Contains spoilers for certain episodes.

A fortnight ago, the call went out to our writers to select their top TV episodes of 2012 (barring anything broadcast after mid-December to give us time to collate the votes). Each writer could select up to five episodes, and their ranked lists were then weighted, and the episode tallies stacked up accordingly.

In a mark of unusual concurrence from the site’s writers, very soon, a few titles established themselves as clear frontrunners. Having limited ourselves to including just one episode per show on the final list, a certain amount of jostling then went on between episodes from the same series over the two weeks of voting (particularly in the case of two BBC programmes that share a certain showrunner). Eventually though, the positions settled down, and as it turned out, the top three favourites from day one of nominations ended up in the top three spots. Which was nice.

So here they are: the personal choices of our team of writers, democratically processed, in salute to a great year’s TV viewing…