Best Of
Best British TV Shows of All Time
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
British television has one structural advantage over American television and it explains most of this list: series are short. Six episodes is normal. Twelve is a long run. Writers finish a story instead of stretching it, and a show that has said what it has to say is allowed to stop. That produces a particular kind of series, dense, unsentimental and rewatchable, and it is why so many British shows hold up decades later.
These twelve are the ones I would defend in an argument. Each entry says what it is, how much of it exists, and who it is actually for, because the two genres Britain does best, bleak crime and social embarrassment, are not for the same mood. Streaming rights move constantly, so check the title page on BingeNext for current US options rather than trusting a platform name in an old article.
The comedies that set the rules
Fawlty Towers (BBC Two, two series in 1975 and 1979, twelve episodes total). John Cleese and Connie Booth wrote a farce about a hotelier who despises his guests and then stopped after twelve half hours because they had nothing left. Every episode is built like a machine. It is the most efficient comedy writing on this list and the shortest complete show on it.
Blackadder (BBC One, 1983 to 1989, four series of six episodes). Rowan Atkinson plays a different Edmund Blackadder in each series, and the settings jump: the fifteenth century for The Black Adder, the Elizabethan court for Blackadder II, the Regency for Blackadder the Third, and the trenches of the First World War for Blackadder Goes Forth. The first series is the weakest, so start with Blackadder II. The final episode is still one of the great endings in British television.
The Office (BBC Two, 2001 to 2003, two series of six plus a two-part Christmas special). The original, and a much smaller and sadder thing than the American remake. David Brent is not loveable and the show does not want him to be. Fourteen episodes total, so you can do it in a weekend and feel awful.
Peep Show (Channel 4, 2003 to 2015, nine series of six episodes). Shot entirely from the characters' point of view with their internal monologues on the soundtrack, which turns two flatmates failing at adulthood into something close to horror. The longest-running comedy here and the most consistently uncomfortable.
The Thick of It (BBC, 2005 to 2012, four series). Armando Iannucci's government satire, where a minister's day is destroyed by a spin doctor who speaks in creative profanity. It is the direct ancestor of Veep and it is angrier. Best for anyone who suspects the people in charge are improvising.
The ones about being a person
Fleabag (BBC Three, 2016 and 2019, two series of six). Phoebe Waller-Bridge talks to camera while sabotaging everything, and then the second series takes the device away from her at exactly the right moment. Twelve episodes. Do not read anything about series two first.
I May Destroy You (BBC One and HBO, 2020, twelve episodes). Michaela Coel wrote, co-directed and starred in a series about a writer reconstructing a night she cannot remember, and it refuses every neat conclusion available to it. The most formally daring show on this list.
Detectorists (BBC Four, 2014 to 2017, three series of six, with a special in 2022). Two men look for Roman gold in a field and mostly find ring pulls. Mackenzie Crook wrote and directed it, and it is about friendship, failure and standing in a nice field. The gentlest thing here by a distance.
The crime that everyone else copies
Line of Duty (BBC, 2012 to 2021, six series, thirty-six episodes). Anti-corruption officers investigate other police, and the interrogation scenes are the best sustained tension on British television. Series two and three are the peak.
Happy Valley (BBC One, 2014 to 2023, three series of six). Sarah Lancashire as a West Yorkshire police sergeant carrying a family tragedy while a specific man keeps coming back into her life. Sally Wainwright's writing is plain and devastating. Eighteen episodes and a genuinely satisfying ending, which is rare.
Sherlock (BBC One, 2010 to 2017, four series of three feature-length episodes). Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in a modern update that was electric for two series and then got lost in its own cleverness. Watch the first six episodes and treat the rest as optional.
Inside No. 9 (BBC Two, 2014 to 2024, nine series of six). An anthology from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, each episode a self-contained half hour set somewhere numbered nine. Comedy, horror, tragedy, one episode with almost no dialogue, one broadcast as a live hoax. The best pure ideas factory in British television.
Two big ones I have left off, and why
The Crown (Netflix, 2016 to 2023, six seasons) and Peaky Blinders (BBC, 2013 to 2022, six seasons) are both excellent and both do the opposite of what makes British television distinctive here. They are long, expensive and built for export, and their weaker stretches are exactly the stretches where they are padding to fill a season. Watch them, by all means. Just do not start with them if what you want is the thing Britain does that nobody else does, which is a complete story told in six hours by people who were not asked to make more.
Where to start
If you want to laugh, Fawlty Towers or Blackadder II. If you want to be moved, Detectorists or Happy Valley. If you want the single best-written thing here, I May Destroy You. If you want to test the waters with half an hour, pick any Inside No. 9 episode at random.
Want picks matched to what you already like rather than a canon list? Give BingeNext's TV recommendations a few favorites and it returns a shortlist with a reason for each and where it streams. About a minute.
Topics covered: british, uk-television, best-of, classics, streaming
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.