Best British TV Shows of 2025
This page is updated regularly. Subscribe, so you don't miss new recommendations. The list of "Best British TV Shows of 2025" contains films with the following parameters. Style: tense, suspense, dark, intense, detective and psychological thriller. Plot: investigation, moral ambiguity, murder, small town, urban, betrayal, whodunit, murder mystery, police investigation and revenge. Genre: Drama, Crime and Thriller. Country: UK.
Best British TV Shows of 2025
TOP TV Shows: Adolescence (2025), Dept. Q (2025), This City Is Ours (2025), The Stolen Girl (2025), Toxic Town (2025), Man Vs Baby (2025), Missing You (2025), Hostage (2025), LOL: Last One Laughing UK (2025), Riot Women (2025), Prime Target (2025), Little Disasters (2025), What It Feels Like for a Girl (2025), The Hack (2025), Playing Nice (2025), Bookish (2025), Miss Austen (2025), Outrageous (2025), I, Jack Wright (2025), Amandaland (2025).
List of Best TV Shows
287K
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story:
The story of how a family's world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested and charged with the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.
Style:
detective, thought provoking, intense, psychological thriller, dramatic ...
Plot:
bullying, teenage boy, fatherhood, teenager, father son relationship, police, murder, murder investigation, therapist, truth, police officer, police station ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
england, britain, united kingdom
Is relevant?
107K
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story:
A brash but brilliant cop becomes head of a new police department, where he leads an unlikely team of misfits in solving Edinburgh's cold cases.
Style:
grim, detective, dramatic, suspenseful, witty ...
Plot:
female nudity, investigation, syrian refugee, cold case, police, guilt, police detective, refugee, police investigation, interrogation, therapist, criminal ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
scotland, united kingdom, britain, edinburgh scotland
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Michael has been involved in organized crime all of his adult life, working for his friend and the gang leader Ronnie. When Ronnie begins to hint at retirement, Michael too begins to imagine another life. Because, for the first time in his life, ...
Style:
crime drama, tension, romantic drama, suspense
Plot:
organized crime, gangster, mafia, crime family, underworld, moral dilemma, forbidden romance, redemption, moral ambiguity, loyalty, city life, urban ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
A mother-of-two whose world is turned upside down when she agrees to let her nine-year-old daughter have a sleepover at her new best friend's house.
Style:
suspense, crime drama, intense
Plot:
missing child, kidnapping, abduction, family crisis, anxiety, motherhood, secrets, investigation, grief, lie, panic, suburban life ...
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story:
When dozens of babies in Corby are born with disabilities, their mothers embark on a battle to hold those responsible to account.
Style:
tense, emotional, tragic
Plot:
toxic waste, social justice, legal battle, resilience, realism, investigation, ethical dilemma, pregnancy, small town, confrontation, political corruption, angry ...
Time:
2020s, 2000s, year 2009, 21st century
Place:
britain, england
Is relevant?
Genre: Comedy, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min.
TV show
Story:
After a disastrous experience housesitting a high-tech mansion hampered by an inconvenient insect in Man vs Bee, Trevor Bingley now finds himself looking after a luxurious London penthouse, with another unlikely companion he didn't ask for
Style:
slapstick, sitcom, situational comedy, family comedy, lighthearted ...
Audience:
family friendly
Plot:
baby, fish out of water, urban, parenting, heartwarming, responsibility, city life, personal growth, single father, mother, dog, christmas ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
london
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min.
TV show
Story:
When Detective Kat Donovan matches on a dating app with the fiancé who disappeared years before, she learns that some secrets are best left in the past.
Style:
detective, tense, dark, suspense, psychological ...
Plot:
family secret, missing person, cold case, online dating, grief, obsession, evidence, double life, betrayal, family drama, forensics, corruption ...
Is relevant?
18K
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min.
TV show
Story:
When the British prime minister's husband is kidnapped and the French president starts receiving threats, both leaders must face an impossible choice.
Style:
political thriller, suspenseful, tense, suspense, political drama
Plot:
french president, kidnapping, blackmail, investigation, hostage rescue, power politics, diplomacy, moral dilemma, betrayal, moral ambiguity, crime investigation, suspicion ...
Place:
united kingdom
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
Genre: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 40 min.
TV show
Story:
Famous for his dark humour, one liners and THAT laugh, Jimmy Carr challenges 10 of Britain’s funniest comics to spend the day together without so much as cracking a smile. The 10 comics use every ounce of their comedic talents to try and break ...
