The 66 Greatest British TV Shows of All Time

Gritty crime dramas, sharp political satires, beloved comedies, and genre-defining sci-fi — Britain's TV tradition is remarkably diverse. Cast your vote for the greatest!

1. 1
   The Office (UK)

   Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's 2001-03 cringe mockumentary about a deluded middle manager and his painfully ordinary Slough office.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Fawlty Towers

   John Cleese's 1975-79 sitcom about a hapless hotel owner in Torquay, considered one of the greatest comedies ever made.
   866pts
3. 3
   Upstairs, Downstairs

   ITV's 1971-75 drama follows the Bellamy family and their servants in a London townhouse from 1903 through the First World War to 1930.
   737pts
4. 4
   Coronation Street

   ITV's soap opera, running since 1960, follows the residents of a terraced street in fictional Weatherfield and is the world's longest-running TV soap.
   675pts
5. 5
   House of Cards

   Ian Richardson plays scheming Conservative chief whip Francis Urquhart, who confides in viewers as he plots to become prime minister, in the BBC's 1990 thriller.
   675pts
6. 6
   Our Friends in the North

   Peter Flannery's 1996 BBC serial traces four Newcastle friends from 1964 to 1995, with early starring roles for Daniel Craig and Christopher Eccleston.
   675pts
7. 7
   The Young Ones

   Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and Christopher Ryan play four chaotic student housemates in the anarchic 1982 BBC sitcom that brought alternative comedy to television.
   639pts
8. 8
   Peaky Blinders

   Steven Knight's acclaimed 2013-22 crime drama following the brutal Shelby crime family in post-WWI Birmingham.
   598pts
9. 9
   Derry Girls

   Lisa McGee's Channel 4 sitcom (2018-22) follows four Catholic schoolgirls and an English boy growing up in Derry during the last years of the Troubles.
   598pts
10. 10
    I'm Alan Partridge

    Steve Coogan's tactless radio host Alan Partridge, living in a roadside Norfolk hotel after his TV career collapses, anchors this BBC sitcom (1997-2002).
    553pts
11. 11
    Inside No. 9

    Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's BBC anthology (2014-24) tells a new self-contained story in every episode, each set somewhere bearing the number nine.
    553pts
12. 12
    Porridge

    Ronnie Barker plays habitual criminal Norman Stanley Fletcher, serving five years in HMP Slade, in Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais's 1970s BBC prison sitcom.
    553pts
13. 13
    Happy Valley

    Sally Wainwright's tense 2014-23 Yorkshire crime thriller following a tenacious police sergeant tracking down a psychopathic ex-convict.
    553pts
14. 14
    Peep Show

    David Mitchell and Robert Webb play mismatched Croydon flatmates Mark and Jeremy, whose inner monologues we hear, in Channel 4's point-of-view sitcom (2003-15).
    553pts
15. 15
    Keeping Up Appearances

    Patricia Routledge plays snobbish social climber Hyacinth Bucket, who insists it is pronounced "Bouquet", in Roy Clarke's BBC sitcom (1990-95).
    553pts
16. 16
    Sherlock

    Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's 2010-17 modern reimagining of Sherlock Holmes, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in a contemporary London.
    553pts
17. 17
    Boys from the Blackstuff

    Alan Bleasdale's 1982 BBC drama follows five unemployed Liverpool tarmac layers, including Bernard Hill's desperate Yosser Hughes and his plea "Gizza job".
    501pts
18. 18
    Yes Minister

    Paul Eddington's well-meaning minister Jim Hacker is outmaneuvered by Nigel Hawthorne's civil servant Sir Humphrey in this 1980s BBC satire, continued as Yes, Prime Minister.
    501pts
19. 19
    The Inbetweeners

    Four awkward sixth-formers at a suburban comprehensive chase parties and girls in this E4 sitcom (2008-10), which led to two hit films.
    501pts
20. 20
    The Great British Bake Off

    Amateur bakers compete in a tent in the English countryside in this show, which began on BBC Two in 2010 and moved to Channel 4 in 2017.
    501pts
21. 21
    I, Claudius

    Derek Jacobi plays the stammering Roman emperor Claudius, surviving decades of family poisonings, in the BBC's 1976 adaptation of Robert Graves's novels.
    501pts
22. 22
    Father Ted

