The best hidden gem TV shows and series to watch

Do you spend too much time scrolling and not enough time watching TV? Are you fed up with being served algorithmically generated suggestions of the same shows? Do you want to bypass those heavily promoted new dramas to find some hidden TV gems?

If you answered yes, read on — because here we present a handpicked list of TV series that we believe you’ll love, but may have slipped under your radar. We’ve scoured the streaming services from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ to Now, Paramount+ and Apple TV+ to find the best shows.

From laugh-out-loud comedy to gripping drama; from out-of-this-world sci-fi to eye-opening documentaries, there is something here for everyone.

We’ll be updating this list regularly, so do return for more recommendations once you’ve watched them all, and don’t forget to leave your hidden gem recommendations in the comments section below.

Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix, the best Prime Video TV shows, the best Disney+ shows , the best Apple TV+ shows, the best shows on BBC iPlayer , the best shows on Sky and Now, the best shows on ITVX, the best shows on Channel 4 streaming, the best shows on Paramount+ and our favourite hidden gem TV shows. Don’t forget to check our critics’ choices to what to watch this week, the best shows of 2024 so far and browse our comprehensive TV guide.

This Way Up

Channel 4
Aisling Bea writes and stars in this black comedy as Áine, a single young Irish woman living in London who is trying to piece her life back together after a “teeny little nervous breakdown”. Working as a teacher of English as a second language, Áine’s life takes various disturbing and chaotic turns during the series, to the concern of her overprotective older sister, Shona, played by Sharon Horgan. The excellently executed show’s two series flew somewhat under the radar when they first appeared on television and are certainly worth revisiting if you are a fan of female-led, beautifully honest and edgy comedy.

Raised By Wolves

Sky/Now
One of the weirdest big-budget television shows in recent years, Aaron Guzikowski’s sci-fi drama was cancelled in 2022 after just two seasons. Not the kind of show that lends itself to neat one-sentence summaries, Raised By Wolves loosely concerns two androids, Father and Mother (Amanda Collin and Abubakar Salim), tasked with raising human children on planet Kepler-22b after the destruction of Earth. If you enjoy hard sci-fi series such as Foundation and The Expanse this is for you — brutal, baffling and dark-hearted with lashings of moral ambiguity.

The Swarm

Sky/Now
If you are a fan of B-movies, eco-horror and bad expository dialogue you will absolutely love this pulpy paranormal Euro-thriller about “a deadly species of ice worm” that is turning all our sea-dwelling creatures — from sardines to shellfish — into man-eating killers. Although overseen by Frank Doelger, the US showrunner, it is a vast Europudding of a production with a cast corralled from Germany, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Finland, Japan and the UK. Yet it avoids the usual unfocused problems of such efforts — resulting in eight episodes of gripping, fast-paced, beautifully photographed hokum.

The 7 Up Collection

ITVX
Michael Apted’s nine series, chronicling the lives of 14 British children from 1964 onwards, is not always an easy watch. As with all of us, there are triumphs and tragedies, elation and depression, and as anyone who’s followed the adventures of Tony, Neil, Jackie, Lynn and Sue down the years will know, the emotional bonds are strong. But the series remains one of the true landmarks of British documentary and, after Apted’s death in 2021 at the age of 79, it remains to be seen whether the next instalment, 70 Up, due in 2026, will still get made.

Laurence Olivier Presents

ITVX
As unlikely as it may now seem, in the mid-1970s, an ailing Laurence Olivier produced and starred in a series of personally chosen stage plays for Granada TV. The plays ranged from such 20th century classics as Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to less likely fare (Eduardo De Filippo’s Saturday, Sunday, Monday). While Olivier himself is not always top of his game, each production remains compelling, thanks largely to their incredible supporting casts, which include Natalie Wood, Edward Woodward, Alan Bates, Helen Mirren and Joanne Woodward.

Seaside Hotel

Walter Presents
Fans of Downton Abbey will love delving into this charming Danish series set in a fancy beach hotel during the Roaring Twenties. An unexpected hit in Denmark and now in its ninth season (there are six available to stream now on Channel 4), the show is an intriguing hotbed of wealthy guests and poor staff, with comedy, heartbreak and young love on the menu. There touches of Jeeves and Wooster, Fawlty Towers and even The Duchess of Duke Street. It’s a treat.