Style:
game show, tension, fast paced, light hearted, black comedy
Plot:
sarcasm, deadpan, improv, reality competition, dark humor, prank, satire, urban, stand up comedian, sketch, amazon, british humour ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Five women along with two riotous backing singers come together to create a makeshift punk-rock band in order to enter a local talent contest, but in writing their first original song, soon discover that they have a lot to say - and this is ...
Style:
comedy drama, uplifting, heartfelt, satirical
Plot:
punk rock, empowerment, female friendship, personal growth, identity, rebellion, resilience, feminism, small town, working class, community, female police officer ...
Place:
england
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
London is rocked by terrorist attacks as armed police shoot dead an innocent man on his way to work.
Style:
suspense, tragic
Plot:
true crime, civil rights, justice, investigation, urban, retiring, british politics, ethics, empathy, scandal, surveillance, media coverage ...
Time:
2010s, 20th century, 2000s, year 2007, year 2005
Place:
london
Is relevant?
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
A brilliant math student is on the verge of a major breakthrough when a shadowy enemy tries to stop him. Fighting for answers—and his life—he teams up with a government agent to unravel a high-stakes conspiracy.
Style:
suspense, twisted, noir, tense, sinister ...
Plot:
mathematics, cryptography, gay, gay interest, male nudity, conspiracy, cat and mouse, government agent, cybersecurity, espionage, hacker, intelligence agency ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
When Jess takes her baby to hospital with an unexplained head injury, her close friend, A&E doctor Liz, makes the excruciating decision to call social services, igniting an explosive chain of events.
Style:
medical drama, psychological thriller
Plot:
ethical dilemma, domestic drama, hospital, social services, moral ambiguity, isolation, legal investigation, small community, paranoid
Time:
2020s
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
To find yourself, sometimes you need to lose yourself. It's Y2K, and Byron's flirting with discovery and destruction, love and anarchy. Inspired by Paris Lees's raw, riotous memoir.
Style:
black comedy, satirical
Audience:
adult, teen drama
Plot:
coming of age, party, young adult, rebellion, streetwise, anti hero, underworld, working class, cabaret, camp, drug use, anger management ...
Place:
england
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Set between 2002 and 2012, the drama deftly interweaves two real life stories, the uncovering of phone hacking at the News of the World, and running parallel, the investigation into the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.
Style:
historical drama
Plot:
journalist, hacking, abuse of power, british politics, tabloid journalism, media, court, private investigator, newspaper editor, investigation, journalism, political scandal ...
Time:
2000s, 2010s
Place:
scotland yard
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Set against a sweeping Cornish landscape, two couples discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up, and face a horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child?
Style:
tense, twisted, melancholic
Plot:
switched at birth, moral dilemma, family drama, parenthood, identity crisis, body swapping, custody battle, moral ambiguity, bittersweet, social services, slow burn, son ...
Place:
cornwall
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Gabriel Book, proprietor of an antiquarian bookshop, relies on his vast collection to unravel baffling cases. He nurtures a group of lovable yet troubled individuals, providing informal protection and guidance.
Style:
contemplative, compassionate
Audience:
adult
Plot:
closeted homosexual, bookstore, second chance, small town, moral ambiguity, treasure hunt, whodunit
Time:
post world war two, 1940s
Place:
london
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Miss Austen takes a literary mystery – Cassandra Austen notoriously burning her famous sister Jane’s letters – and reimagines it as a fascinating, witty and heart-breaking story of sisterly love, while creating in Cassandra a character as ...
Style:
period drama
Plot:
spinster, brother sister relationship, death of sister, unrequited love, death of fiance, writing a novel, female writer, death of father, priest, moving, engaged couple, sister in law sister in law relationship ...
Time:
1830s, 1810s, 1790s, 1840s
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min.
TV show
Story:
Based on the story of the Mitford sisters, six sisters who refused to play by the rules and whose often-scandalous lives made headlines around the world. Set in the 1930s, it is a tale of betrayal, scandal, heartache and even imprisonment.
Style:
historical drama, family saga, period piece, costume drama, intense ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
scandal, biopic, sisters, betrayal, politics, sibling rivalry, controversy, english countryside, aristocracy, imprisonment, gossip, fascism ...
Time:
1930s
Place:
britain, london
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 44 min.
TV show
Story:
Explosive events unfold after Wright family patriarch Jack is discovered dead from a supposed suicide, leaving his immediate family utterly devastated.
Style:
suspenseful, tense, dark, cynical
Plot:
family drama, family feud, murder mystery, mysterious death, betrayal, greed, family secret, whodunit, police procedural, power struggle, interrogation, private investigator ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
london
Is relevant?
