Charlie Brooker's Year Wipe

There was always a risk in Charlie Brooker marrying a celebrity, particularly one at the lower, ITV2 end of television: that it would make him less willing to slag celebrities off.

The fact that he has pulled out of his weekly television column is certainly a bad sign.

The good news, however, is that Brooker is still making Screenwipe, in which he rants from a dark room that looks like it might smell vaguely of socks and takeaway pizza.

It's poking fun at television in the same way that Harry Hill does, except that Brooker is a bad, angry version of Harry; he's Harry with a hangover.

As usual, Brooker has chosen his targets well and this year he homes in on the extraordinary The Only Way is Essex, which, despite having watched it several times, I have still not been able to work out. What is it? Spoof? Reality show? If it's scripted, then I bow down to the scriptwriter, because he or she is a genius; if it's unscripted, then I despair at the empty ignorance and pointlessness of modern culture. It's just the kind of programme that Brooker loves laying into.

Another programme Brooker takes a look at this year is Sherlock, which promised so much but did the deeply illogical thing of changing Sherlock's character into an annoying, rude, know-it-all git, when anyone who has read the books knows that Holmes, despite being of infinitely superior intellect, was always polite to his inferiors (unless they were baddies).

Seeing Brooker bare his fangs and shake his fist over these programmes is always fun but there's a comforting element to this programme, too - that however nakedly hate-filled it gets, it doesn't matter, because it's obvious the hate comes from a good place: the desire for better television.

Charlie Brooker's 2010 quiz

Charlie Brooker has scoured through a whole year's worth of cultural detritus to test your knowledge of what was really important during the last 12 months...

As a regular and reliably funny thorn in the side of the mainstream broadcast media, Charlie Brooker's satirical round-up programme Screewipe (think TV Burp with claws) has amassed a devoted following on BBC Four. It transfers to BBC Two for this one-off programme, in which Brooker leads a wryly amusing tour through the big news and TV stories of the past year, including the Chilean miners' rescue, the Pope's visit and the ongoing saga of Ricky and Bianca in EastEnders.

Mr Brooker's Wipe strand gets a promotion from BBC4 to terrestrial with his inimitable review of the year in news, telly, politics, games and film. The whole caboodle. Chipping in to help Charlie out are brilliant comic misanthrope Doug Stanhope, who'll be looking at the BP gulf oil disaster; Britain's best comic poet, Tim Key, with some dark, topical verse and - another Guardian writer - Grace Dent will be getting her hands lathery with a review of the year's soaps.

Charlie Brooker's 2010

What with the coalition government, 3D entertainment overload and volcanic ash filling the skies, is it any wonder Charlie Brooker is still reeling from 12 months lost down the rabbit hole that was 2010?

Brooker's '2010 Wipe' to air on BBC Two

BBC Two will air a special edition of Charlie Brooker's show Screenwipe this year.