Greatest British TV Shows

[Wooly Fox]

From the odd end of the comedy spectrum.

Charlie Broker's Screen Wipe (he made the Netflix series Black Mirror)
Time Trumpet (surrealist talking heads comedy from 2006, one season)
Look Around You
The Peter Serafinowic Show
Armstrong and Miller (just for Brabbins and Fife)
Harry and Paul
Victoria Wood show
Gareth Merengue Dark Places (another surrealist comedy)

 

[kylejf90]

"Top Gear"

This is the right answer. Particularly 2001-2015.

 

[StoneH]

This is the right answer. Particularly 2001-2015.

My Grandson turned me on to "The Grand Tour", then the wife and I binge-watched the originals for months.

 

[somebodyelseuk]

Morse/Lewis/Endeavour
Touch Of Frost
Prime Suspect
Open All Hours
Last Of The Summer Wine
The Professionals
Coronation Street (apparently, Jimi was addicted to it?)
Dinner Ladies
Jeeves and Wooster

 

[KeithDavies 100]

Probably all been mentioned already, but:

Killing Eve, Line of Duty, Sex Education and The Serpent are all recent things that were good.

The Outlaws and Back To Life were recent ones to, perhaps slightly more off-the-wall, that I thought were excellent.

Going back a bit, Blackadder, Absolutely Fabulous, Not The Nine o'Clock News

And of course there's always Later with Jools Holland

If you want to get more adventurous and head for French series, Spiral was one of the best things I'd watched in a while.

 

[Ron R]

Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Young Ones
Fawlty Towers
Dr. Who

 

[iamjethro]

I saw These shows on local PBS and some stuck with me.

Benny Hill
Are you being served?
Fawlty Towers.
DR. Who.
Reginald Perrin
Keeping up appearances
Mr. Bean
and
I didn't like it all as a kid, but in my 50s, I revisited it lately and find myself enjoying "Last of the summer wine". Guess I had to grow old enough to identify.

 

[Spox]

Maarsterchef

 

[teleplayr]

Monty Python
The Young Ones
The Vicar of Dibley
As Time Goes By
Ab Fab
Last of the Summer Wine
Are You Being Served?

 

[Harry Styron]

Wallace and Gromit
Rumpole of the Bailey

 

[WelhavenTW]

IT Crowd
Black Books
Peep Show
Black Adder
The Office/Derek/After Life
Green Wing
Fresh Meat
Red Dwarf
White Gold
Lovesick

 

[Cloodie]

Rising Damp - hilarious
Wolrd at War - Incredible WW2 documentary series narrated by Laurence Olivier. Haunting opening and ending scenes.
Any of David Attenborough's nature documentaries for the BBC. Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Frozen Planet etc

 

[Wayne Alexander]

Of more modern shows, these are all A+:

Killing Eve (mentioned above)

Good Omens

Fleabag

His Dark Materials

 

[Guitarteach]

so.. please….

Don't sent us any more of your banal US rubbish!

 

[BigDaddyLH]

so.. please….

Don't sent us any more of your banal US rubbish!

 

[Silent Otto]

loved the two ronnies and dave allen back in the day. Blackadder was genius.
the Honblower series was great, and we liked Mrs. Brown's Boys more recently.

 

[pixeljammer]

I'm a red, white, and blue-blooded American. I only buy Merican and only eat American food - hamburgers, French Fries, a Greek salad, and a Molson beer.

But I have seen some British TV. I have made a short list of the greatest UK TV shows of all time. Add some I do not know about, if you please.

Here's the Top 5 Greatest British TV shows:

The Avengers
8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown
Monty Python
The Young Ones
The Tube (a live music program from the '80s)

I like "Would I Lie to You?" and QI as well. Sometimes "The IT Crowd".

 

[Greenmachine]

Black Adder

 

[wyclif]

I'm sorry, but Father Ted was made by a British production company for a British television channel (Channel 4) and the studio scenes were filmed in London. The rest was Irish.

Ted: “Down with this sort of thing!”
Dougal: “Careful now!”

You are absolutely correct. An Irish friend pointed out to me yesterday that even though Father Ted aired on RTÉ Two (an Irish channel), it was produced by Hat Trick Productions which is an English company.

 

[wyclif]

It’s great that so many people put Faulty Towers as their top pick. I also vote Faulty Towers.

I guess it’s a not like Oscar stuff but I like Mr. Bean too.

First time I visited the Philippines, I noticed that Mr Bean is quite popular there in syndication. I thought, "That's odd, why do Filipinos like Mr Bean but have no affinity for any other British TV shows?"

Then it hit me, and I realised one of the things that makes Mr Bean so brilliantly conceived: there's almost no dialogue, so it can be understood by anyone in any language.