Summoned By Bells

BBC iPlayer
This glorious hour-long film, which was first broadcast in 1976, follows John Betjeman, the poet laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984, as he revisits the sites of his youth. Based on his 1960 blank verse autobiography and featuring readings by the author from the book, the film is at its most poignant in its juxtaposition of poignant childhood memory and the sight of the present-day author, then aged 69 but looking much older, walking through the places of his past with a shuffling, ruminative melancholy. You just want to give him a big hug.

All Creatures Great And Small

ITVX
To viewers of a certain age these late 1970s BBC adaptations of James Herriot’s novels about veterinary life in rural 1930s Yorkshire can’t help but evoke the easefulness of an early Sunday evening just before the dread of work or school reared its melancholy head. What’s surprising is how well the series has aged, thanks in part to its exemplary cast (Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, Peter Davison, Carol Drinkwater) and the scripts, which exude fireside warmth yet crackle with a droll, no-nonsense wit.

Houdini And Doyle

ITVX
If you are tired of slow-moving crime dramas with almost no emotional stakes may we suggest this ludicrously playful 19th-century detective romp from 2016. Based on the real-life friendship between the Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) and the American illusionist Harry Houdini (Michael Weston), it rebrands the unlikely pals as a bickering detective duo. Utter hokum, but it has bags of charm and there’s a chemistry between Mangan, Weston and Rebecca Liddiard, who plays their unlikely Metropolitan Police foil, Constable Adelaide Stratton.

The Merchant Of Venice

BritBox
A real time capsule, this. Jonathan Miller’s National Theatre production of Shakespeare’s 1598 tale of prejudice, friendship and revenge, filmed by ATV in 1973. The cast is a marvel to behold —with Laurence Olivier as Shylock, Joan Plowright as Portia and Jeremy Brett as Bassanio — but it’s also a landmark production for other reasons. Set in 19th-century London, it documents Olivier’s final stage performance in a Shakespeare play and foregrounds an ailing vulnerability in his performance. It also downplays the antisemitism of Shakespeare’s play, presenting Shylock as both victim and revenger.

The Deep State

Netflix
Not to be confused with the 2018 British spy drama starring Mark Strong and Walton Goggins, this is a Moroccan conspiracy thriller that begins with two government intelligence officers (Bashar al-Shatti and Khaled Al Muthafar) attempting to clear the name of a disgraced minister of national security and gradually expands to become a complex, multilayered drama of cross and triple-cross. Stunning to look at, it’s a story that also goes deep into the secret intelligence wars that have occupied European news headlines for the past few decades.

Sherlock Holmes

tptvencore.co.uk
Talking Pictures is arguably the most beloved TV channel in the UK, but it’s surprising how many people you meet don’t know about or utilise its spin-off streaming channel. Well, it’s more of a catch-up channel really, showing recently aired films and TV episodes, but it does have whole series, including this charming 1954 series of Conan Doyle adaptations starring the suave Ronald Howard (Leslie Howard’s son) as the deerstalker-sporting detective and the redoubtable Howard Marion-Crawford as his sidekick, Dr Watson.

Superman & Lois

BBC iPlayer
On the one hand you’re an all-powerful alien being and superhero married to the love of your life. On the other you’re a recently unemployed journalist living in rustbelt America coping with two out-of-control teenage sons. That is the central dilemma of this 2021 franchise reboot in which Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman and Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane are now stressed-out middle-class parents battling domestic mundanities alongside evil supervillains. By rooting all its characters in a believable backstory the show brings emotional weight and purpose to every dazzling comic-book clash.

Early Doors

BBC iPlayer
Set entirely within the confines of a grotty Stockport pub, Craig Cash and Phil Mealey’s wry Mancunian comedy only ran to twelve episodes but remains a small marvel; a shining entry in the pantheon of working-class British comedies. If you’re a fan of The Royle Family and in need of another non-conformist blue-collar sitcom look no further.

The Deceived

My5
This 2020 limited drama — written by Lisa McGee (Derry Girls) and her husband, Tobias Beer — stars Emily Reid as a wide-eyed literature student pulled into a dark web of intrigue by Emmett J Scanlan’s steamy English lecturer. It’s Daphne du Maurier meets Fifty Shades of Grey and just as deliciously overblown as that sounds.

Pretty Hard Cases

Prime Video
This Toronto-based buddy-cop drama is a gem. It was co-created by Tassie Cameron and Sherry White and forged in a post-#BlackLivesMatter universe. It reworks the undercover-cop tropes of Miss Congeniality into something consistently funny yet thematically interesting. Now into their third season, Meredith MacNeill and Adrienne C Moore are perfect as the mismatched female feds. The real delight is in watching how the show addresses everything from police brutality to systemic racism with a comic artistry.

