Television: The real destructive force at the end of this fifth and final season was the pain of growing up

Think of the movies Atlas or the deafeningly forgettable Red Notice

Television: Suave sleuth Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) emanates movie star glamour, but the world he inhabits is notably murkier than before

Television: Patrick Kielty exudes positivity in the face of impossible odds and vapid banter

Including Industry, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Tip Toe, Lord of the Flies and Grown Ups

The latest chapter in the Ballymena man’s hugely successful career is perhaps his starriest yet – all thanks to the murderously moreish whodunits of Harlan Coben

Game quality remained high in a year in which 1990s nostalgia played a big role

You have to credit McIlroy for possessing something all too rare in professional sport: a moral compass

The biggest show of the year, Adolescence, became so huge that it fuelled a moral panic, but the best stuff was on the little-watched Apple TV

Including releases by Ethel Cain, Anna Von Hausswolff, Wednesday, Hayley Williams and Cole Pulice

Television: By the time Best joined Cork Celtic he was not so much a shadow of his former self as a pickled parody, more in love with booze than the beautiful game

Most revealing are extracts from an interview in Tipperary in the early 1970s by RTÉ broadcaster Donncha Ó Dúlaing

Television: Oh, for a gag about breaking wind or a well-deployed single entendre to interrupt the monotony

Television: Christmas is about excess and familial angst, but also tenderness and tears, and all of the above are combined in perfect portions here

The singer-songwriter’s streak of earnestness elevated him beyond other hitmakers of the day