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It's time for a NEW round of "Name your favorite British TV show"!!

To anyone who is new to the forum, this is where we are sharing our favorite British shows. Mostly murder and crime shows, but there's a whole lot of everything in there (including a few from other countries). There is a previous thread with several hundred shows listed, but it has gotten a little bit too big, and it's very hard to get all the way through it, so I am creating a new thread that we can add our new shows to. I also made a spreadsheet of all the shows that were in the previous thread, so if anyone wants to access that, I'm going to put a link in here, and that way you'll have it at your disposal. It's a copy, so you can edit it if you want or do whatever you want to it.

I can't guarantee all of the information in the spreadsheet is correct. I tried going through the previous thread and pulling out all of the shows that were in there. But some of them I couldn't find, and some of them I couldn't figure out what they were as they were shows with duplicate names. And I may have missed some too. But hopefully, most of them are here, and you can always add others to the list if you want. All of the information I got about where to stream the shows came from IMDb, so that may get outdated from time to time. One good website to check is https://www.justwatch.com. I also listed the IMDb ratings, which I think is nice to know.

I would ask that before anyone adds a new title, you please check the previous thread to make sure it's not already in there or better yet, check the spreadsheet. Obviously if someone makes a mistake, it's not going to be a terrible thing, but it would be nice to keep the newer thread limited to shows that are not listed on the previous thread. I will also keep the link to the previous thread here to make it easier to check.

*Here is the link to the previous thread: *https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/time-for-another-round-of-name-your-favorite-british-tv-show

**And here is the link to a Google Sheet listing around 200 British shows, with a few Canadian, Australian, and U.S. shows thrown into the mix. 😊 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15exwBC9HAXuHja3_td5-zf72meh6Og1HqNyaQpGzE6g/edit?usp=sharing

Please let me know if you have any questions or any problems opening the spreadsheet.

Posted by
3697 posts

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a classic. I also liked the old shows “One Foot in the Grave” and. “Keeping Up Appearances” which taught me that “Hounslow” is not just a London suburb.

Posted by
1432 posts

Keeping Up Appearances. (Richard!) (Sheridan, you must come to my candlelight supper!)

Posted by
595 posts

Traitors!!! It's a new reality show based in the UK and I love it!!

Posted by
806 posts

Very impressive spreadsheet, thanks for putting that together!

A new show I am enjoying right now is "How Are You? It's Me, Alan (Partridge)" the latest in a long series of Alan Partridge programmes starring Steve Coogan. I love all the Partridge entertainments (including podcasts) going all the way back to the classic comedy series "The Day Today" where the character of Alan Partridge was introduced. I also really recommend the series before this one "This Time with Alan Partridge" which was some of the best tv I've seen in a while.

There's also a new series of Mitchell and Webb which I enjoyed tho I don't think it's as good as their previous one.

Posted by
35918 posts

that must have been a real labour of love!!

Time for legs up and a nice cup of tea

Posted by
143 posts

I don't think it is mentioned anywhere but Father Ted is an absolute comedy classic. 30 years after it was made and it is still quoted especially when offering a cup of tea, "Go on, go on, go on".

I'm not sure if he particularly 'travels' but Peter Kay has written some brilliant stuff. Phoenix Nights is set in a northern working man's club. The episode with the family fun day is hilarious. "Chorley FM Coming in your ears".
Car Share is equally funny and sweet. The soundtrack on the car radio is also brilliant if you are of an early 70s vintage. Peter Kay really knows his music.
Finally, i think it has only been shown once on TV but a one off he did for Christmas is one of the best p1ss takes of TV talent shows you will ever see. It is genuinely called 'Britain's Got the Pop Factor....and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice". He gets the ridiculousness of these types of competitions bang on but with affection. The 'real' people like Simon Cowell and Cat Dealey play themselves in it.

Posted by
10497 posts

Time for legs up and a nice cup of tea.

Ha ha, yes, indeed, Nigel - and that's exactly what I did!

Posted by
3504 posts

Thank you for organizing that thread! I used it to find some new shows for my folks to watch, they're avid Brit murder show fans.

A few more that I don't see on the list:

The Cleaner - irreverent comedy about a crime scene cleaner (BritBox/Roku, IMDB 7.1)

Durrells in Corfu - Brits in Greece in the 1930s (PBS, Amazon, IMDB 8.2)

Fleabag - cringy comedy, in a good way (Amazon, IMDB 8.7)

The Thick of It - cringy government political drama (Britbox, Peacock, IMDB 8.7)

No Offence - another crime drama (Pluto, BritBox, Acorn, IMDB 8.0)

Posted by
7665 posts

Wow, Mardee, that's some amazing dedication to the forum!

I don't see Heartbeat. I give it a 100 ;) for music, 10 for scenery, and maybe 6.5 for writing/plot??

Posted by
9907 posts

Over decades usually via PBS on American TV:
Dr Who
The Avengers
Benny Hill ( my dad loved that show)
The Prisoner
Vera
Inspector Morse
Scott and Bailey
Happy Valley
Midsomer Murders
Annika
Hetty Wainthrop
Touching Evil
MI 5
Prime Suspect
Unforgotten
Taggert
McDonald and Dobbes
Lovejoy
DI Ray
No Offense
Magpie Murders
Shetland
Shakespeare and Hathaway
Monty Python
Poirot
Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett
Whitsable Pearl

Watching PBS is part of my DNA.

EDIT 1: Forgot Inspector George Gently and Endeavor

Posted by
10497 posts

There are a few shows that did not make their way onto the list because I didn't know which one it was. For example, Heartbeat had about. 3-5 different entries on IMDB, and without knowing which one it was, I was reluctant to put it in there. So if someone wants to let me know more details about it, I'd be happy to flesh it out more.

The problem is some shows that people named had no time period, description or cast members, or anything that would help to identify it. And there are a lot of shows out there with the same name, lol!

The same thing with "No Offense". There were at least five shows named with the same title. I was trying to do more searching in the beginning, but by the time I was 60% of the way through, I was just trying to get through the list. So I admit I did not make the same effort towards the end as I was in the beginning. 😊

Posted by
1899 posts

There have been 3 ‘civilian’ series of British Traitors and the first celeb series is currently showing. The US series is shot back to back with the British version and features the same tasks and Scottish location but a different presenter. I’m a huge fan and have watched all the English language versions currently available!

Posted by
143 posts

I believe the BBC is going to start showing .the Irish Traitors once the UK celeb Traitors finishes. Their ‘Claudia’ is Siobhan McSweeney, Sister Michael from Derry Girls.

Posted by
859 posts

This is awesome mardee! Thank you so much! Scrolling through the other thread for new show ideas was getting crazy! Really appreciate you!

Posted by
8061 posts

It was sad to learn that Patricia Routledge (Hyacinth) from Keeping Up Appearances passed away a couple weeks ago.

We still enjoy Midsomer Murders and the new Lynley series as well as the new Karen Pirie series.

Posted by
7665 posts

I looked at the spread sheet earlier in the day, and now its completely different? With the same shows repeating?? Is it me?

Posted by
392 posts

jules,

oh dear! it's not you. something happened to the spreadsheet. seems like a sort problem or something.

Posted by
706 posts

The Young Ones :)

edit: And some British Police drama with an older Detective and his younger partner who was almost like a monk. Don't remember the name but the younger partner was my kind of character.