Marion And Geoff

BBC iPlayer
Long before his gustatory road-trips with Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon made his name with another car-centred comedy picaresque. First shown way back in 2000, this faux video diary follows naive cab driver Keith Barret (Brydon) as he gradually discovers the truth about his titular wife and their best friend. It’s a lo-fi, nuanced, heartbreaking little comic smasher.

Lockerbie

Sky/Now
Not enough people saw John Dower’s four-part film about the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and its destruction over the skies of a small Scottish town on December 21, 1988. This is a masterclass in documentary film-making that is balanced, sensitively handled yet also utterly compelling viewing.

Gyeongseong Creature

Netflix
It’s 1945, and in a hospital in occupied Seoul (then Gyeongseong) a deranged Japanese army faction conduct experiments on Korean patients while watching over a huge, tentacled Lovecraftian monster shackled in the basement. Meanwhile a pair of detectives arrive in the capital on a hunt for missing persons and hook up with a local entrepreneur . . . One of the most unhinged K-dramas, this is gruesome, romantic, action-packed and properly terrifying.

Unbelievable

Netflix
A powerful and heartbreaking story inspired by the Pulitzer prizewinning article An Unbelievable Story of Rape, this sensitively crafted drama transcends much of the true crime content on offer across the streaming services. With an exceptional performance from Kaitlyn Dever as Marie, a young sexual assault survivor charged with lying about having been raped, the story is driven forward by the determination of two female detectives (played by Toni Collette and Merritt Wever) to find out the truth. However, what they will uncover is a case far bigger than they could have expected as they follow multiple leads across Washington and Colorado to a dramatic conclusion.

Dark

Netflix
Here’s why I nearly didn’t watch the time-travel thriller Dark. One, it’s in German. Two, the aggressively generic name. And three, the people telling me to watch Dark, who would always say something annoying like: “I can’t tell you anything about it, but it’s incredible.” Even so, I did watch Dark, and it is incredible, and it’s very hard to tell you anything about it. That’s because it’s fiendishly confusing and incredibly tightly plotted. Set in a weirdly close-knit village overshadowed by a nuclear plant, the first of Dark’s three seasons is dominated by two mysteries: why did the artist Michael kill himself, and who has taken Mikkel, the young son of the police officer Ulrich? Soon the time-travel paradoxes rack up. What’s most astonishing is that it holds together. Think of all the great finales in TV history — Twin Peaks, Breaking Bad — Dark’s is even better. Utterly heartbreaking, completely satisfying, and totally impossible to explain.

Darby And Joan

UKTV Play
Greta Scacchi and Bryan Brown team up for this series that puts two mismatched characters together to solve mysteries inhabited by well-preserved Aussie soap stars (tonight, Peter O’Brien aka Shane from Neighbours). It’s a pleasing family affair, with an appearance from Leila George, Scacchi and Vincent D’Onofrio’s daughter and ex-wife of Sean Penn. Rachel Ward (Brown’s wife and Thorn Birds co-star) even shows up.

Clark

Netflix
If you have ever wondered where the term Stockholm Syndrome came from, this Swedish Netflix Original not only answers your question but catapults you at breakneck speed into the incredible life and times of Clark Olofsson. Starring Bill Skarsgard, this stylish drama chronicles a life of crime starting in childhood and culminating in the Norrmalmstorg robbery in 1973, which was televised live on Swedish TV. It propelled Olofsson to celebrity gangster status in Swedish popular culture. Be prepared for sudden shifts in pace and tone as the exhilarating adventure unfolds.

Hide and Seek

Channel 4/Walter Presents
Varta Naumova and Max Shumov are special investigators on the case of a missing girl in an industrial town. But can they catch the kidnapper and solve the mystery before more children go missing? This moody Ukrainian drama — made in 2019 before the country was torn apart by the Russian invasion — is classy and atmospheric in the greatest traditions of European crime drama, with a few intriguing twists that make it stand out.

