It has been a hell of a year, emphasis on the hell. Yet among all the sadness (and numerous revelations of Number 10 parties), there’s also been an array of uplifting, engrossing and fantastically strange television moments this year. Here are some of our favourites. Dermot O’Leary’s ‘brave’ coming out There were so many surreal, life-affirming clangers on This Morning in 2021. Presenter Josie Gibson hilariously fell into a lake and was dragged out live on air. Alison Hammond set herself up for a fall by asking Graham Norton whether his lovely dog was still alive (“no … dead,” Norton responded.) But the best was Barry Humphries mistakenly congratulating Dermot O’Leary – instead of Phillip Schofield – for coming out of the closet. Largely thanks to Alison Hammond’s hysterical laughter. That Rose and Giovanni Strictly dance This year saw the most diverse Strictly ever. While John and Johannes received widespread praise and proved that a same-sex partnership could actually enhance the show (rather than, as naysayers suggested, distract from it), it was the eventual winners Rose and her partner Giovanni who captured our hearts. In a Strictly dance that will be remembered for years to come, Rose and Giovanni continued to move as the song faded away, as a tribute to deaf people. “There’s so many things that Rose’s win symbolises for Deaf people like myself,” journalist Liam O’Dell told BBC News. “It goes to show how, with the right support, Deaf people can achieve anything.” Clare Balding and the unintended innuendo of the year Usually for the best innuendoes you only have to switch on Bake Off. Yet it was Clare Balding who provided the best double entendre of the year, while presenting the BBC’s Olympic coverage. Having just congratulated Matt Richards and Tom Dean for their gold medal in the 4x200 metre freestyle at the start of an interview, she enthusiastically noted that Matt’s “third leg was just phenomenal.” Their faces said it all. George’s debut on CBeebies To many adults, he was noted as the first BBC children’s presenter who has Down’s syndrome. To children watching, he is simply a bubbly and engaging presenter called George. His debut on CBeebies received widespread praise and was seen as a step forward for disability representation on television, but it was also the lack of special treatment George received that was celebrated. After his introduction, he merely told us about his fondness for cooking and his love of dancing. “I’m always super positive and always smiley and bubbly. I’m loving life,” he said in an interview with the Guardian. “There’s nothing stopping me.” Colin’s death on It’s a Sin Of all of the devastating moments in It’s A Sin, Russell T Davies’s blistering drama exploring the HIV/Aids epidemic in the UK in the 1980s, it was the unexpected death of the sweet, innocent Colin (Callum Scott Howells) that stuck with many viewers. Full of the joy of the big, bright city, so excited by finding his first set of LGBTQ+ friends, Colin’s death was a reminder that being HIV positive was not a result of a promiscuous lifestyle. And the way he was treated when he became ill? Inhumane. Left isolated and abandoned in a locked ward, while his mother received hate and abuse in the mail. And yet, throughout all this, his friends fought to get him out of the ward. And his mother loved him, unconditionally. La! When Ted Lasso Rickrolled Us All In a television first, the second series of the much-loved Apple TV+ sitcom Ted Lasso somehow managed to Rickroll everyone watching. In the middle of a eulogy, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) was unable to think up words to describe her father, so instead read aloud the lyrics of Never Gonna Give You Up to a packed church. And what did Rick Astley think? “I was completely blown away with what they did.” Ant and Dec’s ‘Evening prime minister’ Of all the things to have happened this year, Ant and Dec becoming a potent force for political resistance was certainly one of the most unexpected. After allegations of a Christmas party being held at 10 Downing Street during severe restrictions back in 2020, Ant and Dec captured the mood of the nation by using events taking place within the I’m A Celebrity camp to brilliantly mock Boris Johnson. “EVENING PRIME MINISTER … for now,” warned Declan Donnelly. Emma Thompson on An Audience with Adele An Audience with Adele, an ITV special featuring the singer performing songs from her latest album to a room packed with celebrities, featured many surreal moments. There was Bryan Cranston with his eyes closed losing himself to Something Like You. There was Alan Carr, drafted in to perform Make You Feel My Love, in front of Samuel L Jackson and Harry Hill. But the most surreal was seeing Emma Thompson completely losing it to Rolling in the Deep, apparently researching a new role: relative at a wedding disco, after one too many gins. Lord Merlin on The Pursuit of Love In a feat that can only be described as “Peak Andrew Scott”, the Sunday night BBC One drama The Pursuit of Love featured him, as the character Lord Merlin, entering a room to T. Rex, waltzing around in sexy pyjamas, necking champagne then proceeding to make out with whoever offered themselves. If only, if only, more period dramas were like this. The Succession ending Essentially a corporate Red Wedding, the show generated a thousand memes with the scene where Roman, Shiv and Kendall unexpectedly console each other after a monumental twist and downfall. Not only did it wrongfoot its viewers with a storyline that no one – including its characters – saw coming, its masterstroke was that we should have. After all, they’d teased it with a promotional image released weeks ahead of the third season actually airing. Sophie and Al finally get together in Stath Lets Flats The three series-long will they/won’t they dynamic of Sophie (Natasia Demetriou) and Al (Alastair Roberts) was so unbelievably sweet that there was only one way they could finally get together: in the shyest way possible. One of the most adorably understated, heartwarming moments of television in 2021. Owain Wyn Evans and the BBC News theme In the early days of the first 2020 lockdown, the immaculately dressed BBC weatherman Owain Wyn Evans went viral for performing the BBC News theme on his own drum kit. A surreal but uplifting orchestra of musicians playing the theme on the actual BBC News channel soon followed. But it reached its climax with more than 50 drummers playing the theme, as part of a 24-hour drumathon to raise money for Children in Need. Who knew the news music could rock so hard?