Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) 8.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 10, 1982A gang of Liverpool tarmac workers is out of a job, and the serial gives its men room to fail in different ways. Bernard Hill's Yosser might be the face of it, but the stories are strongest when the men try to hang on to a little dignity in front of the people who know them best.0
  2. 2The Singing Detective (1986)The Singing Detective (1986) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 16, 1986A hospitalized writer's boyhood memories, detective fiction, and life on the ward keep interrupting one another. Give Michael Gambon's Philip Marlow your full attention: the pleasure is noticing an image or a tune in one story and recognizing what it's doing in another.0
  3. 3Edge of Darkness (1985)Edge of Darkness (1985) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 4, 1985Start here if you want suspense with a human cost. A detective investigating his daughter's murder is pulled into the politics of nuclear power. Bob Peck has a way of making a pause feel more dangerous than a threat, and the grief in his performance gives the conspiracy its weight.0
  4. 4Tutti Frutti (1987)Tutti Frutti (1987) 8.0/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 3, 1987The Majestics are meant to be making a rock 'n' roll comeback. Watching this aging Scottish band try to make the tour happen is half the fun. John Byrne lets a joke sour just enough to show what the bandmates are scared of losing.0
  5. 5A Very British Coup (1988)A Very British Coup (1988) 8.2/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jun 19, 1988Ray McAnally's Harry Perkins comes into office with a disarmament agenda and finds entrenched interests ready to stop him. There's a chilly pleasure in watching the threats come wrapped in perfectly polite conversation. It's the pick for a political thriller that gets to the point.0
  6. 6Traffik (1989)Traffik (1989) 8.4/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jun 22, 1989A British minister, a Pakistani farmer, and a woman whose husband has been arrested each see a different part of the heroin trade. The shifts in perspective do the work: a policy that sounds sensible in one scene can look brutally shortsighted when the story changes hands.0
  7. 7The Monocled Mutineer (1986)The Monocled Mutineer (1986) 8.2/10 on IMDbFirst aired Aug 31, 1986Paul McGann brings a mischievous charge to Percy Toplis in this drama built around the British Army mutiny at Étaples. The performance is a reason to watch, and the story's disputed relationship to the historical record is a reason to keep the dramatization in view.0
  8. 8The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986)The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986) 8.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 8, 1986When Ruth finds out about her husband's affair, the setup sounds like a familiar marital drama. The pleasure is watching that familiarity curdle. The serial plays revenge with a nasty sense of humor, and its anger at the terms of the marriage gives the grotesquerie a point.0
  9. 9The Jewel in the Crown (1984)The Jewel in the Crown (1984) 8.4/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 9, 1984The final years of British rule in India are the backdrop, but start with Art Malik's Hari Kumar and what happens when the police take an interest in him. The serial takes time to let loyalties shift. That patience gives small gestures of solidarity or self-protection an unusual weight.0
  10. 10Brideshead Revisited (1981)Brideshead Revisited (1981) 8.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 12, 1981Jeremy Irons's Charles Ryder returns to the estate in wartime, then the story takes you back to the seductive summer he spends there with Sebastian. It's a slow watch in the best sense. The distance between the place he first fell for and the place he comes back to gives the lavish rooms their…0