Gaslit

Lionsgate+
Julia Roberts and Sean Penn lead the cast of a sumptuous period drama that will transport you back to the 1970s. Although the Watergate story has been told time and again on film and television, Gaslit finds a new angle, focusing on Martha “mouth of the South” Mitchell (Roberts) and her husband, John, Nixon’s attorney general (played by Penn). Of course, there’s plenty of political skulduggery to get your teeth into, but the reason you’ll want to watch is Roberts’s exceptional portrayal of a woman who refuses to be silenced in a man’s world. TG

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Night Sky

Prime Video
Night Sky invites us into the lives of a couple married for more than 50 years, who just so happen to have discovered a portal to another planet in their garden. The Oscar winners Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons command the screen with absorbing performances as a pair who have known each other for so long that every pause, glance and smile speaks a thousand words. An elegant piece of television that feels so down-to-earth that the alien element brings a level of slow-burn intrigue often absent from modern sci-fi.

The Playlist

Netflix
Since Aaron Sorkin teamed up with David Fincher to tell Facebook’s foundation story in The Social Network (2010), the world has had its fair share of entrepreneur versus the world tales. This Swedish drama takes the genre and changes the tempo, bringing alive the rise and rise of the streaming service Spotify from the different perspectives of those involved. From the disruptor-in-chief Daniel Ek to members of the music industry sceptical about legal streaming in the age of Pirate Bay, every episode is like a track on what can only be described as a concept album.

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

Sky/Now
Although he may be one of the most famous musicians of the modern age, the Nirvana frontman’s tragically short life is still shrouded in myth and mystery. This 2015 documentary from Brett Morgen uses previously unseen footage and unreleased recordings, sound collages and sketches to tell Cobain’s story. And although it’s impossible to separate Cobain from the legend, this documentary does a very good job of finding the child, the human, the father and the husband in a way that you won’t have seen before.

The Horne Section TV Show

Channel 4
Despite being the creator of the hit game show Taskmaster, Alex Horne has always lived in the shadow of Greg Davies — or so we are told in this fictionalised version of reality, in which Horne and his band finally get their own show. Refreshingly funny and silly, there are plenty of musical interludes. Desiree Burch’s Thora tries to help and Georgia Tennant’s hard-nosed TV executive Ash attempts to hinder the project, while a jack-in-the-box-like John Oliver delivers a brilliantly needy performance down the line from New York.

Parkinson

BBC iPlayer
If you’d like to take a step back in time to see the king of British interviews meet the great and the good of the entertainment industry, you’ll be pleased to learn there are plenty of episodes of Parkinson available on iPlayer. A classic from 1998 features Billy Connolly discussing how he used an apple to try to help him sleep and David Attenborough offers an insight into the sex lives of the penduline tit. There’s a fascinating 1974 episode with Dr Jacob Bronowski, presenter of the landmark series The Ascent of Man, on his thoughts on moving to England in the 1920s, science and his philosophy, and a show from 1972 where David Niven talks about his reasons for moving from Hollywood to France.

Lady Chatterley

BBC iPlayer
Ken Russell directing DH Lawrence’s most infamous novel? And yet, this 1993 TV adaptation is tame. Joely Richardson and Sean Bean sizzle as Lady Constance and Mellors, but Russell seems more interested in the British class system than any country matters.

Chelsea Hotel

BBC iPlayer
First shown in 1981, Nigel Finch’s profile of Manhattan’s beatnik hangout is one of the great BBC documentaries. If, at the time, it was intended as a vérité snapshot of the hotel’s declining years, it now plays like an essential document of New York City bohemia, featuring astonishing appearances from Andy Warhol, William Burroughs, Quentin Crisp and the doomed pop star Jobriath.

Out Of The Trees

YouTube
A little-known 1975 TV pilot written by Monty Python Graham Chapman and Hitchhiker’s Guide writer Douglas Adams. Centred around two linguists (Chapman and Roger Brierley) travelling a dour UK stymied by snobbery and red tape, it’s not a lost comedy classic but a rare piece of TV history with the associated “values of the time”.

Silent Hill — Ascension

ascension.com
Based on the survival-horror computer game, this interactive TV series allows you to decide the outcome. With multiple storylines and new scenes added daily, the plan is to end up with a complete horror TV series built almost entirely by its audience.

Bosch: Legacy

Freevee
The world’s grumpiest private detective is back and little has changed from season one. Titus Welliver’s ex-cop turned gumshoe continues to frown, gripe, exert his strong moral code and bore everybody about jazz. Mimi Rogers remains a force as the no-nonsense defence attorney Honey “Money” Chandler. But given how much time this reboot spent on establishing Bosch’s daughter, Maddie, as a vital character in her own right, it’s annoying to see her so resolutely sidelined now.

