The Best British Shows of 2024

Though it's been said before, it's worth repeating: There's never been a better time to be an Anglophile. Sure, to watch everything we'd like to see, we're basically required to pony up the cash to access a half dozen different streamers and keep track of a constantly shifting content landscape where promising series are canceled well before their time. But, we've also never been so spoiled for choice in terms of the content available to us before, how easy it is to access, or how great the majority of it is. 

To be fair, a lot of the worst of British television doesn't exactly get exported across the pond, so it's easy to believe that everything the BBC has a hand in producing is a gold-plated, high-quality prestige historical or legal drama. (Spoiler alert: It's not!) But thanks to the rise of streaming, there are more British (or British-adjacent) series out there for us to enjoy than ever before. Not everything comes with a Masterpiece pedigree attached, but due to Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more, a truly astounding amount of quality British content is steadily (and regularly) making its way to us.

So much so that narrowing this list down often felt like a Herculean task, and there are so many great programs that arrived in 2024 that aren't represented here. (Honorable mention in particular to Supacell, Mary & George, Queenie, and the third season of Bridgerton, because I am nothing if not a Colin and Penelope girl.) 

However, if you're looking for. a place to start to sum up 2024 in British TV, you can't go wrong with these series, which are the best of a pretty great year.

This year, we somehow got not one but two different dramatizations of the infamous Newsnight interview with England's Prince Andrew, a modern media trainwreck in which the royal was grilled about his sexual misconduct and friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Netflix released the feature film Scoop in the spring of 2024, but Prime Video's three-part series A Very Royal Scandal is the far superior of the two adaptations. 

A drama that attempts to become something more than a straight recreation of a historical event viewers could just go watch on YouTube, it never fully weighs in on Andrew's guilt or innocence, but instead asks uncomfortable questions about elite privilege, the media consumption habits of our current moment, and whether this much-ballyhooed bit of journalism actually changed anything in a world where privileged men still get away with horrible actions.

Star Michael Sheen (Good Omens) gives a remarkably layered performance as the self-involved, self-interested Andrew, while Ruth Wilson's (The Woman In the Wall) take on journalist Emily Mailis is built on the tensions between her professional and personal identities, and is most interesting in the drama's third act, which explores her life post-interview and reckoning with the celebrity her royal takedown generated. 

A Very Royal Scandal is now streaming on Prime Video. 

Eight part Netflix series Baby Reindeer isn't a show you enjoy so much as survive, but love it or hate it, this messy, controversial drama deserves the many kudos it's received this year. 

Based on Richard Gadd's one-man stage show, which was in turn inspired by his own experiences being stalked, the series follows a fictionalized version of the budding comedian as he works at a London pub and struggles to catch his big break. But everything changes when a woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) comes in and subsequently develops an obsession with him. 

Tense, funny, and genuinely horrifying by turns, the relationship that forms between them is impossible to look away from (even if the folks involved with this series absolutely did not do their due diligence when it comes to dramatized depictions of real people). 

Baby Reindeer is now streaming on Netflix.

Though many Anglophiles were familiar with Nicola Coughlan from her charming performance in Derry Girls, it's her turn as Penelope Featherington on Netflix period drama Bridgerton that has essentially made her a household name. And though most people reading this are likely fully aware that Coughlan's had a busy year, from her holiday guest turn on Doctor Who to the release of the Colin-and-Penelope-focused third season of Bridgerton this past spring, it's likely very few are aware of the other great performance she put in during 2024. 

Big Mood follows the story of a pair of ride-or-die best friends named Maggie (Coughlan) and Eddie (Lydia West) as they navigate the difficulties of life in your thirties, during that weird period where you realize all the big dreams and goals you had when you were a twentysomething didn't turn out quite the way you wanted. It's quirky and funny and almost painfully realistic at times, but what sets Big Mood apart from almost every other comedy this year is its nuanced depiction of mental illness, and the toll living with a mood disorder can take on more than just the person who’s been diagnosed with it. 

Big Mood is currently streaming on Tubi.

One of the most unexpected delights of the holiday season arrived in the form of Black Doves. Delightfully fun and self-aware in a way this genre is rarely allowed to be, this entertaining espionage drama turns almost everything we expect from this genre on its head, jettisoning boring geopolitical drama and overly serious pretentiousness for rich interpersonal dynamics, messy personal vendettas, and a razor-sharp sense of humor.

Powered by the sparkling chemistry between Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw and a surprisingly nuanced understanding of what living a life telling lies for a living does to one's psyche, this is a show that's as interested in the unconventional relationship between a spy and her assassin BFF as it is the geopolitical drama behind a mysterious and seemingly random murder. Here's hoping this particular flock flies for a long time to come.

Black Doves is now streaming on Netflix.

Peter Capaldi (The Devil's Hour) and Cush Jumbo (The Beast Must Die) star in this morally complicated crime thriller, playing two detectives at very different stages in their lives and careers. The pair find themselves at odds when a phone call reignites interest in an old murder case and forces each to reckon with both their roles within the force and the price they're willing to pay to find the truth (or keep it hidden, depending on who you're asking.)

Criminal Record's first season wrestled with issues of systemic racism, institutional failure, generational conflict, and corruption within the police force, and its ending was not a particularly neat or tidy one, emotionally speaking. Though the larger questions about the case at the center of the season are generally answered, the murky issues between the two detectives remain, not the least of which is that one knowingly manipulated witnesses and evidence in the name of making an arrest. 

Where does this adversarial (and strangely mentorish) relationship go from here? Thank goodness we'll get a second season to find out. 

