TV's heroes and villains of 2014

Who have been your small-screen heroes and villains of the year? We’re taking a look back at some of those we’ve loved, and loved to hate, this year.

Heroes

Peter Capaldi

In the Whoniverse, it’s always an exciting time when the Time Lord is due to regenerate. But Peter Capaldi’s casting drew more attention than usual and it wasn’t just Doctor Who fans who couldn’t wait to see him take to the role this year.
A lifelong fan of the series, Peter’s enthusiasm shines through as one of the most charismatic Doctors yet.

Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson

If we were ever the victims of crime, we’re pretty sure we’d want Gillian Anderson as The Fall’s Superintendent Stella Gibson to help us out.

Razor sharp, totally chic and hugely-likeable despite her cold exterior, Stella’s our top TV detective of the year.

Ant and Dec

The Geordie duo have been in our lives and on our screens in some shape or form for 24 years now, and this year the National Television Awards saw fit to recognise their achievement.

The lads were sweetly surprised to win the Landmark Achievement award as they tried to work out who the recipients were, and got an even bigger surprise when they discovered that their mums were in the audience, having been brought along secretly by ceremony organisers.

Whether you remember them from their Byker Grove days, love them on Britain’s Got Talent, or can’t get enough of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, we all have our favourite Ant and Dec show.

Joe McElderry

Joe McElderry – what a hero. You might not think of that as being the most instantly obvious statement, but consider X Factor winner Joe’s star turn in The Jump.

In what became the most terrifying reality TV show ever to hit our screens, The Jump featured celebrities trying to master a range of winter sports with the bottom two taking on the ski jump to see who would be booted out.

It now seems predictable, but so many celebs were forced out due to injury that the contestants were dwindling fast – until nice guy Joe, who just happened to be on a family holiday near to the Austrian set, came by and offered to fill a spot.

Joe even went on to win the show’s first series, being awarded a cow bell for his efforts.

Keeley Hawes as DI Lindsay Denton

Was she the hero? Was she the villain? In the gripping second series of Line Of Duty, Keeley’s character Lindsay split opinion as a cop accused of deliberately botching an operation which led to the deaths of fellow officers.

But while we rooted for her, we found out all wasn’t as it seemed after Lindsay’s initial plea that she was framed. Still, she did it for the right reasons and we couldn’t get enough of this series, which is why Keeley’s DI still makes our heroes list.

Paddy Jones

Paddy Jones of Britain’s Got Talent dancing duo Paddy and Nico amazed us earlier this year with her salsa skills – despite being about to celebrate her 80th birthday. The twinkle-toed veteran threw herself into lifts, jumps and even upside down moves with the effortless grace of a woman a quarter of her age.

Paddy had been a keen dancer when she was younger, but took it up again after her husband died. Despite breaking her rib during training, the natural performer still managed to put on an impressive show for the BGT final and finished ninth over all.

Villains

Simon Cowell

Reality TV’s Mr Nasty could make the TV villains list most years, but this year in particular we’ve been shocked by his underhand tactics on The X Factor.

Simon’s been playing the role of evil genius, planting seeds of doubt about the talent and off-screen behaviour of any contestant likely to rival his own acts in the competition.

Wise as the viewing public may be to his antics, they seem to have worked anyway – he’s ousted a fair number of contenders and was the last mentor to still have more than one act in their group.

Craig Revel Horwood

Meanwhile, over on Strictly Come Dancing, the BBC’s answer to Mr Nasty has also been doing his worst again this year.

His disdainful looks and cutting comments have been mainly reserved for the likes of Gregg Wallace, Scott Mills and Judy Murray this year, but there are few who have managed to completely escape his acid tongue.

Diana Beard

We’d always loved The Great British Bake Off for its lack of back-stabbing – but this year, Bingate made us see the quaint cake contest in a whole new light.

Baker Iain Watters flipped when his Baked Alaska was taken out of the freezer too early and ended up hurling it in the bin, identifying the culprit as competitor Diana Beard.

Poor Diana was then in for a very tough time as some viewers turned on a contestant for the first time in the show’s history.

Diana was very apologetic, Iain was quick to forgive and she ended up leaving the show shortly afterwards due to illness.
Even so, for the uncharacteristic furore it caused on the show, Diana makes our villains list.

Jamie Dornan as Paul Spector

Has there ever been a better murder drama villain than Paul Spector?

Jamie Dornan is the perfect psycho in The Fall, a dark and complex serial killer masquerading as a family man and bereavement counsellor.

Much as we love Gillian’s Stella Gibson, there’s still a part of us that seems to end up willing Paul to get away with it just that little bit longer with each episode.

James Norton as Tommy Lee Royce

Happy Valley was one of the most highly-acclaimed dramas of the year, with Sarah Lancashire rightly winning praise for her role. But the other, less heroic, star of the show was James Norton, who played kidnapper, rapist and murderer Tommy Lee Royce. His skin-crawling, blood-soaked and utterly terrifying performance was enough to have many viewers reaching for their phones to complain, but despite the harrowing subject matter, James played the ultimate TV villain.