Fat Friends

ITVX
The scriptwriter and director Kay Mellor, who died last year, was responsible for some of the most beloved TV dramas of recent years. This series (2000-2005) about a group of Leeds swimming club members is executed with her trademark wit and sympathy for her working-class characters.

All Creatures Great And Small

My5
Effortlessly combining good-hearted nostalgia with stories of weight and import, Ben Vanstone’s reboot of the James Herriot vet sagas is exemplary TV drama. If it was on BBC1 it would be as revered as Call the Midwife. Instead, into its fourth season, it remains a show that must be constantly foisted upon nonbelievers.

The Complete And Utter History Of Britain

ITVX
Miscatalogued for decades, this 1969 pre-Python comic confection from Michael Palin and Terry Jones has been unearthed by the ITV Archive team. Closer to Horrible Histories than Monty Python, it’s an absurdist chronicle of this island’s past and a parody of contemporary TV tropes. Jones and Palin take the role of various kings and serfs, but the biggest surprise is Roddy Maude-Roxby, whose eternally befuddled Professor Weaver is a work of eccentric comic genius.

Shining Vale

Lionsgate+
The first season of Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan’s blackly comic horror-drama was one of 2022’s hidden gems. A feminist rejig of Stephen King’s “haunted-writer” style, it landed Courteney Cox a perfect role as Pat Phelps, a struggling author and former addict who moves with her family into a possibly haunted 18th-century Connecticut mansion. Season two retains the original’s dark wit and uncanny malevolence but narratively it feels like a reboot. Mira Sorvino’s mischievous “ghost” Rosemary has returned, just not how you’d imagine.

Mosley

BritBox/ ITVX
Best known for sitcoms, in 1998 Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran wrote this four-part series detailing the ignoble rise of British Fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Undeniably ambitious, if a little creaky, it does attempt a more three-dimensional portrait of the man than the one in the recent Peaky Blinders.

Whitechapel

UKTV Play
Ben Court and Caroline Ip’s east London procedural was a modern-day penny-dreadful. Watching it again, it’s remarkable how Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis and Steve Pemberton kept a straight face as they were confronted with ludicrous plots about serial killers recreating historical murders.

The Bank Hacker

Channel 4/Walter Presents
After the brilliant IT nerd Jeremy Peeters (Tijmen Govaerts) wins a hacking competition, professional conman Alidor Van Praet (Gene Bervoets) enlists him in a grand plan to steal €350 million from a Frankfurt bank. What begins as a clunky attempt to do a Belgian Ocean’s Eleven gradually evolves into a power struggle between Alidor and Jeremy. Overlong at eight 50-minute episodes, there are still enough twists, turns and character reveals to keep you guessing to the end.

Elementary

Alibi
If your list of top five Sherlock Holmes portrayals doesn’t include Jonny Lee Miller then you’ve clearly never watched this much-maligned modern US reboot of the Conan Doyle adventures. The cases were admittedly more Columbo than Blue Carbuncle, but the dynamic between Miller’s deeply flawed detective and Lucy Liu’s ruthlessly intelligent Watson was complex, caring and utterly gripping. Holding hard to the rigorous conventions of network crime TV shows, yet with space to develop emotional themes and grand story arcs, Elementary remains one of the unsung TV classics of the 2010s. However improbable, it’s the truth.

When The Boat Comes In

UKTV Play
James Bolam proved a dramatic actor of rare talent in James Mitchell’s gritty North East drama about politics, poverty and the pit. As Jack Ford, a recently returned First World War veteran, he bears the preachy weight of Mitchell’s script with gravitas, agility and wit.

State Of Play

UKTV Play
Paul Abbott’s six-part 2003 drama about political corruption now seems rather quaint. No matter, as everything else is so spot-on, including expert plotting and a staggeringly good cast (David Morrissey, Bill Nighy, Kelly Macdonald, John Simm, James McAvoy and Marc Warren) fully committed to the mood of tense intrigue.

Silverpoint

BBC iPlayer
The first season was nominated for a Bafta but it still feels like this young-adult sci-fi drama has flown under the radar. Focused on a group of Northern Irish teenagers who discover an alien artefact at summer camp, it’s John-Wyndham-meets-Enid-Blyton but with bags of subtext about teenage technological alienation in the modern world.

