The 50 best TV series streaming online now in the UK

The best of the Scandi crime dramas to hit our screen in recent years, ‘The Killing’ is gritty and real with twisty plots and a brilliantly gutsy and complicated female lead, DS Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl). One of the best TV feminist icons ever, she is obsessive about her work and emotionally all over the place. And not since Sherlock Holmes with his deerstalker has a detective spawned a fashion craze like Sarah Lund’s jumper. Cath Clarke

Watch if you like ‘The Wire’, ‘True Detective’, ‘The Bridge’.

Stream right now on Netflix

Originally pitched as a loose spinoff from the American version of ‘The Office’, and employing a similar mock-doc style, the affectionately titled ‘Parks and Rec’ has transformed from a critically unloved ratings disaster to one of US audiences’ favourite sitcoms over seven increasingly impressive seasons. Set among the workers in a rural Indiana parks department, the show gently but smartly satirises local government and little-Hitler civil servants. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Office’, ‘30 Rock’, ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Stream right now on Netflix

The archetypal cult American sitcom, ‘Arrested Development’ follows dysfunctional family the Bluths after their property business goes bust and they have to move into their last remaining asset: the model home. While on the surface the show’s full of larger-than-life characters and madcap drama, the voiceovers and dialogue bubble with intelligent humour. Don’t forget: ‘there’s always money in the banana stand’. Kate Lloyd

Watch it if you like ‘Parks & Recreation’, ‘Seinfeld’, ‘30 Rock’.

Stream right now on Netflix

A pair of beloved comic actors, Michael Palin and Robert Lindsay both played it straight for Alan Bleasdale’s scorching 1991 satire. Inspired by the divisive antics of Liverpool Labour councillor Derek Hatton, the show casts Palin as an old-school leftie headmaster whose credentials aren’t radical enough for self-serving firebrand politician Lindsay. Beautifully written and performed, ‘GBH’ is scabrous, sarcastic and superbly entertaining. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Thick of It’.

Stream right now on All 4

The BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s frocksploitation classic can be blamed for everything from Bridget Jones – Helen Fielding was inspired by the show to pen her first bestseller – to ‘Downton Abbey’ (curse you, Austen!). This was the first show to make the olden days sort-of sexy, largely by having Colin Firth jump into a pond and emerge wet-shirted and gleaming. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Downton Abbey’, brewing sexual tension.

Stream right now on BBC Store

It would be easy to dismiss ‘Narcos’ as Netflix cashing in on a post-‘Breaking Bad’ lust for drug-dealer dramas. The show follows the rise and fall of Colombian coke kingpin Pablo Escobar from the point of view of a US drug cop. What makes ‘Narcos’ different from those that inspired it is that it’s a show to savour rather than binge-watch. Each character is both a hero and a villain in equal measure, and tension builds drip by drip throughout the slow-moving series. It will leave you genuinely keen to read up on Escobar’s story. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Cartel Land’, ‘The Wire’, coke.

Stream right now on Netflix

There’s no buzz quite like the one you get from watching powerful people fuck everything up – and ‘The Good Wife’ starts with a major fuck-up. It’s inspired by the aftermath of real-life high-profile scandals like Bill Clinton’s affair. Lawyer Alicia Florrick is forced to return to work after her husband, a former State Attorney, is jailed for political corruption. That’s just the start. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘House of Cards’, ‘Scandal’.

Stream right now on Amazon Prime 

This 2008 BBC drama follows the emotional turmoil of four middle-aged female friends as they enter into saucy affairs. That might sound very ‘Sex and the City’, but this is TV that will leave you shouting ‘no don’t do that!’ rather than 'you go girl!' Storylines featured in the show include the fallout from the September 11 attacks, euthanasia, infertility, disputed paternity and Alzheimer’s. ‘Mistresses’ is over-the-top and totally soapy in the most empowering way. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Gossip Girl’, ‘Closer’.

Stream right now on BBC Store

How do you make computer hacking sexy – or even interesting? The province of sweaty nerds bent over their bedroom computers, the practice has nonetheless inspired all sorts of hi-tech entertainment, from blockbuster movies to this thoughtful, compelling TV drama. Remi Malek plays Elliott, a depressed digital analyst hired by Christian Slater’s shadowy, all-powerful Mr Robot. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Matrix’.

Stream right now on Amazon Prime

Banishing all thoughts of the ropey Ben Affleck movie with one sweep of his stylishly booted, karate-kicking foot, Netflix’s all-new Daredevil draws directly on the Marvel comics to create a gritty tale of superheroic crimefighting in New York. A blind lawyer with a supernaturally heightened sense of hearing, Daredevil is less handy with a quip than your Thors and your Iron Men, but he makes up for it in smarts and sheer brute force. And the supporting cast – especially Vincent D’Onofrio’s heaving villain – are superb. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Avengers’.

