My top ten tweeters of 2009

1. Alaina Huffman - @alainahuffman
Who? - Actress, currently starring as Tamara Johansen in Stargate: Universe. Previous credits include Smallville, Painkiller Jane and other TV and film work.
Why? - To be entirely honest, I started following her because of a schoolboy crush on the gorgeous TJ in Stargate: Universe. However, Alaina herself is down-to-earth and absolutely lovely. Clearly proud of SGU and the people she works with, she takes time to reply to fans' tweets whenever she can. Her commitment to tweeting goes beyond the call of duty and provided one of the Twitter highlights of 2009 when she recently live-tweeted through the birth of her third child. Alaina simply makes Twitter a happier place for her 3,110 followers and Mr Huffman is quite possibly the luckiest man in the world.

2. Joshua Malina - @JoshMalina
Who? - Actor, best known for his roles as Will Bailey in The West Wing and Jeremy Goodwin in Sports Night, but with a long string of other credits to his name.
Why? - His terrific dry, self-deprecating sense of humour.

3. Sharon Horgan - @RealSharHorgan
Who? - Actress and comedy writer best known for Pulling, Angelo's and Free Agents.
Why? - She's one of, if not the finest comedic talent working in Britain today. She doesn't tweet often, usually during The X Factor, but pretty much every tweet is funny as feck.

4. Richard Bacon - @richardpbacon
Who? - 5 Live radio presenter and the undisputed king of TV crime show voiceovers.
Why? - It's kind of hard to describe Bacon's appeal. Listeners to his late night 5 Live show will know what I mean, but to the uninitiated he has a knack for mixing a knowing arrogance with a fascination for the mundane details of everyday life. It's unusual, but it works very well and makes him a compelling tweeter.

5. Peter Serafinowicz - @serafinowicz
Who? - Comedy actor and writer with numerous credits to his name including Black Books, Spaced, Look Around You, The Peter Serafinowicz Show and more.
Why? - Every day, Serafinowicz purposefully sets out to entertain his Twitter followers with jokes, often inspired by their questions or 'joke eggs'. The funniest free entertainnment to be had on Twitter.

6. Boyd Hilton - @boydhilton
Who? - TV and reviews editor of Heat magazine.
Why? - I started following Boyd as a result of his regular 5 Live appearances, usually on Simon Mayo's show. It's always interesting to read his views on TV and film, especially during the X Factor and like Alaina Huffman he generally tries to reply to tweets, which is always good. God knows why, but he follows me too!

7. Chris Addison - @mrchrisaddison
Who? - Comedian, actor and writer best known for The Thick Of It and Lab Rats.
Why? - Quite simply because he's an amusing tweeter.

8. Davina McCall - @ThisisDavina
Who? - TV presenter, the Queen of Big Brother and leading proponent of a poo at Paul's.
Why? - For some reason Davina irritates many people. I can't understand why because I think she's lovely. She's the most charming, engaging presenter on TV. As well as presenting Big Brother she's a big fan of the show and her enthusiastic tweeting during BB10 was one of its highlights.

9. Nicky Campbell - @NickyAACampbell
Who? - 5 Live Breakfast and TV presenter, formerly of Watchdog among other programmes.
Why? - Like Davina McCall, Campbell is an acquired taste for many, but I've always found him to be a top-notch presenter ever since the days of Central Weekend when I was a kid. His chemistry with Shelagh Fogarty on 5 Live creates one of the greatest double-acts in radio.

10. Denise Richards - @DENISE_RICHARDS
Who? - Actress, star of Starship Troopers, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Tomorrow Never Dies and many other films and TV shows including her own, 'It's Complicated'.
Why? - To read the tweets of Denise Richards is to step into a world of pure happiness and positivity, where the sky is full of rainbows and the trees are made of candy, where ponies fly and... OK, so maybe I'm going a bit over the top there, but there's no denying that Richards is one of Twitter's more feelgood celebrities. It's easy to be cynical about such things, but for me a little bit of that stardust is no bad thing now and again.