The Chelsea Detective

Acorn TV
Adrian Scarborough is a national treasure and one of our finest character actors. If someone told you this diminutive, red-haired marvel now had a starring role in a cosy SW1 crime series you’d watch it immediately, yes? Well, you’re in luck. Scarborough plays divorced, houseboat-dwelling detective DI Max Arnold and while season one had the whiff of dozy daytime drama, season two is a marked improvement. That’s partly down to the arrival of the excellent Vanessa Emme as Arnold’s sidekick, DS Layla Walsh, but also Scarborough’s new-found ease with the role. Take the afternoon off and wrap yourself in its charms.

Vic Reeves Big Night Out

Channel 4
More than thirty years old but still replete with joy, Jim Moir and Bob Mortimer’s delightfully daft variety-show riposte to right-on alternative comedy has lost none of its ability to charm, dazzle or reduce the viewer to giggly hysterics. Apart from the laddish cruelty meted out to Vic’s assistant, Les, it’s all aged incredibly well.

The Reunion

Channel 4
Not to be confused with the rather rubbish ITV thriller, this is a delightful TV adaptation of Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez’s 2013 Edinburgh fringe hit about a ten-year school reunion. A bittersweet comedy of rekindled romances and new friendships, it is also refreshingly brief, at just three eight-minute episodes.

A House In Bayswater

BBC iPlayer
Scroll beneath the surface on BBC iPlayer and there’s always something interesting from the archives. A case in point is this fascinating early work from director Ken Russell. First transmitted in 1960, the 30-minute documentary follows the fortunes of residents living bohemian lifestyles in a five-storey Victorian townhouse in west London alongside the housekeeper, Mrs Collins. A mix of traditional documentary film-making fused with colourful anecdotes and stylised sequences, this entertaining and informative film is not only a time capsule of London life, it also demonstrates Russell’s distinctive storytelling style that he would carry through his long career.

Cheat

ITVX
When this tense and gripping drama first aired on ITV in 2019 it was stripped across a week so there’s every chance you may have missed it. Starring Katherine Kelly as Leah Dale, a Cambridge academic on the cusp of making tenure, her life is soon driven into chaos by her entanglement with Rose Vaughan (an excellent performance by Molly Windsor), an entitled and seemingly disaffected student who is always late and doesn’t take lectures seriously. After Leah accuses Rose of cheating and she consequently fails an exam, so begins a bitter feud between the pair that becomes increasingly dark and twisted as family members and even pets get drawn into a dispute that it’s clear will not end well.

Upright

Sky/Now
Much like its central characters, Tim Minchin’s road-trip comedy starts out as an utter mess and then matures into something admirable. Director, writer and star, Minchin plays the ironically monikered Lucky Flynn, a middle-aged musician transporting an upright piano across Australia to his childhood home. His partner, nemesis and reluctant passenger is foul-mouthed teenager Meg (Milly Alcock), fleeing an already cloudy past. Both are unhappy, both argue and both make you want to switch off after two episodes, but stick with it because gradually this odd-couple bicker-fest becomes curiously likeable and then quietly profound.

The Chalet

Channel 4
There are two excellent reasons to watch this six-part 2018 French-language thriller. One is for the sheer pulpy delight of an Agatha Christie-esque whodunnit set in the picturesque French Alps; the other is to revel in the none-more-Gallic sense of “l’ennui des vacances” (holiday tedium) that pervades every scene. The show is played straight, but the contrast between the bloody murders and the palpable air of dissatisfaction makes for utterly entertaining viewing. A highlight might be the young woman who complains to her boyfriend that he isn’t paying enough attention to her, while they are both being stalked by a serial killer.

Almost Paradise

Prime Video
Produced in the Philippines, with everyone apart from lead actor Christian Kane dubbed from Tagalog to English, this sunbaked crime series takes a while to adjust to. However, you will be rewarded with a laconic beach-front noir, with Kane perfect as a washed-up DEA agent solving crimes part-time from his seaside gift shop.

Sloborn

Channel 4
A small island in the North Sea is gripped by a deadly flu virus. Filmed a whole year before the 2020 Covid outbreak, Christian Alvart’s post-apocalyptic German-language drama follows immune teenager Evelin (an impressive Emily Kusche) as she watches her community become irreparably altered by the disease. Watched in the wake of our own pandemic, Sloborn can inevitably seem a little far-fetched, far closer to science-fiction than realism, but what it does capture perfectly is the sense of sadness and loss and how quickly a mood of fear, paranoia and distrust of authority can consume an entire society.

