Clare Balding: Face Of 2010

"I hadn't decided what to do until I wrote to John Witherow [the editor of the Sunday Times]. But then he replied and basically said, 'It's no worse than Jeremy Clarkson, the epitome of the heterosexual male, being mocked for his dress sense and some people in gay society should get over the idea that they have special victim status.'
"Now, I've never regarded myself as having special victim status. But a lot of other people don't necessarily have a public voice… and if you're a nurse or teacher or social worker or whatever, you don't deserve to have someone say you're good, or you're not good, and you're a dyke. You're either good. Or you're not good."
"Just review the programme! You can say what you like about my hair, or my fat bum, or my legs or my dress sense. Whatever. That's not going to hurt anyone else. But don't point a finger at me and say I'm a dyke on a bike. Because frankly that's what kids say in the playground. It's not on. Everybody knows it's not on. I was staggered that they didn't just say, 'You know what? I'm really sorry.' And the strange thing is they still haven't said sorry."

The Observer decided that Claire Balding's "very public spat with AA Gill" was one of the news events of the year, and interviewed Balding.
Good for them.