Entertainment review of the year: 2010

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29 December 2010 Last updated at 00:13 ET There is one word to sum up 2010: endings.

It was a year we said goodbye to a host of TV shows - The Bill, Last of the Summer Wine, Big Brother, Lost and 24, to name just a few.

There was a mass exodus of GMTV and The One Show presenters, while a number of high-profile stars quit their long-standing hosting jobs.

Cheryl Cole, Kate Winslet and Lenny Henry were also some of the celebrities who called time on their marriages.

But there were also some new beginnings with the arrival of a new Doctor, Daybreak replacing the long-running GMTV and Take That finally being reunited with Robbie Williams.

Here is a look back at some of the highlights of the year.

JANUARY

• The year of endings kicked off as David Tennant bowed out of Doctor Who and the Time Lord regenerated into Matt Smith, the youngest Doctor yet at 27 years of age.

• Jonathan Ross also announced he was leaving the BBC after 13 years. As the corporation's highest paid star, Ross said his decision to leave was not "financially motivated" but it was expected he would be asked to take a pay cut in line with other stars.

• Simon Cowell quit his role as head judge on American Idol after nine seasons as he announced he was to take The X Factor to the US.

• Celebrity Big Brother found its final winner in cage fighter Alex Reid.

• James Cameron's 3D epic Avatar overtook Titanic to become the highest grossing film to date.

We said goodbye to: Love Story author Erich Segal, Hollywood actress Jean Simmons, author JD Salinger.

FEBRUARY

February saw awards season get into full swing with its usual host of film and music ceremonies.

• Beyonce collected six Grammys while Lady Gaga scored a Brit Awards hat-trick.

• Bomb-disposal drama The Hurt Locker was the big winner at the Baftas taking six awards including best film.

• The BBC revealed it paid £229m in total to its on-air talent, accounting for 6.56% of the licence fee. Individual salaries were not disclosed but the BBC said £70m went to the top earners.

• Cheryl Cole announced she was separating from her Chelsea footballer husband, Ashley Cole, following press reports about the couple's private life.

We said goodbye to: Saxophonist Sir John Dankworth, designer Alexander McQueen, author **** Francis, actor Lionel Jeffreys, Bagpuss creator Oliver Postgate.

MARCH

• The success of the Hurt Locker continued at the Oscars with Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first female director to win an Academy Award.
• The estate of Michael Jackson agreed the biggest recording deal in history, worth more than $200m (£126m) with Sony Music. The deal was said to involve 10 album projects over seven years - including one of previously unreleased material.

• And a 115m tall spiralling sculpture by Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor was chosen to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games. The £19.1m ArcelorMittal Orbit will be placed in the Olympic Park and will be 22m higher than New York's Statue of Liberty.

We said goodbye to: Lost Boys actor Corey Haim, tenor Philip Langridge, singer Jean Ferrat, BBC Radio 3 presenter Charlie Gillet.

APRIL

• The BBC announced in April that Chris Evans was to join The One Show on Fridays, replacing Adrian Chiles. A week later, a "disappointed" Chiles quit the BBC for a four-year ITV deal and comedian Jason Manford was named as his replacement. One Show host Christine Bleakley also defected to join Chiles on new ITV breakfast show, Daybreak.

• Eight million viewers tuned in to see David Jason's final outing in the last A Touch Of Frost and Matt Smith's first episode as the Doctor.

• And the Royal Shakespeare Company was forced to delay its production of Antony and Cleopatra after an actor was seriously injured by a prop firearm.

We said goodbye to: Dynasty actors John Forsyth and Christopher Cazanove, jazzman Herb Ellis, British actor Corin Redgrave, punk pioneer Malcolm McLaren, author Alan Sillitoe.

MAY

May could only mean one thing - the Eurovision Song Contest.

• Hit-makers Pete Waterman and Mike Stock wrote the UK entry That Sounds Good To Me sung by Josh Dubovie but it limped home last with just 10 points. German teenager Lena stole the show with her song, Satellite, winning with a colossal 246 points.

• At the Cannes Film Festival Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d'Or.

• Lily Allen picked up three Ivor Novello awards including songwriter of the year for her hit single, The Fear. Paul Weller was awarded a lifetime achievement award and Scottish singer Paolo Nutini took home best album for Sunny Side Up.

We said goodbye to: Actor Dennis Hopper, actress Lynn Redgrave, Diff'rent Strokes actor Gary Coleman, US singer and actress Lena Horne, singer Ronnie James Dio.

JUNE

• Penny Smith bade a teary farewell to GMTV in June after 17 years on the morning show. Fellow host Ben Shephard later left for Sky and Andrew Castle and Emma Crosby also announced they were quitting the sofa.

• Gymnastic troupe Spelbound won this year's Britain's Got Talent, earning the chance to appear at the Royal Variety Performance in December.

