at Leicester City ended with him being sacked, Brendan Rodgers controversially returned to Celtic Park to guide the Scottish champions as Michael Beale failed to rebuild their main rivals, Rangers and made way in October for Belgian, Philippe Clement.
Clement's arrival quickly paid dividends, winning them a Scottish League Cup final against Aberdeen and closing the gap on Celtic in the league after Rodgers' side stuttered, making it the most competitive Scottish Premier League race in years.
Larne won their first ever Northern Ireland Football League Premiership title, while south of the Irish border Dublin's Shamrock Rovers won their fourth consecutive Premier League title.
In Gaelic Games, Limerick continued its domination of hurling with a fourth successive senior All-Ireland Championship title by beating Kilkenny, while Dublin avenged last year's gaelic football Championship defeat at the hands of Kerry by taking the title.
Dublin's Ladies made it an All Ireland gaelic football double over Kerry, while Cork's women crushed Waterford in the camogie championship final.
Belgium's Luca Brecel broke new ground by capturing the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield with an 18-15 win over England's Mark Selby.
In tennis, Novak Djokovic notched up a record breaking 23rd Grand Slam title on the French Open clay courts of Roland Garros, after capturing the Australian Open title as well in January.
However the Serbian was not able to add an eighth Wimbledon title to his trophy cabinet after a thrilling five set defeat at the hands of the much younger Spaniard, Carlos Alcaraz who also dethroned him as World Number One.
He did, however, win a 24th Major at Flushing Meadow in September by defeating Daniil Medvedev to claim the US Open crown.
By way of contrasts, there were four different Grand Slam title winners on the women's game - Belarusian Aryna Sabalenca in Melbourne, Poland's Iga Swiatek in Paris, the Czech Republic's Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon and American Coco Gauff in Flushing Meadow.
Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard successfully defended his Tour de France yellow jersey.
In rugby, at the start of the year Ireland notched up another Six Nations Grand Slam title success and had an impressive World Cup campaign in the autumn in France, coming through a tough group unbeaten by defeating South Africa and Scotland.
Yet despite having assembled their best ever side to mount a serious World Cup challenge, they still didn't progress beyond the quarter finals - even with Johnny Sexton at out-half - losing to New Zealand's All Blacks.
France also had high hopes as host nation but these were also dashed in a narrow quarter final defeat to South Africa, while England once again reached the last four with a nervy win over Fiji - only to have their hearts broken by the Springboks in an agonisingly tight encounter.
In the end, the final came down once more to a head to head contest between New Zealand and South Africa, with the Springboks defending their crown.
Across the Atlantic, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles.
In basketball, the Denver Nuggets took the NBA Finals crown by outwitting the Miami Heat, while in baseball the Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks to triumph at the World Series.
In men's cricket, England lamely ceded in October their One Day International World Cup crown after a disappointing series of displays in India with Australia emerging victorious in a tense contest with the hosts.
Australia also retained the Ashes in England after drawing the series.
England's women also lost out to their Australian counterparts.
Holland's Max Verstappen captured his third consecutive Formula One Championship at the Qatari Grand Prix in October, with Red Bull Racing also winning their third constructors' title.
In horse racing, jockey Derek Fox and Corach Rambler won the Grand National, Mage captured the Kentucky Derby and Without A Fight triumphed at the Melbourne Cup.
In a year when Taylor Swift dominated the music industry, Elton John owned Glastonbury while Pulp impressed at the Isle of Wight.
The world lost a host of leading faces in sport, politics, business and the arts.
The year began with the passing of guitar legend Jeff Beck, Juventus, Chelsea and Italian soccer legend Gianluca Vialli, singer Lisa Marie Presley and Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida in January.