Oliver Sacks — His Own Life

Freevee
Filmed in 2015, when the author and neurologist knew he had only months to live, this is an extraordinary portrait of a flawed yet remarkable man that takes us from the darkness of his childhood to his many scientific breakthroughs with a daring, heartfelt honesty. There is even an unexpectedly happy ending.

Servants

BritBox
When it first aired in 2003, Lucy Gannon’s 19th-century mini-series went up against season two of I’m a Celebrity. As a result, few got to enjoy this irreverent below-stairs drama, which features an excellent cast (Shaun Parkes, Joe Absolom, Orla Brady) and crackles with the authentic ribald wit of the early Victorian era.

Lisey’s Story

Apple TV+
It starred Julianne Moore and Clive Owen and was directed by the great Pablo Larraín, yet this Stephen King adaptation from 2021 rapidly vanished from collective consciousness. While its elements of thriller, fantasy and grief memoir never fully cohere, this is a visually strange one-off show that perfectly captures Stephen King at his weirdest.

Salamander

Arrow Player
When it premiered on BBC4 in 2014, the Belgian crime drama came in for criticism. Some viewers hoped for something else wintry and sullen in the manner of previous subtitled Saturday night smashes The Killing and The Bridge. Instead they got a mainstream high-concept paranoid thriller set in searing sunshine. Starring a stylishly rumpled Filip Peeters as dynamic detective Paul Gerardi, who stumbles on a huge cover-up involving private banks and corrupt government officials, Salamander is nothing subtle ­— and that’s its strength. After wading through numerous modern slow-burn streaming dramas recently, it feels like a giddy breath of fresh air.

Maid

Netflix
Inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive, this beautifully paced series tells the story of a 23-year-old woman, Alex, who with her two-year-old daughter escapes an abusive relationship to start a new life. Failed by the system, she is left with nothing and tries to make ends meet in low-paid cleaning jobs while protecting her daughter, fending off her ex and dealing with her bipolar mother. Margret Qualley delivers an emotionally charged lead performance in a fantastic drama, with Alex’s mother played by Qualley’s real-life mother, Andie McDowell.

Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin

BBC iPlayer
In an age where there are seemingly fewer celebrities who haven’t made a travelogue series than have, the fact that Michael Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days still stands out as one of the very best is testament to just what a magical show this is. It originally aired in 1989 and Palin’s easy charm guides the viewer through a seven-part documentary based on the central premise of Jules Verne’s classic 1873 novel. Travelling on foot, by train, boat, hot-air balloon and even husky-driven sled, this remarkable series closely follows the trail of Phileas Fogg from France to Greece, India, China and the United States as Palin meets and interacts with local people, their customs and traditions along the way.

Little Dorrit

BBC iPlayer
Long before she was a global streaming sensation as Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix royal drama The Crown, Claire Foy took centre stage opposite Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen in Little Dorrit. When the series broadcast in 2008, Andrew Davies’ 14-part show didn’t receive quite the same attention as his previous Charles Dickens adaptation, Bleak House, which many put down to scheduling and 30-minute episodes. With BBC iPlayer you can go back and watch this fine programme at your own pace, which not only brings alive the timeless classic but also features a who’s who of British acting talent, including Tom Courtenay, Pam Ferris, Eddie Marsan, Andy Serkis, Maxine Peake and Jason Watkins, to name but a few.

Crashing

Channel 4 / Netflix
In 2016, Phoebe Waller-Bridge became the toast of the town after the comedy sensation Fleabag mopped up at award season and paved her way to stardom. Just a few months earlier though, she created Crashing, a comedy about “property guardians” (they’re not squatters) living and loving in a disused London hospital. Filled with much of Fleabag’s angst, dark humour and awkward self-reflection, the single series Channel 4 show may not have reached the heights of any of PWB’s other productions, but it is still an accomplished piece of comic storytelling set against the familiar backdrop of twentysomething urban-living. A refreshing new take on the flatshare sitcom, prepare for a quirky comedy overlooked by many.

The Leftovers

Sky/ Now
Despite having Lost’s Damon Lindelof at the helm and an impressive cast including Justin Theroux, Liv Tyler and Christopher Eccleston, HBO’s exceptional supernatural drama doesn’t have the profile it perhaps deserves in the UK. Based on co-showrunner Tom Perrotta’s novel, we are introduced to a world three years after a mysterious incident caused 2 per cent of the global population to disappear. The story follows grieving families as they try to cope in a world irrevocably changed by this “sudden departure” and they struggle to maintain some sort of normality as cults and conspiracy theories run rampant. A rare example of a show with an intriguing premise that gets better across its three seasons.

