How did 2025 stack up on the (increasingly large) small screen? Was it a vintage year? Well, it produced dramas that led to questions in parliament, shows that had us all revelling in duplicity, and series that wondered about the fulfilment of desire. It had feted documentaries, surrealist curios and returning comedies growing in stature. There have been starry names, big-time writers and emerging teenagers. And the UK, its productions having dominated the previous year, has strengthened its grip on the zeitgeist with TV that got the world talking.
Below is our pick of the 20 best shows that 2025 had to offer.
20. The White Lotus
Sky Atlantic
Some online commentators took great pleasure in claiming that the third season of Mike White’s The White Lotus had dropped off in quality. Whether it was the anti-climactic theme music (minus, this time, the Italianate warbling) or the incest plotline, this Thailand-set edition attracted a fair amount of snobbish murmuring. Much of that, I suspect, was contrarianism. White once again delivered a vicious satire of the super-rich, using their vanity and insecurity to supercharge the multilayered plot. Assembling some of the best talent on TV – Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins and Jason Isaacs the highlights this time – White has created a replicable formula that isn’t showing any signs of diminishing returns. Nick Hilton
19. The Four Seasons
Netflix
Landing just as my own midlife crisis was looming, Tina Fey’s adaptation of Alan Alda’s 1981 film felt like a calming balm, a sort of ode to the ennui of existence. It follows three middle-aged couples through four seasonal getaways, their longstanding friendships tested when one marriage collapses. From this set-up, Fey and co-writers Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher mine gentle laughs about mortality while allowing a wistful quality to permeate virtually every scene. The cast are all sublime: Steve Carell and Colman Domingo, especially, deliver performances of great warmth and nuance. This is a tender slow-burner that will surprise you. Patrick Smith
18. Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home
BBC One
What was conceived as a 10-part documentation of the Osbournes’ move back to England turned into a deeply emotional and intimate memorial following Ozzy’s sudden death in July. Filming him over three years, the cameras capture not only the relocation to Buckinghamshire, in all the family’s characteristically chaotic glory, but also the lead-up to Ozzy’s farewell concert, 17 days before his death. It’s a wonderful portrait of undying love, filtered through mortality’s lens and shot with a cinéma vérité style, as one of our greatest rock icons takes his final bow. PS
17. Down Cemetery Road
Apple TV
Before he became famed for the book series that gave us Slow Horses, with Gary Oldman playing his slovenly spy Jackson Lamb, the novelist Mick Herron wrote Down Cemetery Road, about an Oxford private eye called Zoë Boehm. Here, in Morwenna Banks’s adaptation, she’s played brilliantly by a terse, spiky-haired Emma Thompson; Ruth Wilson is the art restorer who hires Zoë after a gas main explodes on her quiet street, blowing open a vast conspiracy. The sense of paranoia metastasises deliciously, while the dialogue crackles with arch, Herronian humour. Another triumph for Apple TV. PS
16. Severance
Apple TV
Apple’s stylish, enigmatic psycho-thriller returned this year, carrying a huge burden of expectation. At its worst, Severance is wilfully obscure and appears to be careening down a rabbit hole of its own creation – but at its best, there’s no show more satisfying. The plot is compelling, the depiction of human nature insightful, and, in the figures of Mark S (Adam Scott) and Helly R (Britt Lower), we have a pair of star-crossed lovers for the ages. It might have left a frustrating number of questions unanswered, but Severance’s second series concluded with the sort of dazzling aplomb you’d expect from the Choreography & Merriment department. NH
15. Once Upon a Time in Space
BBC Two
Following on from acclaimed series looking at Iraq and Northern Ireland, the Once Upon a Time documentary franchise blasted off in a new direction with a look at the final frontier: space. For those worried this would prove too big a tonal departure, their fears were swiftly allayed. Charting the space race from the Cold War to the present day, the show balanced the testimonies of astronauts (and their families) with broader geopolitical themes. There’s nothing random about the choice of subject: a rush to commercialise outer space has precipitated a new space race, this time being fought between oligarchs as well as nation states. Once Upon a Time in Space neatly demonstrated the smallness of the human ego when faced with the vastness of space. NH
14. Hacks
Sky Comedy