Music legend David Crosby, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' actress Melinda Dillon, US comedian Kelly Monteith, Glasgow Celtic footballer Frank McGarvey, Irish traditional music legend Seamus Begley, US actors J Patrick McNamara and Ben Masters, English journalist Paul Johnson, Scottish musician Alan Rankine of The Associates, 'The Life and Loves Of A She Devil' author Fay Weldon, West Ham United owner and businessman David Gold, 'Laverne and Shirley' actress Cindy Williams and Australian Cardinal George Pell also died that month.
In February, 'Chariots of Fire' director Hugh Hudson died as well as the Hollywood actress Raquel Welch, the celebrated US songwriter Burt Bacharach, Irish author, actor and journalist Deirdre Purcell, Ghanian footballer Christian Atsu, 'The Poseidon Adventure' star Stella Stevens, 'Hill Street Blues' cast member Barbara Bosson, Irish politician Niamh Bhreathnach, Northern Irish journalist and author Henry McDonald, BBC 'Match of the Day' football commentator John Motson, Irish film and TV producer James Flynn, Margaret Thatcher's Downing Street press adviser Sir Bernard Ingham and former House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd.
'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Relic' star Tom Sizemore, Pulp bass guitarist Steve Mackey, French football legend Just Fontaine, Japanese animator Takahiro Kimura, 'Fiddler On The Roof' star Chaim Topol, British astrologer Mystic Meg, Montreal Expos and Chicago Cubs baseball player Dan McGinn, Weather Report saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Scottish football player and manager Allan McGraw, American poet Wendy Baker, South African rapper Costa Titch English cartoonist Bill Tidy, former Offaly Gaelic Football coach Liam Kearns, former US Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, screenwriter Norman Steinberg, 'Ann Summers' businesswoman Jacqueline Gold, Procul Harum member Keith Reid, former US Congressman Nick Galifianakis and Liverpudlian comedian and broadcaster Paul O'Grady, who created Lily Savage passed away in March.
April saw the deaths of Australian comedy legend and creator of Dame Edna Everage Barry Humphries, British 'Strictly Come Dancing' and US 'Dancing With The Stars' judge Len Goodman, guitarist Otis Redding III, Mayo Gaelic footballer Mick Loftus, 'Byker Grove' and 'Emmerdale' actor Dale Meeks, former US Congressman Bud Shuster, Mexican comedian and actor Sergio DeFassio, Australian cricketer Ken Archer, English actor Murray Melvin, The Script guitarist Mark Sheehan, fashion designer Dame Mary Quant, Irish Australian actor Maeliosa Stafford, Indian children's author KV Ramanathan, Hong Kong actor Richard Ng, American racing driver Justin Owen, actor Michael Lerner, The Quireboys guitarist Guy Bailey, S Club 7 singer Paul Cattermole, Derry Gaelic footballer Jim McKeever, Luscious Jackson musician Vivian Trimble, Scottish boxing legend Ken Buchanan and former British Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative peer Lord Nigel Lawson.
Music legend Tina Turner died in May, along with Canadian singer songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, US bluegrass vocalist Gloria Belle, Sean Keane who played fiddle in the iconic Irish traditional music band The Chieftains, avant garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, 'Petrocelli' star Barry Newman, former UK Conservative Government minister Peter Brooke, New Zealand philanthropist Dame Rose Horton,'Top of the Pops' producer Stanley Appel, Hall of Fame golfer and founder of the LPGA Marlene Hagge, American Footballer and actor Jim Brown, novelist Martin Amis, US Congressman Marion Berry, The Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, 'Rome' cast member Ray Stevenson, jazz composer and musician Bill Lee and ITV News journalist Emily Morgan.