Russia 1985-1999 — TraumaZone

BBC iPlayer
Known for his distinctive — at times almost hypnotic — style of films, Adam Curtis is one of the most creative and celebrated British documentary makers, having picked up four Baftas. This fascinating seven-part series is subtitled What it Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy and consists of largely unused archival footage of the Soviet Union and Russia found in the BBC’s Moscow bureau. In a stylistic shift, Curtis uses captions rather than his usual narration to hold together what is a remarkably intimate and immersive piece of television, which brings alive a time of enormous change that would pave the way for the rise of Vladimir Putin.

Irma Vep

Sky/Now
Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep is an HBO comedy-drama based on his 1996 film of the same name. The eight-part series stars Alicia Vikander as Mira, a Swedish-born American actress looking to reinvent her career and reboot her personal life by travelling to France and taking on the role of Irma Vep, star of a French TV remake of the silent film serial Les Vampires. This show oozes class and style, with a beautiful Parisian backdrop to match the sharp script and fabulous direction. Although a TV series based on a film about a TV series based on a film series may sound confusing, viewers with a penchant for witty TV will be rewarded for making their way through the meta structure.

Back to Life

BBC iPlayer
This jet-black comedy drama about a thirtysomething woman returning to live with her parents in a seaside town after serving 18 years in prison manages 12 near-faultless episodes filled with loss and laughter. Led by an incredible performance from one of its co-creators, Daisy Haggard, it is driven forward by a razor-sharp script and beautifully paced as its protagonist, Miri, attempts to rebuild her life surrounded by hostile forces and unexpected twists.

Saxondale

Sky/Now
Such has been the success of Alan Partridge for Steve Coogan that some of his other works can get overlooked. Near the top of that list is this sitcom, first shown on the BBC in 2006-07 and starring Coogan as Tommy Saxondale, an ex-roadie turned pest controller with anger management issues living a life of rebellion in Stevenage. Thanks to his more level-headed girlfriend Magz (Ruth Jones), owner of a T-shirt shop, Tommy just about manages to function between outbursts that see him back in therapy. With appearances from Mark Williams, Greg Davies, Ben Miller and Matt Berry, this is a comedy with serious credentials in which Coogan again makes an unlikable character likeable.

Party Down

Starzplay
Party Down is up there with Arrested Development as a sitcom that was bafflingly underappreciated at the time but belatedly found its audience. It stars the future Parks and Recreation and Severance star Adam Scott as Henry, a once successful, unemployed actor forced to work for the Party Down catering company. Henry works alongside a bunch of other acting wannabes who — in a meta twist — were played by then largely unknown actors who are now, like Scott, comedy stars, including Lizzy Caplan (Fleishman Is in Trouble), Martin Starr (Silicon Valley) and Jane Lynch (Glee). Every episode centres on a single event that the Party Down crew are catering for, from a high-school reunion to a spoilt teenager’s birthday on a yacht. While the show lured me in with the brilliance of the main cast and the unfailingly funny writing, it really hooked me with the party hosts, played by such people as JK Simmons, Rob Corddry and — in the funniest episode — Steve Guttenberg, as himself. An absolute gem of a show that was cruelly cancelled after only two seasons in 2010, but revived this year for a third.

Better Things

Disney+/BBC iPlayer
Why didn’t more people talk about this great show? Sharp, uplifting and deeply moving, Pamela Adlon’s family sitcom is a delight. It centres on an actress as she tries to string together enough acting jobs to look after her three daughters as well as her dotty mum. Wholesome, gorgeously paced and led by a wonderful performance from Adlon, it’s one of television’s best-kept secrets.

Salt Fat Acid Heat

Netflix
Based on Samin Nosrat’s book of the same name, Salt Fat Acid Heat treats viewers to one of the simplest, most charming and genuinely authentic cooking shows on television. In a world overflowing with celebrity chefs vying for their place at the top table, each ready to add another twist to their culinary visions, this show is down to earth in style and substance. Based on Nosrat’s four foundations of good cooking, we visit Italy for fat, Japan for salt, Mexico for acid and California for heat. There is no shortage of mouthwatering food and awe-inspiring settings, but unlike some more high-concept cooking shows of the modern age, it is grounded in its presenter’s genuine passion for food.

Have we missed any of your hidden favourites? Let us know in the comments below