    Dermot Morgan plays Father Ted Crilly, exiled with two other priests to remote Craggy Island, in Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews's Channel 4 sitcom (1995-98).
    442pts
23. 23
    Bodyguard

    Richard Madden plays a war veteran protecting Keeley Hawes's home secretary in Jed Mercurio's 2018 BBC thriller, whose finale drew more than 10 million viewers on the night.
    442pts
24. 24
    Dad's Army

    Jimmy Perry and David Croft's BBC sitcom (1968-77) follows an inept Home Guard platoon in a south-coast seaside town during the Second World War.
    442pts
25. 25
    The League of Gentlemen

    Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss play most of the grotesque residents of the fictional northern town of Royston Vasey in this BBC dark comedy.
    442pts
26. 26
    Wolf Hall

    Mark Rylance plays Thomas Cromwell rising at the court of Damian Lewis's Henry VIII in the BBC's 2015 adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels.
    442pts
27. 27
    The Two Ronnies

    Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett's BBC sketch show (1971-87) is best remembered for the Four Candles hardware-shop sketch and its spoof closing news items.
    442pts
28. 28
    Doctor Who

    The BBC's long-running sci-fi series begun in 1963 following a time-traveling alien exploring the universe in a police box.
    442pts
29. 29
    Inspector Morse

    John Thaw plays Colin Dexter's opera-loving, real-ale-drinking Oxford detective in ITV's two-hour mysteries (1987-2000), with Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis.
    442pts
30. 30
    Baby Reindeer

    Richard Gadd adapts his own one-man show about being stalked by a woman he once offered a free drink in this 2024 Netflix limited series.
    442pts
31. 31
    Top Gear

    Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May turned the BBC's relaunched car programme into a global hit from 2002, with road trips, challenges and the Stig.
    442pts
32. 32
    Mr. Bean

    Rowan Atkinson's almost wordless, childlike troublemaker starred in just 15 episodes of this ITV comedy (1990-95), which became one of Britain's biggest TV exports.
    442pts
33. 33
    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

    Alec Guinness plays George Smiley hunting a Soviet mole at the top of British intelligence in the BBC's 1979 adaptation of John le Carré's novel.
    374pts
34. 34
    Monty Python's Flying Circus

    The Pythons' groundbreaking 1969-74 sketch series that permanently rewired British comedy and influenced generations of writers.
    374pts
35. 35
    Steptoe and Son

    Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's BBC sitcom (1962-74) pits a grubby London rag-and-bone man against his frustrated son, played by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett.
    374pts
36. 36
    Brideshead Revisited

    Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews star in Granada's 11-episode 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel about an aristocratic Catholic family between the wars.
    374pts
37. 37
    The Singing Detective

    Michael Gambon plays a bedridden crime writer with severe psoriasis whose memories and fantasies mix with musical numbers in Dennis Potter's 1986 BBC serial.
    374pts
38. 38
    Luther

    Neil Cross's 2010-19 psychological crime drama starring Idris Elba as a brilliant but tormented London murder detective.
    374pts
39. 39
    Slow Horses

    Gary Oldman plays Jackson Lamb, the slovenly boss of a London dumping ground for disgraced MI5 agents, in Apple TV+'s adaptation of Mick Herron's novels.
    374pts
40. 40
    Adolescence

    Shot in four continuous single takes, this 2025 Netflix drama follows the arrest of a 13-year-old boy for murder, with Stephen Graham as his father.
    374pts
41. 41
    Killing Eve

    The 2018-22 spy-thriller cat-and-mouse series pairing Villanelle, a glamorous assassin, with the obsessive MI5 officer pursuing her.
    374pts
42. 42
    Fleabag

    Phoebe Waller-Bridge's award-winning 2016-19 dark comedy about a messy, sharp-witted woman navigating grief and family dysfunction in London.
    295pts
43. 43
    The IT Crowd

    Chris O'Dowd and Richard Ayoade play basement tech-support workers managed by Katherine Parkinson in Graham Linehan's Channel 4 sitcom (2006-13).
    295pts
44. 44
    Skins