Stream right now on Netflix 

On one level a gripping conspiracy thriller about the power of the nuclear energy lobby, on another one of the most heartbreaking explorations of loss ever filmed, this darkly beautiful 1985 miniseries remains one of the BBC’s most perfect productions. The late Bob Peck gives a towering performance as the Northern cop whose activist daughter is murdered by shadowy forces. His reaction to her death is unique and unforgettable – as is the show as a whole. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘A Very British Coup’.

Stream right now on BBC Store

The series that spawned a still-expanding nerd empire, as star Simon Pegg continues to boldly go where no Londoner has gone before (he’s just co-written the new ‘Star Trek’ movie) and director Edgar Wright prepares to unleash his latest, ‘Baby Driver’. The tale of two twentysomethings forced to pretend they’re dating in order to keep their pricey flat, the series is stuffed with movie references and in-jokes guaranteed to appeal to your inner spod. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Shaun of the Dead’.

Stream right now on All 4

When the first series of this sexy, druggy teen drama hit TV in 2007 it perfectly captured the hedonistic mood of British high-schoolers at peak nu-rave. Led by ‘About A Boy’ star Nicholas Hoult, the show launched the careers of Jack O'Connell, Dev Patel and ‘Game of Thrones’ star Joe Dempsie. While later plotlines became increasingly absurd, the first-generation cast brought us episodes – like Chris’s funeral, SOB! – that are burned into the minds of all noughties teenagers. This is one to watch for nostalgia alone. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Misfits’, ‘This is England’.

Stream right now on All 4

The set up for ‘Being Human’ sounds like a trippy episode of ‘Two Pints of Lager’: a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf move into a house together and struggle to come to terms with their afflictions. In reality, this BBC3 series is one of the best supernatural shows ever made by the BBC. Each character has real human depth. For example, when werewolf George (Russell Tovey) struggles with anxiety about accidentally killing people it’s genuinely heartbreaking. Plus, pre-‘Poldark’ Aidan Turner makes a very sexy vampire. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like sexy Guy Flanagan, ‘True Blood’, ‘Utopia’.

Stream right now on BBC Store 

For a few months in 2013, it seemed like everyone in the world was watching ‘Breaking Bad’ and wearing Heisenberg T-shirts. If you somehow missed that buzz: time to tune in. The show follows a chemistry teacher turned drug lord as he goes from good-guy-making-money-on-the-side to Very Bad Dude. Aaron Paul plays his loveable bro sidekick, and dodgy lawyer Saul is so captivatingly sleazy he got his own spin-off show. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘House of Cards’, imagining that you’ll one day become a criminal mastermind.

Stream right now on Netflix

R&B star Drake is such a fan of this east London drama that he offered to pay for a third season. Originally aired on Channel 4 in 2011, the show follows different groups of kids on an imaginary estate. Praised for being an authentic look at growing up in London, it stars grime artists Kano and Ashley Walters as local drug dealers working their way up the chain. Warning: it ends on a cliffhanger. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘The Wire’.

Stream right now on All 4

In this strange and absorbing mini-series, Elisabeth Moss plays a cop who returns to New Zealand to investigate the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl who's rumoured to be pregnant. Directed by Jane Campion – known for powerful ’90s film 'The Piano' – this isn't your typical police procedural; it's a seriously smart mystery, with top drawer acting (it also stars Peter Mullan and Holly Hunter) and an unexpected feminist undercurrent. Plus it's beautifully shot, with NZ's bleak and wild mountains forming an atmospheric backdrop. Gail Tolley

Watch it if you like ‘True Detective’, ‘Twin Peaks’.

Stream right now on Amazon Prime

The coming out of transgender father (Jeffrey Tambor) is the catalyst for an LA Jewish family to explore the ideas of family, sexuality, religion, relationships, parenting and identity in their own selfish way. It’s smart, funny, touching, fast-paced, highly addictive and with episodes only 30 minutes long, you can easily watch a whole series in a night. It’s truly the only reason you need to get Amazon Prime. Sonya Barber

Watch if you like ‘Girls’, ‘Six Feet Under’, ‘Portlandia’.

Stream right now on Amazon Prime 

The BBC’s first take on a John le Carré novel remains the finest adaptation of his work. Alec Guinness somehow manages to be both stately and shambolic as George Smiley, the British secret service agent who hides his steel-trap mind behind bottle-glass spectacles. But this isn’t just a spy story, it’s also a slow, sweet elegy for the passage of time, and a flawless character study of a unique and fascinating individual. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Night Manager’

Stream right now on BBC Store

'Fresh Meat' isn’t just the quintessential university sitcom (deal with it, ‘The Young Ones’) – it’s also possibly the funniest dissection of middle-class Britain in a generation. Set among six archetypal students at Manchester Uni – each totemic uni tropes, yet spun into loathsome anti-heroes a la ‘Seinfeld’ – the show ranges from first week to finals across four magnificently funny series. Oli Keens

Watch it if you like ‘Peep Show’, ‘The Inbetweeners’.