No television double act is as hilariously toxic and co-dependent as veteran Vegas stand-up Deborah Vance (played by 74-year-old Jean Smart) and her Gen Z joke-writer Ava Daniels (comedian Hannah Einbinder, 30). The pair returned this year in the fourth series of this brilliant generation-clash comedy, after both picking up Emmys for its third run. The standard didn’t drop: betrayal, self-destruction and mutual redemption were all woven into a patchwork that mixed pathos with zinging punchlines. Hacks may just be the best comedy currently on TV: a fearless saga that tackles the culture wars with waspish wit and intelligence. PS
13. Amandaland
BBC One
TV shows that spin off to follow a single character don’t have an especially rich history (for every Frasier, there are plenty of Joeys). And with Amandaland, the BBC did something ever rarer: they took the antagonist of the acclaimed sitcom Motherland and made her the main character. Of course, Lucy Punch’s Amanda was never really the villain (Anna Maxwell Martin’s Julia was, actually, one of TV’s great monsters). She’s a vain, insecure and ultimately pathetic figure, who is given the chance to redeem herself after divorce leads her to the (relative) penury of life in Harlesden. Punch’s performance – and that of Joanna Lumley as her mother – gives real pathos to Amanda’s myriad plights, not to mention that their comic timing remains impeccable. NH
12. What It Feels Like for a Girl
BBC Three
In a year that has seen continued degradations of the rights of British trans people, the success of What It Feels Like for a Girl will be cold comfort. But this adaptation of Paris Lees’s memoir, featuring a star-making performance from Ellis Howard, was engaging, edgy, and, ultimately, empathetic. Telling the story of a teenager, Byron, in Hucknall slowly coming to terms with their gender identity and finding their tribe in the process, the show meticulously avoided cliches or sentimentalising Byron’s struggle. It was squirrelled away somewhat on BBC Three (and iPlayer) but deserved a wider audience. Whether the BBC have the confidence to make a show like this in the future remains, worryingly, to be seen. NH
11. The Last Musician of Auschwitz
BBC Two
On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau came Toby Trackman’s remarkable documentary. Named in honour of 99-year-old cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the only surviving member of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz, it deftly weaves in her testimony with archive footage and extraordinary performances of music composed within the camp’s perimeters. At its core lies a devastating paradox: how beauty can be created amid unspeakable horror. While the orchestra was forced to play, their fellow inmates burned alive, the music becoming indelibly tied to death and destruction. Emerging from Trackman’s unique film unmoved was impossible. PS
10. The Celebrity Traitors
BBC One
From the moment the BBC launched its Traitors format in 2022, people were noting how ripe it was for a celebrity edition. That duly arrived in October this year, with an A-list cast (Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Clare Balding et al) who played the game with the same over-zealous commitment as the civilian version (just with more intentional jokes). All the same weaknesses of the format were present (what incentive is there to unearth a traitor in the early rounds?), the challenges were just as inane, but the magic of the roundtables was also, heroically, retained. And in Alan Carr, the show had one of its best ever contestants, elevating the TV host from gratingly ubiquitous small-screen presence to a genuine national treasure. NH
9. The Death of Bunny Munro
Sky Atlantic
A late entry, this. Based on Nick Cave’s 2009 novel, this is the sordid story of one man’s descent into hell: a gothic odyssey of the south coast as a father, following the suicide of his wife, takes their nine-year-old son on a depraved road trip. In the title role, Matt Smith is exceptional, all unctuous charm and alcohol-drenched delusion as a travelling beauty salesman. As Bunny Junior, meanwhile, Rafael Mathé is Bafta-worthy, his performance encapsulating hope and a quiet melancholy. Directed by Isabella Eklöf with dream-like photography, it’s a modern-day parable of sorts, finding a flickering light in humanity’s darkest corners. Tough but essential viewing. PS
8. Here We Go
BBC One
In my household, we’ve become rather obsessed with Tom Basden’s cheerfully hapless Robin, a member of Here We Go’s fabulous ensemble. You know a character has got under your skin, when you start referring to your workday as “boring as a book”. This third season was every bit as good as the previous instalments, offering meaty plotlines to Jim Howick’s new police officer Paul, Freya Parks’s feckless 20-nothing Amy, and Alison Steadman’s rivetingly oblivious granny Sue. Best of all, Here We Go is a cross-generational crowd-pleaser, the sort of show that was made for binge-watching at Christmas, briefly distracting teenagers from Fortnite and grandparents from the “Remember the Sixties?” Facebook page. NH
7. The Chair Company
Sky Comedy