In June, former Italian Prime Minister and AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi left this world along with Oscar winning actress and former British Labour MP Glenda Jackson, US evangelist and Republican Presidential candidate Pat Robertson, actor Treat Williams, Grammy award winning songwriter Cynthia Weil, author Cormac McCarthy, Aslan lead singer Christy Dignam, Italian film director and comedian Francesco Nuti, former Japanese Acting Prime Minister Mikio Aoki, French film director Jacques Rozier, Austrian-American photojournalist Lisi Steiner, Lebanese born blues musician Otis Grand, French painter Francoise Gilot, former Chelsea, Arsenal and England international John Hollins, Leeds United, Manchester United and Scotland international Gordon McQueen, Irish Olympic bronze medal winning boxer Jim McCourt, South Korean singer Choi Sung-bong, former SNP MP and MEP Winnie Ewing, American actor Frederic Forrest of 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Falling Down' fame, Megadeth drummer Lee Rauch, former British Labour Party general secretary Baroness Margaret McDonagh, Coventry City and Belgian international footballer Cedric Roussel, English journalist Dame Ann Leslie, former Scotland international football manager Craig Brown and the much admired Oscar winning Hollywood character actor Alan Arkin.
The unexpected death of singer songwriter Sinead O'Connor was keenly felt in Ireland and around the world in late July which also saw the passing of another music legend Tony Bennett, English soap opera actress Meg Johnson, Welsh footballer Wayne Evans, American soul singer Vicki Anderson, Indian singer Sudakshina Sharma, former Dublin Lord Mayor Ben Briscoe, Czech-French writer Milan Kundera, US daytime soap opera actor Nick Benedict, The Guardian journalist and film critic Derek Malcolm, Anglo-French singer Jane Birkin, Welsh Labour politician and former MP Ann Clwyd, English singer Vince Hill, BBC News presenter George Alagiah, former Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday player Chris Bart-Williams, former England international and Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest, Sampdoria and Glasgow Rangers legend Trevor Francis, Welsh wrestler Adrian Street and Grammy winner and founding member of The Eagles Randy Meisner.
There were warm tributes in August for British chat show king and journalist Sir Michael Parkinson during a month which also saw the passing of the Canadian singer-songwriter and member of The Band Robbie Robertson, Indian cricketer Sunil Dev, English composer Carl Davis, 'Breaking Bad' and 'Better Call Saul' actor Mark Margolis, BBC Radio Scotland presenter Robbie Shepherd, former Governor of Tasmania Sir Philip Bennett, British visual artist Jamie Reid who worked with The Sex Pistols, Tyrone Gaelic Football coach Art McRory, 'One Foot In The Grave' cast member Doreen Mantle, screenwriter and 'Two Doors Down' creator Simon Carlyle, the British journalist and former ITN Political Editor Julian Havland, former Queensland Premier Mike Ahern, French rugby player Jacques Rougerie, the American rapper Magoo and Northern Irish Ryder Cup golfer Norman Drew.
Dublin-born acting great and second person to play Dumbledore, Michael Gambon died in September which also saw us lose songwriter Jimmy Buffet, Indian actor RS Shivaji, former Denver Broncos coach Paul Roach, Czech jockey Filip Minarik, singer songwriter Gary Wright, doo wop singer Larry Chance of The Earls, English singer Joe Fagin who sang the 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' theme tune, 'Coronation Street' and 'Brass' screenwriter John Stevenson, Japanese composer Akira Nishimura, English comedian and impressionist Mike Yarwood, English actress and star of 'Bread' Jean Boht, Nigerian rapper MohBad and 'Neighbours' actress Joy Chambers.
