The standout aspect of 2018 on television was simply the proliferation of wonderful drama. I’ve had to exclude so much blistering merit from my own (highly subjective, as ever) top 10. So Bodyguard doesn’t (quite) make it, despite holding people rapt over August and September and reminding us what destination TV used to be. Similarly, Saga Norén has sadly had to bid farewell relatively unheralded. At least she got what counts, in the world of The Bridge, as a happy ending. We’ll miss her more than we yet know.
Real-life issues were tackled with great empathy, often with redemptive humour. Mother’s Day (BBC Two) had Anna Maxwell Martin nicely underplaying her role as Wendy Parry, who lost her son Tim in the 1993 Warrington IRA bombing; a truly memorable drama. And in a year in which transgender issues were often debated, I thought playwright Tony Marchant made a subtle, brave, funny and ultimately successful addition to the conversation in Butterfly. The Cry, while in the end moving on to a different story, will for long years mesmerise mothers with the simple horror of a screaming baby on a long-haul. The Mighty Redcar was a joy.
We are lucky to have had a year of head-and-shoulders-above-average police procedurals and thrillers. In any normal year I would have had little trouble in whacking Shetland and Endeavour on a list of the top 10 shows. We forget how spoiled we are; even Vera (also written by Shetland’s Ann Cleeves), absurdly written off by some, more than often hits a special spot. In these shows, we were also lucky to have such quality acting – Douglas Henshall, Roger Allam, Brenda Blethyn – to call upon just from the subs’ bench. Requiem, too, gave us many frissons: Lydia Wilson was terrific throughout.
I happened to love Sky Atlantic’s Succession, which does a similar job to Trust (making you hate, yet oddly empathise with, the squalidly rich). Relatively late in the day, we were blessed with Informer, standout newcomer Nabhaan Rizwan, and Ruth Wilson’s terrific three-part drama Mrs Wilson.
I reckon it was something of a points tie in the ongoing battle between streaming and terrestrial. The BBC continues to offer way too many self-congratulatory puffs and pricey idents, insisting to the point of lunacy on “balance”, and renaming its iPlayer radio “Sounds” (plus making it 11 times more difficult to navigate). On the plus side: Attenborough and teams (again), at least a semblance of balance, and some of the finest drama broadcast this year.
Both Netflix and Sky Atlantic are making and commissioning new and enthralling experiments every week: some don’t work, some assuredly do. There is still an excess of rip-off Buffys and teen-horror schlock – even if a few managed to imbue those genres with fresh wit and credibility (see the new Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). And Black Mirror, while less whimsical than when with Channel 4, doesn’t seem yet to be exactly reeling from its move to big-budget Netflix: this year Arkangel and USS Callister, the standout episodes, both terrified and told big truths to our febrile times, without ever – quite – losing a sense of Charlie Brooker’s raised eyebrow.
No single comedy could compete with the year-long grand guignol of Brexit, in which not one but two political parties tore themselves apart with (as they say) hilarious consequences. Mum, though, as ever, had me both laughing and cringing out loud. Sally4Ever (Sky Atlantic) was filthily funny. Damned raised its game yet again (Lolly Adefope’s Mimi a grand creation for our know-it-all snowflake age). The Good Place is an absurdly welcome visitor to E4. I’ll miss The Big Bang Theory, but it has probably now run its course. And the sublime This Country is the best thing since The Office.
The top 10 TV dramas of 2018
1. My Brilliant Friend
Sky Atlantic
The angsts, the joys, the tiny, found pleasures of young, clever women in 50s Naples. Utterly memorable.
2. Killing Eve
BBC Three/BBC One
This had me 30 seconds in, when Jodie Comer’s Villanelle knocked ice-cream into a child’s lap. Darkly sweet, funnily brutal, it just got better… and then Sandra Oh appeared, and it got better again.
3. The Assassination of Gianni Versace
BBC Two
A spectacular retelling by a great team of a serenely ugly young character – Andrew Cunanan, brilliantly played by Darren Criss – and the real woes he wrought.
4. Save Me
Sky Atlantic
Lennie James’s tour-de-force as Nelson “Nelly” Rowe, abetted by the great Suranne Jones, in a tale of a missing child, shot through with wit.
5. Money Heist
Netflix
The best subtitled show of the year, this Spanish drama about a clever-clever job gone a tiny bit wrong completely immersed the viewer in every character.
6. Patrick Melrose
Sky Atlantic
Benedict Cumberbatch allied his jolie-laide face and undeniable talent with the writerly skills of Edward St Aubyn.
7. Black Earth Rising
BBC Two
Hugo Blick’s complex backstory about the Rwandan genocide laid out the foulness in a quiet panoply. Rewatchable ad infinitum.
8. Vanity Fair
ITV
What a shame this was head-to-head with Bodyguard in the schedules. ITV’s big autumn drama undeservedly lost out (big-time): it was knowing and warm and witty and wise, and Olivia Cooke the perfect Becky.
9. A Very English Scandal
BBC One
Hugh Grant’s skill lent a playfulness the dark subject matter quite failed to warrant, which could have jarred. Instead, alchemically, it was just right. Lead into gold.
10. The Handmaid’s Tale
Channel 4
The Margaret Atwood chiller continued to grip and twist. Darkly, quietly brilliant.
Turkey
Collateral
BBC Two
David Hare’s doubtless well-intentioned state-of-the-nation thing unfortunately got pretty much everything wrong. A good cast hampered by a script from clunking, preachy hell, circa 1985, when Thatch was monstrous. Sample monologue: “Do you know what comes with a free market? Free movement of people. We can’t build hospitals and schools unless we have a dynamic economy and that’s never going to happen in fortress Britain.” Does anyone actually speak in such sentences?