    E4's Bristol teen drama (2007-13) followed three generations of sixth-formers through parties and breakdowns, launching Dev Patel, Nicholas Hoult and Kaya Scodelario.
    295pts
45. 45
    Shameless

    Paul Abbott's Channel 4 drama (2004-13) follows the chaotic Gallagher family on a Manchester council estate, led by David Threlfall's drunken father Frank.
    295pts
46. 46
    Black Mirror

    Charlie Brooker's anthology series exploring the dark side of modern technology, debuting in 2011 and becoming a global sensation.
    295pts
47. 47
    Broadchurch

    Chris Chibnall's 2013-17 gripping murder mystery set in a small seaside town where a child's death tears apart an entire community.
    295pts
48. 48
    Black Books

    Dylan Moran plays misanthropic, wine-soaked London bookshop owner Bernard Black, alongside Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, in this Channel 4 sitcom (2000-04).
    295pts
49. 49
    Red Dwarf

    Craig Charles plays Dave Lister, the last human three million years in the future aboard a mining ship, in this science fiction sitcom that began on BBC Two in 1988.
    295pts
50. 50
    Absolutely Fabulous

    Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley play Edina and Patsy, two hard-drinking, fashion-obsessed women behaving badly in London, in this BBC sitcom first aired in 1992.
    295pts
51. 51
    Detectorists

    Mackenzie Crook wrote, directed and stars with Toby Jones as two amateur metal detectorists searching Essex fields for buried treasure in this gentle BBC Four comedy.
    295pts
52. 52
    The Prisoner

    Patrick McGoohan plays a resigned secret agent held in a mysterious seaside Village, where he is known only as Number Six, in this 1967 ITC series.
    295pts
53. 53
    The Crown

    Peter Morgan's lavish Netflix drama chronicling the reign of Queen Elizabeth II across multiple decades and cast generations.
    295pts
54. 54
    Downton Abbey

    Julian Fellowes' beloved 2010-15 period drama set in an Edwardian country estate navigating class, war, and changing times.
    201pts
55. 55
    Line of Duty

    Jed Mercurio's 2012-21 police procedural following a ruthless anti-corruption unit investigating bent officers in a fictional UK force.
    201pts
56. 56
    Blackadder

    Rowan Atkinson's scheming Edmund Blackadder survives four eras of English history, from the Middle Ages to the First World War trenches, in the BBC sitcom (1983-89).
    201pts
57. 57
    The Morecambe & Wise Show

    Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise's BBC variety show (1968-77) drew huge Christmas audiences with sketches like their 1971 piano routine with conductor André Previn.
    201pts
58. 58
    Prime Suspect

    Helen Mirren plays Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison fighting sexism inside the Metropolitan Police in Lynda La Plante's ITV crime drama, first shown in 1991.
    201pts
59. 59
    Cracker

    Robbie Coltrane plays Fitz, a gambling, chain-smoking criminal psychologist who helps Manchester police, in Jimmy McGovern's ITV drama first shown in 1993.
    201pts
60. 60
    The Thick of It

    Armando Iannucci's 2005-12 razor-sharp political satire following spin doctors and ministers in a chaotic Westminster government.
    201pts
61. 61
    Spaced

    Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's cult 1999-2001 sitcom about two strangers who fake being a couple to rent a flat in London.
    0pts
62. 62
    Only Fools and Horses

    John Sullivan's BBC sitcom (1981-2003) follows Peckham market trader Del Boy Trotter and his brother Rodney; its 1996 Christmas episode drew over 24 million viewers.
    0pts
63. 63
    Gavin & Stacey

    James Corden and Ruth Jones wrote this BBC sitcom about an Essex boy and a Welsh girl whose families collide, which ended with a 2024 Christmas special.
    0pts
64. 64
    Planet Earth

    David Attenborough narrates the BBC Natural History Unit's 2006 nature series, its first filmed in high definition, following wildlife across every continent from the air and underwater.
    0pts
65. 65
    Life on Mars

    John Simm's modern detective wakes up in 1973 Manchester after a car accident and works under Philip Glenister's brutal Gene Hunt in this BBC drama (2006-07).
    0pts
66. 66
    Pride and Prejudice

    Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth play Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy in the BBC's six-part 1995 Jane Austen adaptation, written by Andrew Davies.
    0pts

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