Genre: Comedy
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Post her divorce, Amanda has had to downsize and up sticks to South Harlesden, or as the Estate Agent calls it SoHa (definitely not the area around Wormwood Scrubs prison). With both Manus and Georgie now at secondary school, Amanda has to try and ...
Style:
humorous, family comedy
Plot:
single mother, social commentary, teenage rebellion, mother son relationship, city life, teen drinking, slice of life, downsizing, relocation, suburban life, working class
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story:
Ann Ming is distraught when her 22-year-old daughter Julie goes missing. The police suggest that Julie must have fled to London to reunite with Julie's estranged husband, but Ann knows that Julie would never leave 5-year-old Kevin behind.
Style:
suspense, dark, tense
Audience:
adult
Plot:
true crime, miscarriage of justice, murder, missing person, cold case, acquittal, grief, mother daughter relationship, police investigation, haunting, missing child, confession ...
Time:
90s
Place:
london
Is relevant?
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Secluded on a remote Greek island, retired assassin Julie has a somewhat thorny reunion with her estranged son, Edward, visiting from England. Armed with questions around new information on his paternity, Edward battles to find the right time to ...
Style:
tense, suspenseful, dark, intense, emotional ...
Plot:
conspiracy, assassin, on the run, mother son relationship, protective parent, family drama, mature, secrets, fatherhood, pursuit, escape, estrangement ...
Place:
greece
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min.
TV show
Story:
Follow the tale of nine strangers who find themselves lost in a remote Mexican jungle after their small plane traveling from Guatemala to the U.S. crashes. One by one, the survivors are murdered, leaving the remaining passengers to solve the ...
Style:
suspense, tension, slasher, dark, twist ending ...
Plot:
jungle, plane crash, whodunit, murder mystery, survival, suspicion, fear, paranoia, stranded, cat and mouse, isolation, countdown ...
Place:
mexico
Is relevant?
Genre: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min.
TV show
Story:
Thrown together by the murder of John's neighbour, John and Janie are an odd, yet hilarious duo with opposing instincts. Every week, they get to the bottom of gripping murders, with various stunning Welsh locations providing a backdrop to their ...
Style:
detective, suspense, tense, atmospheric, twisted ...
Plot:
murder investigation, whodunit, odd couple, police procedural, female detective, justice, mature, dark humor, small town, forensic, revenge, murder ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 28 min.
TV show
Story:
Partridge's life after returning to Norfolk from Saudi Arabia where he spent a year. His struggles to readjust to his hometown and reintegrate into society.
Style:
reflective, mockumentary
Audience:
adult
Plot:
socially awkward, newscaster, satire, deadpan, loneliness, identity, midlife crisis, media industry, fish out of water, small town, nostalgia, community ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
england
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min.
TV show
Story:
DCI Jeanette Kilburn and eminent psychotherapist Dr. Sophia Craven join forces to hunt the killer of young men. The investigation takes Jeanette and Sophia into a dangerous world of historic abuse and murder.
Style:
psychological thriller, intense, tense, suspense, dark ...
Plot:
psychotherapist, investigation, murder mystery, serial killer, justice, sexual abuse, female detective, haunting, trauma, revenge, moral ambiguity, violence ...
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
A 1950s true crime drama about Ruth Ellis, the last woman in Britain to be hanged. This startling story reveals hidden truths about Ruth's murder of her lover, the legal case surrounding it and those who were also complicit.
Style:
emotional, dramatic, intense, dark, bleak ...
Plot:
true crime, death sentence, biopic, moral ambiguity, execution, female protagonist, guilt, trial, jealousy, domestic abuse, scandal, accomplice ...
Time:
1950s
Place:
britain, london
Is relevant?
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
A murder mystery follows Canon Daniel Clement, as he tries to keep his fractured community together and catch a killer.
Style:
suspense, atmospheric, tense, melancholic
Plot:
small town, church, murder, investigation, whodunit, family secret, slow burn, red herring, moral ambiguity, intimate, religious hypocrisy, dark humor ...
Time:
80s
Is relevant?
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
TV show
Story:
Friday night. 7pm. Film Club Week 198. Evie hasn't left the house in six months after a 'wobble', and Film Club is her escape. A weekly chance to create a world of wonder, deck the garage out in whatever the movie calls for and spend ...
Style:
romantic drama, heartfelt, realistic, lighthearted
Plot:
confession, introspection, intimate, friends to lovers, bittersweet, unspoken love, slice of life, longing, ritual, coming of age, young adult, love ...
Time:
2020s
Is relevant?
Related movie lists