October saw the shock passing of 'Friends' star Matthew Perry with England World Cup winner and Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton and Liverpudlian born filmmaker Terence Davies also departing this world
The month was also notable for the deaths of Emmy award winning actress and star of 'The Hustler' and 'Children of A Lesser God' Piper Laurie, Bangladeshi poet Assad Chowdhury, English actor and 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' star Jake Abraham, Northern Irish children's author Eve Bunting, Israeli journalist Ayelet Arnin, American actor and star of 'Rocky' Burt Young, former Finnish President, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and IRA weapons decommissioning witness Martti Ahtisaari, singer Rudolph Isley of The Isley Brothers, French actor Henri Serre, US travel retailer and philanthropist Chuck Feeney, American horror movie director Jeff Burr, Irish Olympic bronze medal winning boxer and photographer Hugh Russell, American actress and 'Three's Company' star Suzanne Somers, Lebanese journalist Giselle Khouri, Ireland and Brighton and Hove Albion footballer Gerry Ryan, American golfer Andy Bean, Afghan Royal Princess India, Dallas Cowboys footballer Walt Garrison, American bronze medal winning curler Bud Somerville, Lebanese Reuters journalist Issam Abdullah, 'Drop The Donkey' star Haydn Gwynne, Open Golf Championship announcer Ivor Robson, former Australian Governor General Bill Hayden, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcaster Elisabeth Gray, 'Shaft' star Richard Roundtree, English theatre impresario and chairman of Everton Bill Kenwright, Hungarian composer Istvan Lang, US television writer Peter S Fischer, English documentary filmmaker Dick Fontaine and French rugby player Guy Camberabero.
November saw the passing of Pogues frontman and 'Fairytale of New York' songwriter Shane MacGowan who had an extraordinarily joyous funeral in Nenagh, Co Tipperary involving Johnny Depp, Glen Hansard, Nick Cave, Bono, Liam O Maonlai, Aidan Gillen, Gerry Adams and Imelda May.
Also that month, former Chelsea footballer and Tottenham Hotspur, Barcelona and England Euro 96 manager Terry Venables, Scottish writer and artist and writer John Byrne of 'Tutti Frutti' fame, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer and anti-Scottish independence campaigner Alistair Darling, Liverpudlian actor and star of 'Brookside' Dean Sullivan, former US Secretary of State and Nobel Laureate Henry Kissinger, Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker, Canadian journalist Norris McDonald, Gerry and The Pacemakers member Les Maguire, British theatre and TV producer Chris Parr, English actress and radio presenter Annabel Giles, Portuguese singer Sara Tavares, former US First Lady Rosalynn Carter, American painter and photographer Gene Beery, English actor Joss Ackland, Irish businessman Ben Dunne, US actress Suzanne Shepherd, Irish Catholic Bishop Anthony Farquhar, Estonian opera singer Ivo Kuusk, American jurist and lawyer Maryanne Trump Barry, respected Anglo Irish drama school founder Anna Scher, Indian film director Arputhan, Northern Irish politician David Hilditch, Chinese actress Wei Wei and American Hall of Fame basketball coach Bob Knight also left us.
December saw this passing of poet and 'Peaky Blinders' star Benjamin Zephaniah, 'Homicide Life On The Street' and 'Brooklyn 911 star' Andre Braugher, English singer songwriter Richard Kerr, Irish children's TV entertainer Frank Twomey of 'Bosco' fame, South African singer Zahara, English screen actress Shirley Anne Field, Ireland, Ulster and British Lions rugby player and coach Syd Millar, Hollywood actor Ryan O'Neal, Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy, Dutch television presenter Cilly Dartell, US TV comedy writer and producer Norman Lear, musician Denny Laine of Wings and The Moody Blues, Welsh Labour politician Baroness Glenys Kinnock, English comedian and writer Tony Allen, Scottish actress and 'Likely Lads' star Brigit Forsyth, US Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Australian chef Bill Granger, South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, former European Commission president Jacques Delors and the BAFTA and Golden Globe winning 'The Full Monty' star Tom Wilkinson.
If 2023 was a year of goodbyes, it was also a year beset by TV presenter scandals.
ITV's 'This Morning' host Philip Scofield found himself in the eye of a media storm in May after admitting to having an affair with a much younger man who worked on the programme while he was married.
This led to him quitting ITV for lying about the affair and triggered claims of a toxic atmosphere on the set of the popular daytime magazine show.
Holly Willoughby followed him out of the door after a much ridiculed statement noting his departure and a subsequent story about her being the target of a bizarre kidnapping plot.
