That Was The Year That Was: 2020

This is the tenth time I've recapped a year like this (for completists, here are the others), and what a year it has been, one like no other: a year of staying at home, of not being able to see family and friends, of shortages, of privation... of death, for some. Excess death, even, a phrase I never imagined hearing. A year in which the phrase "You're on mute" has gone from ha-isn't-this-all-funny to is-this-bleak-hell-what-life-has-become, and wishing they were muted, in nine short months. Sure, there have been some positives (peace, nature) but they all pretty much ended when the first lockdown was lifted. And to top it all off, it looks like the year is about to end with the whole nation being driven, at speed, by an unqualified, blindfolded driver, straight off the Brexit cliff. It is all, almost, too much to bear ... so it hardly seems worth recapping anything this year but, for the sake of completeness and consistency, here we are. It's going to be very brief - just winners, maybe the occasional runner-up and honourable mention. Why? Well, I've got two thousand and twenty reasons, and besides, nobody really gives a toss about what I think. Yes, that makes this whole post an exercise in futility ... but exercise is good for you, right?

Best album

I haven't bought many new albums again this year but, of the few I have, On Sunset by Paul Weller, if a little uneven. I'm also very much enjoying Not From Where I'm Standing, the charity compilation of Bond theme covers by Gedge and friends, and the new Vapors album Together was better than anyone had any right to expect. But the undoubted winner, and my album of the year by some distance, is the fantastic debut from Such Small Hands, Carousel, a delicate slice of melancholia that makes an impact on the first listen and grows on you more and more with every repeat play. A geunine highlight of the year.

Best song

A late entry, here, for We Have All The Time In The World by David Lewis Gedge, from the aforementioned Not From Where I'm Standing. Yes, it's a cover of the Louis Armstrong classic ... and it's also a new addition to the list of potential songs to be played at my funeral, so there's another cheery thought for 2020.

Best gig

Unsurprisingly, it's been a quiet year for gigs. The Vapors, up close and personal, was a lot of fun on a cold, cold Dublin night, just days before the shutters came down on life. Live stream virtual gig highlights included The Wedding Present and Martin Rossiter. But the best actual gig I've been to, and I know this will not go down well with some, was Morrissey at Wembley Arena. I had a great seat and he was on form, what else can I say?

Best book

You'll have heard me say this before, but I haven't read as much as I would have liked this year. So much for my Twenty in '20 challenge, right? But from what I have managed to read, Wakenhyrst continued Michelle Paver's run of excellent novels in which isolation plays an important part; likewise If It Bleeds continued Stephen King's run of terrific four-story collections, with a little of something for everyone. My pick of the year though is The Snakes by Sadie Jones whose prose I described at the time as "scalpel-sharp and laser-guided". This unusual story is part family drama, part suspense and entirely gripping.

Best film

Like the rest of the Western world, I haven't really been to the cinema much this year, so Tenet wins almost by default, being the one film I managed to see between lockdowns. It was good, not great, visually impressive but overly complex. I'm all in favour of dialogue being crucial...but I want that dialogue to be clearly audible, not muffled down amongst the sound effects. I'm far from the only person to have noted this problem, so maybe they'll sort it out for the inevitable 4K Ultra HD release.

Best television

I filled a lot of time, especially in the first lockdown, rewatching old television series on iPlayer. I must give special mention, therefore, to Line of Duty - after watching all five series back-to-back in fairly short order, I can confirm that it remains peerless television, and I'm eagerly awaiting series six. This was also the year the I finally succumbed to Netflix - Ricky Gervais's After Life is excellent. But for new television, my pick of the crop for this year is the same as everyone else's: The Queen's Gambit, also on Netflix, for its note-perfect evocation of the 1960s, its (admittedly questionable) portrayal of a gifted young woman in crisis and a stellar performance from Anya Taylor-Joy as protagonist Beth. Terrific jazz/blues soundtrack too.

Best podcast

A new category, reflecting the fact that I've listened to a lot this year, often whilst trudging round my state-approved daily exercise loop of the village. Both series of the BBC World Service's 13 Minutes to the Moon are beyond brilliant (series one covers Apollo 11, series two covers Apollo 13); however, I can't give them the gong as they're an older offering, made available again for lockdown. I must just flag the magnificence of Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg's theme music though, before moving on to ID Louis Theroux's new podcast Grounded as my pod of the year. It's genuinely all good, but the Helena Bonham-Carter, Lenny Henry, Miriam Margolyes and Troy Deeney episodes especially so.

Best sport

What sport? There hasn't been much to cheer about, has there? I enjoyed watching Ronnie O'Sullivan claim a sixth world snooker crown (he's on the SPOTY shortlist, and would be my choice). My best moment though is Liverpool bagging a well-deserved Premier League title - they've been my team since I was a nipper, so I was pleased to see them get the monkey off their back. Yes, I follow the local team now I live close to somewhere that has one, but LFC will always be my first football love.

Person of the year

Joe Wicks was a contender for his sterling PE supply teacher stint during the first lockdown, as was Marcus Rashford for blindsiding us all with his well-chosen and effective campaigning. But in the end the award, if that's the right word, goes to Jacinda Ardern, 40th prime minister of New Zealand, who just continues to get everything right, whether it's gun control legislation, pandemic response or, you know, just being a human being and empathising with the people she leads. Could she come over here and run us, please?

Tool of the year

Reintroduced for 2020 and, as ever, it's a crowded field. The Donald, for being the world's worst loser (on your bike, son); Gavin Williamson, for anything and everything that emanates from his mouth; Nigel Farage, for just not going away... the list goes on and on. But of course the tool of the year/decade/century is Boris Johnson, whose leadership during the pandemic has been chaotic at best and calamitous at worst, whose blind loyalty to Cummings and Patel shows both poor judgement and moral turpitude, and whose pig-headed stubbornness and intellectual shortcomings are leading us to the worst possible Brexit outcome. Pardon my French but really, what a prick, and what a disaster for us all.

And that's it for another year. Looking back, I see I described 2019 as depressing. Little did I know what was to come. At least we have Biden and Harris in-bound. Anyway, 2020 ... how was it for you?