heat Unmissables Awards 2019: See the full list of winners

Let's face it – it's been Fleabag's year. The second series of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's comedy arrived back in March with a stunning episode set almost entirely in a restaurant where Fleabag and her family – plus the Hot Priest – enjoyed the most intense and hilarious of dinners. It instantly sent the show into the stratosphere of all-time classics, and within months Waller-Bridge was winning Emmys and getting a massive deal with Amazon. Richly deserved.

Has one actor ever transformed a TV comedy like Andrew Scott did with Fleabag? The show was already doing perfectly brilliantly in its first series, but when creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge brought in her old friend Scott to play her ultra-charismatic and sexy love interest, who also happened to be a Priest, the effect was thrilling. Scott says, "Thank you so much, this is incredible. We had such a good time doing Fleabag and we're so pleased everyone has fallen in love with it the way that we have."

Fleabag's third award of the year underlines what an iconic series it became almost as soon as the second series arrived, and all its dazzling qualities were crystallised in the moment after Fleabag makes a heartfelt confession, and the Hot Priest gets her to kneel. "We knew the scene was special. We filmed it in a church in north London which felt risky", Andrew tells us. "It definitely fulfilled a fantasy for certain factions of the community, none of which I'm familiar with!"

This is the category for any and all series which arrive in full, ready for us to binge watch, and the winner is one of the greatest TV viewing joys of the year - when we got to watch all six episodes of Ricky Gervais's hilarious and deeply moving comedy about a man dealing with grief and the brilliant characters surrounding him. Ricky tells us, "This will take pride of place on my awards shelf- well it's certainly in front of the Comedy Awards at least".

Getting nominated for an Oscar (for her role in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Phantom Thread) is one thing, but we've given Lesley Manville this award for two magnificent and contrasting roles on TV this year – in the final series of wondrous comedy Mum, and in the intense war drama World On Fire. Lesley says, "Thank you so much giving me this award for two parts I really loved playing – they were two wonderful characters, and it's wonderful to receive this honour".

What a year it's been for Sir Elton. He's in the middle of an epic farewell live tour, the film biopic of his life came out and dazzled audiences, and he finally unleashed his memoirs – probably the most brutally honest, endlessly entertaining and funny pop star autobiography ever.

Before we got to read the memories of Elton himself in his book Me, this grand musical biopic arrived and it was as beautifully over-the-top, colourful and uncompromising as the man himself, with a perfect central performance from Taron Egerton and ingenious use of Elton's classic songs to tell his life story. Taron tells Heat, "We are absolutely thrilled – in all seriousness it means a great deal", while director Dexter Fletcher adds, "We are chuffed because it's our first Film of the Year award and I get to keep it because I'm the director!"

For its second series, The Circle wheeled on some big celebrity guns to join in the elaborate social media games with Woody (son of Zoe Ball and Norman ) Cook as a delightful contestant and actual Richard Madeley as a wild card guest star. And the always on-the-ball Emma Willis took over as host. It all added up to required and gripping viewing. C4's Gilly Greenslade says, "Were delighted that Heat loves the show as much as we do. From the cunning catfish (including a twerking Richard Madeley pretending to be Judy) to the real life friendships formed on the show, The Circle showed just how much fun and drama you can have when you stick people in apartments on their own and only let them meet each other online".

When Big Brother and Celeb Big Brother were both finally axed by Channel 5, we worried about missing their brilliant presenter Emma Willis (although of course she does also host ITV's The Voice), but then she came back to host amazing reality game The Circle and get down and dirty with midwives Delivering Babies on the W channel. She's simply the best.

This was probably the toughest winner to pick, with amazing TV dramas arriving practically every week. Among the contenders were Sarah Phelps's Dublin Murders, The Virtues, The Crown, a vintage series of Peaky Blinders, and the best Stranger Things yet. But in the end this saga of a super-wealthy and powerful family of media moguls was simply the most addictive show of all, with every single scene gripping us totally. Creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong says, "We're very happy to have the heat of Heat behind us. There is no hotter heat."

For the second year running, a triumph for the rudest, funniest podcast in history. Julia and Vicki say, "Joan and Jericha are proud as punch to be once again receiving this prestigious award from HEAT magazine. With their chocca schedules - Joan volleying between an International Erotic fiction convention and appointments with Mahmoud, and Jericha caught between Ted Talks on Depression and visiting Cardinal in prison, they are tragically unable to appear in person to accept it, but are hugely grateful and very much look forward to wedging it in amongst their already bulging shelves".

It's been a particularly great year for British artists, and none more so than rapper Dave who not only stole the show at Glastonbury when he invited a audience member onto the stage to perform an entire song with him, but also winning the Mercury Prize and making a fine acting debut in the Netflix series Top Boy. And this revelatory album is a masterpiece.

In a year of superb TV comedy shows created by and starring funny people like Aisling Bea's This Way Up, Ricky Gervais's After Life, Jamie Demetriou's Stath Lets Flats and Daisy Haggard's Back To Life, we felt Roisin Conaty's GameFace was particularly wonderful, and she was fabulous in After Life. Roisin says, "Thank you so much heat Unmissables Awards - I am genuinely ecstatic – this has made my day".

Having kept the anarchic Big Narstie Show going when it often threatens to go off the rails, comedian Mo Gilligan stepped up to hosting his own massively fun Channel 4 series. He tells us, "This is the first official award I've won since I got one for doing 10 laps in the pool at school. Mum, this is going in my house, and to all the teachers who said I wouldn't make it, you were right at first, but you're wrong now!".

The soaps are so hard to judge that we have to turn to you, the Heat readers to decide which is the best. And you've told us in your thousands that Albert Square still rules, with thrilling storylines including Mel's exit, hot couple Ben and Callum realising their feelings for each other, and the well-judged domestic abuse story involving Chantelle and Grey.

Find out the full list of runners-up in this week's heat magazine - OUT NOW.