Criminal Record is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

The only constant in the world of Doctor Who is change and the iconic sci-fi series underwent more than its share this year, welcoming back a former showrunner in Russell T. Davies, and a brand new Doctor in Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education). Armed with Disney+ and big ideas about where to take the show in its sixth decade, Davies crafted a fifteenth season (or first or forty-second, depending on how you're counting) that's a big, bright, joyous return to the first principles of the show. 

Gatwa oozes charisma and his lighter, more exuberant take on the Doctor is perfectly paired with Millie Gibson's (The Forsyte Saga) irrepressible companion Ruby Sunday. With an array of guest stars that included Jinkx Monsoon (RuPaul's Drag Race), Jonathan Groff (Hamilton), and Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) and stories that ran the gamut from technological dystopia and folk horror to zany space hijinks. In a season full of bangers, it's hard to name a specific favorite episode, though, for my money, it's the Doctor-lite "73 Yards" and "Dot and Bubble" that push the series' boundaries forward in new ways. 

Doctor Who Season 1 is currently streaming on Disney+.

Though the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a few one-off programs like Prime Video's The Boys dominated the superhero discourse in our pop culture this year, the best show about folks with superpowers (that far too few people are watching) is a little comedy on Hulu called Extraordinary. Its exceptional second season, which aired earlier this year, is many things --- relatable, hilarious, emotionally forthright- --- but nothing so much as a reminder that the reason superhero stories are so compelling isn't the promise of extraordinary abilities. It's how those powers illuminate something important about the stories of the people who have them.

Set in a world where everyone gains a superpower when they turn 18, Extraordinary follows the story of Jen Regan (Máiréad Tyers), an underachieving twentysomething who has still yet to manifest any sort of special ability at all. Season 2 sees her seek treatment at a clinic meant to help late bloomers access their abilities, but her journey is more about her emotional growth than any potential power she might or might not possess by the time the final credits roll.

Extraordinary is now streaming on Hulu.

The four-part drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a rare television series that reminds us that, sometimes, entertainment still has the power to change the world. 

The ITV series, which tells the story of the hundreds of sub-postmasters in the U.K. whose lives were ruined after a faulty IT system led to them all being accused of theft and fraud, was such a massive hit that it galvanized the government into action. Then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak proposed a compensation scheme! A TV show did that! No wonder PBS's Masterpiece was so eager to pick up that it reworked its spring broadcast schedule to get it to U.S. audiences sooner.

After all that, the fact that the show is actually really good almost feels like an afterthought. But, it is, thanks in large part to its excellent cast of character actors led by the always excellent Toby Jones (The Long Shadow) as the titular Mr. Bates and Monica Dolan (The Change) as one of the affected sub-postmasters whose struggle to get someone, anyone to listen to her puts an all-too-human face on the scandal.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is now streaming with PBS Passport and on the Prime Video Masterpiece Channel.

This entry might be stretching the technical definition of "British show," but since My Lady Jane stars a bunch of British talent and tells the story of a doomed English queen, it feels okay to cheat a little bit. Plus, this show is just so darn good that it deserves to be celebrated (and mourned, since Prime Video unceremoniously canceled it mere weeks after it premiered.) 

A high fantasy reimagining of the story of Nine Days' Queen Lady Jane Grey that involves everything from animal shapeshifters to a foul-mouthed fourth-wall-breaking narrator, everything about this series is completely unexpected, in the best possible ways. Fun, feminist, and unabashed in its embrace of ideas of tolerance and inclusion, it feels like a breath of fresh air in a television landscape where genre series often tend toward the bleak.  

It also doesn't hurt that My Lady Jane boasts one of the year's best romances. The swoon-worthy bond the develops between Jane (Emily Bader) and her arranged husband Guilford Dudley (Edward Bluemel)  --- a secret Eðian(shapeshifter), he is cursed to transform into a horse each night --- is not just achingly romantic, but a means by which both become the best versions of themselves. Long live the queen. (I wish.) 

My Lady Jane is currently streaming on Prime Video.

The most unapologetically fun series of 2024, Hulu's Rivals never takes itself too seriously. From its opening shot, which shows a couple noisily joining the Mile High Club in an airplane toilet, it's a show that utterly embraces the ridiculousness and excess of its central premise. 

Based on Dame Jilly Cooper's bestselling Rutshire Chronicles series, the story ostensibly follows the rivalry between a former Olympic showjumper turned politician and a self-esteem-challenged, cigar-chomping aristocrat as they battle over the future of local independent television in their painfully rich corner of the Cotswolds. But what really keeps things interesting is, of course, everything else. From ill-advised affairs and vacation hook-ups to corporate betrayals, parties with sky-high shoulder pads, and constant cutting social commentary, Rivals is peak guilty pleasure TV. But the best thing about it is that it doesn't want anyone to feel guilty for enjoying all it has to offer. 

It doesn't hurt that the series' cast is full of A-listers --- Alex Hassell (The Tragedy of Macbeth), David Tennant (Good Omens), Aidan Turner (Poldark), and more --- who are all clearly having the time of their lives starring in the sort of delicious soap opera that too many networks seem to have forgotten how to make.

Rivals is now streaming on Hulu.

Crime drama Sherwood is still probably the best British series that far too many of you are not watching. The series' first season, which features big names ranging from David Morrissey (The Long Shadow) and Leslie Manville (Moonflower Murders) to Lorraine Ashbourne (Bridgerton), was one of the most underrated series of last year, and while it's second outing is quite different in terms of subject matter, it's equally solid.

The new season is still set in the titular town, now focused on the present day of 2024, 20 years after the events of Season 1 and 40 years since the miners' strikes. The same families still reside there, older and grayer, but the same lack of jobs and support systems still remain, as Ian St. Clair now finds himself trying to contain the gang violence that earned the area the nicknames "Shottingham" and "Assassination City."

Sherwood is now streaming on BritBox.