1. The Baby Swap That Went Wrong
Could it ever have gone right? When the writers of EastEnders sat down, on what we can only imagine was a bleak grey morning, and thought up a storyline which saw Ronnie Branning, played by Samantha Womack, swap her dead baby for the newborn son of Kat Moon, they obviously did something unusual in soap land - and stretched credibility beyond its limits.
The BBC received 13,400 complaints over the course of what was one of their darkest and most ill-judged storylines ever, and 1,044 people took their complaints to Ofcom.
Ofcom didn't rule against the BBC, but admitted viewers had complained the plot was "an inaccurate, insensitive and sensationalised portrayal" of cot death. Others had commented it was "distressing" and "horrific" and had been inappropriately scheduled in a pre-watershed time slot.
The story - the most complained about in the show's 25-year history - was brought to an early end in the spring when baby Tommy was reunited with his mother, Kat, and Ronnie was sent to prison.
Writing on the BBC's EastEnders blog, executive producer Bryan Kirkwood said: "Whenever we embark on a story at EastEnders we always leave it open-ended to monitor and listen to audience reaction.
"With this in mind we are going to bring the story to a close on screen in the spring."
A year on, Ronnie is still in prison (after actress Womack quit the soap, saying the babyswap storyline left her "physically and emotionally shattered") and Kat and Alfie are back to dealing with less disturbing problems.
2. Back To Bad
Coronation Street's nastiest man since Richard Hillman, John Stape, returned to his evil ways after a fraud scam turned into a murder investigation, leaving three people dead in his wake.
We watched open-mouthed as he held captive those who learned the truth about his deceitful ways and saw his faithful wife Fiz imprisoned for his actions.
The unhinged former school teacher returned to the cobbles to reveal the truth and finally get Fiz off the hook, but not before holding ditzy Rosie Webster hostage for a second time in an ill-conceived attempt to make things better.
Her dad Kevin came to the rescue leading to a classic soap car chase and ultimately ending in Stape's death.
3. Emmerdale's Euthanasia
June saw a sensational Emmerdale episode where wheelchair-bound Jackson Walsh (Marc Silcock), who had struggled to cope after being paralysed in an accident, killed himself by taking a cocktail of drugs - helped by his lover Aaron Livesey (Danny Miller and mum Hazel (played by Pauline Quirke).
Picking a hot topic from the news and turning it into a well-acted, thought-provoking piece of drama, Emmerdale's euthanasia plot was both moving and believable. But that didn't stop it causing an outcry from some viewers who claimed the harrowing scenes broadcast at 7.30pm - when children could have been among the 7.2 million watching the ITV1 soap - should have been shown after the watershed.
Silcock defended the soap's storyline, saying: "Some people might have liked soft music and for Jackson to drift off to sleep. But that"s not reality and not what happens. We didn't want to glorify it."
What was your biggest soap moment of 2011? Let us know below...