In July, BBC News presenter Huw Edwards was revealed by his wife to be at the centre of allegations in the Sun newspaper around the payment of a young person for inappropriate images and was treated for psychiatric help.
GB News host Dan Wootton was accused of inappropriate actions while working as a reporter on the Sun.
While the channel dragged its heels, the New Zealander was eventually suspended in September by the TV channel alongside fellow host Laurence Fox after the actor turned politician made some wildly inappropriate comments on Wootton's show about a woman journalist.
In August, BBC Northern Ireland presenter Stephen Nolan apologised after it was emerged he sent a nude photograph of the reality TV celebrity Stephen Bear to another individual working for him.
South of the border, the national broadcaster RTE lost its Director General Dee Forbes and then terminated its relationship with star presenter Ryan Tubridy over a controversy about payments made to him that were concealed from the corporation's public accounts.
During July, RTE executives faced several toe curing sessions in the Irish Parliament being grilled by TDs on its finances and particularly the spending of money on Champions League tickets and flip flops.
The latter half of the year saw the Irish media play a guessing game as to where Tubridy might go in the next chapter of his career.
They got an answer in November when he appeared on 'The Chris Evans Show' on Virgin Radio in the UK and was announced as the host of a new show on the station in a mid morning slot from January.
Relocating to London, it'll be interesting to see what TV projects he ends up doing in Britain in 2024
As disturbing or embarrassing as all these TV scandals were, they were nothing compared to the rape and sexual assault allegations facing the comedian Russell Brand in a Channel 4 and Sunday Times investigation which he strenuously denies.
The shifting television landscape also preoccupied mainstream broadcasters with the continued rise of streaming services and social media influencers.
August saw the watchdog Ofcom in the UK outline the measure of the challenge facing linear broadcasters like BBC, ITV, Channels 4 and 5 in the years ahead.
Its annual Media Nations report noted the proportion of viewers tuning into broadcast TV fell from 83% in 2021 to 79% in 2022, with the average time spent watching broadcast TV each day falling from two hours 59 minutes to two hours and 38 minutes.
This included a 8% year on year decline in audiences aged 65 plus while the number of them turning to subscription streaming services like Disney+, Amazon Prime and Netflix rose.
More alarmingly for the traditional broadcast model, 16-24 year olds watched less broadcast TV on average compared to children aged between four and 15 and when they did, it tended to be for just sport or reality TV programming.
TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram dominated children and young people's viewing habits, with nearly seven in ten 15-24 year olds consuming 10 minute "snackable" short-form videos on social media channels.
The TV landscape is changing, with audience segmentation continuing and attention spans shortening.
This poses real challengers to news and current affairs, documentary, drama and sitcom and even talk show producers.
BBC1's soap opera 'Eastenders' cleverly rose to that challenge by creating a social media sensation with a flash forward to their annual Christmas murder mystery 10 months on advance, keeping viewers guessing as to who the victim was and which of six female characters killed him.
Traditional broadcasters' best performing shows in the UK, though, tended to be big live national events like crucial World Cup matches, Royal events and reality shows like 'Strictly Come Dancing' and 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here' - although that's shows ratings were dented by some viewers refusing to watch a show which gambled on Brexiteer politician and GB Need host's Nigel Farage's participation.
What a poorer medium TV will be if that is what we're restricted to.
Here's hoping we don't ever get there.
Pomona's Top Ten Shows of 2023
1. Succession (Season Four, HBO)
2. The Bear (Disney+ & Hulu)
3. Kin (Season Two, AMC+ & RTE)
4. Once Upon A Time in Northern Ireland (BBC2)
5. The Last of Us (HBO)
6. Blue Lights (BBC1)
7. Shrinking (Apple TV+)
8. Beef (Netflix)
9. Irvine Welsh's Crime, Series Two (ITVx)
10. The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies (BBC1)
Dishonourable mention: 'COBRA: Rebellion' (Sky Max)
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