Trust Tim Robinson to find comedy gold yet again in social discomfort. The former Saturday Night Live writer-performer breathed new life into the American sketch show with l Think You Should Leave, a delightfully strange masterclass in post-postmodernist humour. And here, with The Chair Company, a hybrid comedy-thriller full of scattershot storytelling and hilarious slapstick, the emphasis is once more on cringe. Starting off as a workplace comedy that revolves around the hapless staff of a property development firm, the eight-part series gleefully metamorphoses into a conspiracy caper that fuses the banal and the bizarre. The result is funny, unnerving at times, and positively thrumming with low-key existential despair. PS
6. The Studio
Apple TV
Seth Rogen is flying dangerously close to over-exposure, having led two Apple shows (The Studio and Platonic) this year, as well as guesting on two of the most talked about comedies, Nobody Wants This and Hacks. But with The Studio, a frantically paced, superbly observed satire of Hollywood’s vapid entertainment industry, he has done his best work. As both the lead actor – the show clings to Rogen’s studio head, Matt Remick, like an Oscar night dress – and co-writer, with Evan Goldberg, Rogen has created the smartest workplace comedy since Veep. What’s more, The Studio is proof that not every sitcom needs to look like s*** (take note, Netflix): even while it is sending up the excess of Tinseltown, The Studio displays a craftsmanship that shows obvious, counterbalancing, reverence for the magic of cinema. NH
5. Riot Women
BBC One
From the mighty pen of Sally Wainwright, the revered writer of Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, came this rumbustious drama about a group of menopausal women who form a punk band. Sprinkled throughout with humour across the light-and-dark spectrum, this story of friendship, resilience and full-throttled female rage is told with vim and poignancy. Anchoring it all are tremendous performances, with a leopard-print-clad Rosalie Craig positively volcanic and Joanna Scanlan as a woman on the brink of suicide. This is Wainwright at her best – and most personal. PS
4. Dying for Sex
Disney Plus
Who knew a show about a woman with terminal cancer embarking on a sexual odyssey could be so life-affirming? Based on a podcast, here is a series that could have easily wound up manipulative and maudlin, yet instead it wrings pure joy from catastrophe. Yes, you’ll cry, but an exercise in lachrymosity this is not. As Molly, whose mission to experience the perfect orgasm takes in mass orgies, cock cages and a dominatrix awakening, Michelle Williams is sensational, a beacon of vulnerability, hilarity and dogged determination. No less impressive are Jenny Slate as Molly’s best mate, and Rob Delaney as her gross but lovable neighbour. By the end of this hugely sex-positive eight-parter, those hot, gulping sobs will have been earned. PS
3. The Rehearsal
Sky Atlantic
The Rehearsal is a show that needs to be seen to be believed – or even understood. Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder has been given vast swathes of HBO/Sky money to stage elaborate rehearsals of social events, notionally to smooth that process for the chronically awkward. In its first series, that was a fun, tricksy premise. But in the second series, Fielder takes the show much, much further. He decides to solve the problem of aviation disasters. The series opens with a genuinely harrowing montage and then charges through six episodes – featuring a pilot singing competition (Wings of Voice), Captain Sullenberger rocking out to Evanescence, and an incredibly detailed recreation of George Bush Intercontinental Airport – that consistently defy expectations. But it is in the finale that Fielder really sticks the landing, delivering an immensely satisfying punchline to the series-long joke. Whether it’s a comedy, a documentary, or performance art, The Rehearsal’s sophomore season is a TV masterpiece. NH
2. Big Boys
Channel 4
Jack Rooke’s coming-of-age sitcom about best friends Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) and Danny (Jon Pointing) concluded at the start of 2025. The show has been a quiet triumph for Channel 4, assembling devoted fans from its candid look at sexuality, its emphasis on compassion (in a less than compassionate world), and its frequently hilarious deployment of pop cultural arcana. That the finale also managed to be heartbreaking in its raw depiction of grief demonstrated that the very best comedies can achieve moments of extraordinary, rending poignancy. NH
1. Adolescence
Netflix
The year’s most talked-about show. For at least a month, every conversation seemed to be dominated by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s groundbreaking drama about teenage toxic masculinity. Maybe it was because of the audacious single-shot cinematography. Or perhaps it was the terrifyingly real premise that saw social media drive a 13-year-old boy to fatally stab a female classmate. Or could it have been the astonishing performances, not least from the youngster Owen Cooper, who would later win an Emmy for his efforts? Yes on all counts. Like a blow to the solar plexus, the emotional heft of this British drama will stay with you. PS
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