The best TV programme of the decade is: Game of Thrones

GoT represents the most expensive and, again, most popular programme in the world. George R. R. Martin's televisual creation has attracted audiences everywhere in its feudal, patriarchal world of royal battle over Westeros.

In all its glory: Game of Thrones title sequence - YouTube/GameofThrones

It premiered on its host channel, HBO, in the US in 2011 and is currently staring its 2016 sixth season in the face. It sits comfortably at #4 on IMDb's Top Rated TV fractionally below Breaking Bad. It has, obviously, made global stars of its cast past and present.

It has set records in the American TV award ceremony, the Emmys, by being nominated and winning the most awards by a Drama Series. In 2015, it won 12 out of 24 nominations and in 2014, 4 out of 18.

At its height: GoT producers accept the Emmy for Outstanding Drama - YouTube/TelevisionAcademy

It has borne a ferocious fandom who berate and threaten each other for revealing spoilers around the beginning of every season. They write fan fiction, develop reasonable fan theories, spawn legendary memes, and truly worship the word of George R. R. Martin. The story is famous for its gore and violence, its sex, and its difficult and controversial themes as well as for the sheer magnificence of its mystical world.

Memorable memes - Images from Giphy, MovieFone, TheChive, MotleyNews

Game of Thrones has given us some of television's most loved characters and some of its most hated: this formula is part of what makes it endure. After the first season aired, Jack Gleeson who plays King Joffrey Baratheon, was sent a message by Martin saying: "Congratulations on your marvellous performance, everyone hates you!"

Martin originally wrote the books to be virtually 'unfilmable' but after their success following that of Lord of the Rings, producers must've thought it was worth the cost. One of its most common tidbits is that the sword of Gandalf from LOTR, Glamdring, sits on the infamous Iron Throne.

While the first two seasons roughly cover the novels "A Game of Thrones" and "A Clash of Kings", the third season covers about two-thirds of the third novel, "A Storm of Swords." The fourth covers the rest of "A Storm of Swords" and chapters from the fourth and fifth novels "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons". Finally, the fifth covers almost entirely "A Feast for Crows", "A Dance With Dragons", and even early events of the unreleased sixth novel "The Winds of Winter".