Britbox may be leaving South Africa but great British TV isn’t going anywhere, thanks to Showmax’s distribution deals with the likes of BBC, ITV and Sky. So if you’re looking for the best of British TV, start here:
The big BAFTA winner: The Sixth Commandment
At the recent BAFTAs, Britain’s most prestigious TV awards, The Sixth Commandment was named Best Limited Drama, with Timothy Spall winning Leading Actor. The four-part BBC series also took home Best Limited Series at this year’s Royal Television Society Awards.
Spall plays Peter Farquhar, an inspirational teacher whose meeting with a charismatic student (Éanna Hardwicke in a BAFTA-nominated and Royal Television Society-winning performance), sets the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.
Anne Reid was nominated for a Leading Actress BAFTA as Ann Moore-Martin, Farquhar’s deeply religious neighbour, and fellow murder victim.
Now available to binge on Showmax, The Sixth Commandment has an 89% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Irish Independent calling it, “Not just a great true-crime drama – one of the best of the year in any genre.”
A fresh take on British comedy: Black Ops S1
Nominated for four BAFTAs in four years, Nigeria’s Gbemisola Ikumelo won her second this year, for Female Performance: Comedy for Black Ops, a six-part buddy cop comedy that’s now available to binge on Showmax.
Gbemisola plays Dom, a community support police officer asked to go undercover as a drug dealer with her partner Kay (Hammed Animashaun in a BAFTA-nominated and Royal Television Society-winning performance).
“Can you really make a hilarious comedy about police racism? … The answer – pretty miraculously – is yes,” says The Guardian’s 5/5-star review, calling the show “a pitch-perfect, star-packed joy.”
The BBC has already ordered a second season.
Helena Bonham Carter as an axed soap star: Nolly
Helena Bonham Carter was nominated for the Leading Actress BAFTA this year for her role in Nolly, which explores the reign, and fall from grace, of the inimitable British soap star Noele Gordon.
Available to binge on Showmax, the three-part series has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Guardian saying, “It’s a joy to watch this warm, thoughtful tribute to soaps, fabulous older women – and showbiz itself.”
Russell T Davies (It’s a Sin, Years and Years, A Very English Scandal) won the BAFTA Cymru Best Writer Award, while Mark Gatiss was up for Supporting Actor – Male at the Royal Television Society Awards, among other accolades for the ITV drama.
“I love you” in an Irish accent: The Lovers
Roisin Gallagher was nominated for the Best Female Performance: Comedy BAFTA this year for her performance in The Lovers as a foul-mouthed supermarket worker, who doesn’t care about anything until she begins an unexpected relationship with a self-centred political television broadcaster (Critics Choice nominee Johnny Flynn from Genius and Emma).
Directed by BAFTA winner Justin Martin (Together), The Lovers has an 82% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with London Evening Standard calling the six-part Sky Original “a brilliant rom-com with as much bite as it has heart” in their 5/5-star review. As they say, “This surprisingly gritty take on the genre is a must-watch.”
The Lovers is available to binge on Showmax.
“Michelin-starred TV drama”: Boiling Point S1
Following on from the multi-award-winning 2021 film of the same name, the BAFTA-nominated miniseries Boiling Point is set in a high-pressure restaurant kitchen. Picking up eight months after their mentor Andy Jones suffered a heart attack, the four-part BBC show follows head chef Carly and her team as the stresses of keeping the restaurant running bear down on them.
Boiling Point has already won the 2024 Casting Directors’ Guild Award for Best Casting in a TV Drama Series, thanks to a powerful ensemble led by Vinette Robinson, who won Best Supporting Actress at the British Independent Film Awards for her role as Carly in the movie, and eight-time BAFTA nominee Stephen Graham as Andy Jones.
Available to binge on Showmax, Boiling Point has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Daily Telegraph (UK) calling it “a Michelin-starred TV drama” and “highly stressful TV” in their 5/5 review.