• The month ended with soul legend Stevie Wonder closing an unusually hot Glastonbury - the first totally dry festival since 2002.

We said goodbye to: Golden Girls actress Rue McClanahan, singer Jimmy Dean, artist Sebastian Horsley

JULY

• July saw Jonathan Ross host his last chat show for the BBC with David Beckham, Jackie Chan, Mickey Rourke and Roxy Music appearing at his request. Ross then announced he signed a new four-year chat show deal with ITV.

• The BBC Trust rejected plans to close digital station 6 Music as part of the corporation's strategy review, saying the case for the closure had not been made. But the end of the Asian Network and teen service Blast! was given the go-ahead.

• It was was revealed that Robbie Williams had recorded a new album with his former group Take That - the first time all five members had worked together in 15 years.

• It was announced that the UK Film Council would be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, prompting anger from the film industry with dozens of actors expressing their dismay.

We said goodbye to: Author Dame Beryl Bainbridge, stage and TV actor Geoffrey Hutchings, Five Live presenter Allan Robb, conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.

AUGUST

• Another month of endings in August as two long-running series broadcast their final episodes - The Bill and Last of the Summer Wine.

• Financial sales rep Josie Gibson won the final Big Brother and a place in Ultimate Big Brother to find the best housemate over the series. But Gibson walked out saying she wasn't "a celebrity", leaving series two winner Brian Dowling to be voted the winner.

• And hip-hop star Wyclef Jean's bid to run for president in his birth country Haiti was thwarted after he failed to meet residency requirements as he currently lives in the US.

We said goodbye to: Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, screenwriter and director Tom Mankiewicz, Gap Band singer Robert Wilson, director Alain Corneau, Slipknot bassist Paul Grey

SEPTEMBER

• September saw singer George Michael given an eight-week sentence for crashing his car into a branch of photographic store Snappy Snaps while under the influence of cannabis in July.

• GMTV came to an end and Daybreak began with a fanfare of publicity. But although about a million tuned in to watch the first show, its ratings fell to about 600,000 within a month.

• The BBC lost a legal fight to stop a book from revealling the identity of Top Gear's The Stig.

• Australia's Next Top Model accidentally announced the wrong winner during its live final. Kelsey Martinovich was making her acceptance speech when presenter Sarah Murdoch interrupted saying fellow finalist Amanda Ware was in fact the winner.

We said goodbye to: Hot Hot Hot singer Arrow, Invasion of the Body Snatchers actor Kevin McCarthy, director Claude Chabrol.

OCTOBER

• October was dominated by the government's Spending Review which announced it was cutting Arts Council England's budget by almost 30%. The Arts Council - which distributes money to hundreds of arts venues, theatre groups and galleries - said the cuts would have "a significant impact on the cultural life of the country".

• Take That announced they were to tour the UK and Ireland and sites buckled under the "unprecedented" strain as tickets went on sale, leaving many fans unable to buy them. Tickets sold out within 24 hours.

• Howard Jacobson won the Man Booker Prize for his comic novel, The Finkler Question and received the £50,000 prize.

We said goodbye to: Comic Norman Wisdom, opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland, actors Simon MacCorkindale, Tom Bosley and James MacArthur, writer Harry Mulisch, Pink Floyd's Richard Wright, director George Hickenlooper.

NOVEMBER

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 burst into cinema screens in November, breaking UK box office records in its first week. It now holds the record for the biggest three-day opening, biggest single day in ticket sales and biggest Friday, Saturday and Sunday openings.

• BBC News journalists went on strike for 48 hours over proposed pension changes, affecting output including Radio 4's Today programme.

• Tate Britain announced the gallery would undergo a £45m makeover next year.

• A painting of a nude by Amedeo Modigliani sold for $68.9m (£42.7m) at a New York auction - a record for his work. The artist's previous auction record was 43.2m euros (£35.8m), set earlier this year in Paris.

We said goodbye to: Airplane! actor Leslie Nielsen, Hammer horror actress Ingrid Pitt, director Dino De Laurentiis, actress Shirley Verrett.

DECEMBER

• December saw Coronation Street mark its 50th anniversary with a week of special episodes and an explosive tram crash storyline.

• Susan Philipsz was the first artist to win the Turner Prize for a sound installation. Her £25,000 prize winning work - Lowlands Away - featured her singing three versions of a Scottish lament.

• A host of TV shows found their winners: Matt Cardle won X Factor and took the Christmas number one spot. Stella English was hired by Lord Sugar in The Apprentice. Former X Factor contestant Stacey Solomon won I'm A Celebrity... and Kara Tointon rounded the year off as Strictly Come Dancing champion.

We said goodbye to: Director Blake Edwards, musician Captain Beefheart, US actor Steve Landesberg.





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