British prison drama: Time S1-2
Tamara Lawrence beat Time S2 co-star Jodie Whittaker to win this year’s Royal Television Society awards for Leading Actor – Female, with Bella Ramsey taking home Supporting Actor – Female. They play inmates at a women’s jail who must confront the dangers and violence of prison life.
At this year’s BAFTAs, the four-part BBC drama was nominated for Scripted Casting and Editing awards, having won Best Mini-Series and Leading Actor (Sean Bean) for S1 in 2022.
Available to binge on Showmax, Season 2 has a 95% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Times (UK) saying, “It gets stronger and more moving with every episode.”
Metacritic’s #1 new show of 2023: Rain Dogs
HBO and BBC One collab Rain Dogs is MetaCritic’s best-reviewed show of 2023, with an 88% metascore from the critic aggregator site.
Double-BAFTA winner Daisy May Cooper stars as Costello Jones, a devoted mother, aspiring author, and peepshow dancer, who wants more for her young daughter. As Costello’s friends, Ronke Adekoluejo and Jack Farthing were nominated for supporting actor prizes at the Royal Television Society and Film Independent Spirit awards respectively.
Time hails Rain Dogs as, “A portrait of a fascinatingly unconventional family… The perfect balance of darkness, warmth, grit, and scathing British humour.”
The eight-part series is available to binge on Showmax.
British spy drama: A Spy Among Friends
Guy Pearce beat out co-star Damian Lewis to win this year’s Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor for his role in A Spy Among Friends as British intelligence officer Kim Philby, who had been secretly working as a double agent for the KGB.
Available to binge on Showmax, A Spy Among Friends was also up for Best Miniseries and Limited Series, as well as Best Actress for Anna Maxwell Martin.
Based on Ben Macintyre’s award-winning novel of the same name, the six-part ITV series has an 88% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As Irish Independent says in their five-star review, “If, like me, you have an unlimited appetite for old-school Cold War spy thrillers full of men in overcoats and hats, secrets being passed on inside rolled-up newspapers, conversations in coded language… this is one worth staying up late for.”
“Belfast’s answer to The Wire”: Blue Lights S1
Game of Thrones star Richard Dormer won Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Irish Film and Television Awards for his role in Blue Lights, which was also up for Best TV Drama, Best Script, and Best Actor (Martin McCann).
Set in Belfast in Northern Ireland, the BBC series follows three rookie police officers who find themselves up against criminal gangs, undercover agents, their own communities and even their own police force as they work to complete the last two months of their probationary period.
Available to binge on Showmax, Blue Lights has a 91% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with five-star reviews from both The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, with the latter calling the six-part series “well-crafted, fantastically tense, thrilling stuff,” and “one of the best shows of the year”.
Please sir, I want some more…
Showmax is also home to British gems like:
- Medical drama Malpractice, which earned Niamh Algar a Best Lead Actress nomination at the 2024 Irish Film and Television Awards
- Michaela Coel’s Emmy-winning drama series I May Destroy You
- Emmy-nominated action series Gangs of London S1-2
- Alex Rider S1-3, based on the bestselling teen spy novel by Anthony Horowitz
- C.B. Strike and C.B. Strike – Lethal White, based on the bestselling private detective novels by Robert Galbraith (better known as JK Rowling).
- True-crime documentary Libby, Are You Home Yet?, winner of Best Factual Series at the 2023 BAFTAs, and Without Sin, which earned Line of Duty star Vicky McClure a Best Actress nomination there last year
- 2023 Royal Television Award winners SAS Rogue Heroes, about the creation of the Special Forces Unit, and Funny Woman, starring Gemma Arterton as a beauty queen trying to make it as a comedian in London at the height of the swinging 60s
- Showtrial, which earned Celine Buckens BAFTA and International Emmy nominations
- BAFTA-winning Philip Pullman adaptation His Dark Materials
- BAFTA-nominated period romance Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones
- Reality TV phenomenon Love Island UK