Stream right now on All 4

What’s the most depressing TV programme of all time? Okay, it’s Sheffield-set nuclear horrorshow ‘Threads’ – but the similarly apocalyptic ‘The Walking Dead’ runs it a close second. Inspired by George Romero’s original ‘Night of the Living Dead’ trilogy (via Robert Kirkman’s popular comics) the series is so relentlessly downbeat, gruesome (and we mean seriously, gut-flippingly gruesome) and willing to kill off its major characters that it really ought to be unwatchable. But somehow, it’s terrific fun. Tom Huddleston

Watch if you like ‘Dawn of the Dead’, seeing so much gore you feel queasy.

Stream right now on Amazon Prime

Imagine ‘The West Wing’ with Shakespeare’s Richard III in the Martin Sheen role and you’ve got ‘House of Cards’, a political drama so lip-smackingly cruel and nihilistic that it almost tips into outright farce. The serial offender is Kevin Spacey’s Southern senator Frank Underwood, whose to-camera monologues run the gamut from sly and creepy to just plain daft. Fans of manic overacting might want to steer clear – for the rest of us, this is pure juicy enjoyment. Tom Huddleston

Watch if you like ‘Veep’, the original ‘House of Cards’, really long monologues.

Stream right now on Netflix 

No sitcom has ever been quite as brutal about what it’s really like being in a long-term relationship (boredom, mutual loathing, exhaustion – not always) like London-set ‘Catastrophe’. Hilarious and often excruciating, it’s written by real-life friends Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, who star as a couple who decide to make a go of it after getting pregnant during a fling. East Londoners get the added bonus of spotting their ‘hood in every second scene. Cath Clarke

Watch if you like ‘Seinfeld’, ‘30 Rock’.

Stream right now on All 4

The new series has been criticised for its inconsistency and its tendency towards impenetrable conspiracy nonsense – but that was always the point of ‘The X-Files’. When it’s bad it’s really bad, packed with rubber aliens, sneering villains and painfully blunt dialogue. But when it’s good – which is more often than not – this is one of the great TV shows of recent years, romping through a ludicrously convoluted plotline with tongue firmly in cheek. Oh, and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson might be the best up-front double act since, like, ever. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Twin Peaks’.

Stream right now on Amazon Prime 

Take ‘Skins’ and smush it together with ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Daredevil’ and you’ll end up with something like ‘Misfits’. The short-lived Channel 4 comedy-drama follows a group of young offenders who bag themselves special powers after an electrical storm. What makes the series exceptional is the casting: a pre-‘Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon makes nerdy outcast Simon's transformation to full-blown superhero-heartthrob believable and Lauren Socha nails her dopey ladette character Kelly. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Skins’, ‘Utopia’, ‘This is England’, Channel 4 dramas in general.

Stream right now on All 4

Imagine your most naive, smiley, positive-thinking friend dealing with the reality of escaping a creepy religious cult to move to New York. Cool, you now have a basic understanding of the humour of ‘Kimmy Schmidt’. Written by Tina Fey, the show layers sugary culture clash funniness with cutting social commentary about race, homophobia and sexism in the city. It also stars stage actor Tituss Burgess as Kimmy’s flamboyant housemate Titus Andromedon. He has the single best musical number ever performed on TV. Two words: Peeno Noir. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘30 Rock’, ‘Mean Girls’, Katy Perry.

Stream right now on Netflix 

When the show first aired in 2005, the escapades of ‘self-facilitating media node’ Barley were just plain funny. A decade of mass hipsterisation later, they're now grimly prophetic. Set in the fictional, gentrified east London area of Hosegate – where the restaurants serve beer in gourds and the offices are staffed by tricycle-riding idiots – the show satirises London’s trendier-than-thou elite like no other. Sit back, binge, and keep it fuckin’ Mexico. Matt Breen

Watch if you like ‘Brass Eye’, ‘The Day Today’.

Stream right now on All 4

One of the most popular TV shows in the universe right now – especially in China, where women pen sackfuls of love letters to ‘Curly-Fu’, aka Benedict Cumberbatch’s cerebral detective. Updating Arthur Conan Doyle’s riveting stories to present-day London could’ve been a disaster, but writers Mark Gatiss and Russell T Davies nail the necessary tone to make it work: witty, a bit self-mocking, but thunderously fun to watch. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Doctor Who’, Benedict Cumberbatch.

Stream right now on BBC Store

‘Two graduates move into a flat in Croydon’ sounds more like a run-of-the-mill news story about gentrification than the set-up for Channel 4’s longest-running sitcom and that’s exactly why ‘Peep Show’ is so perfect. Starring David Mitchell as overconfident, socially awkward Mark and real life friend Robert Webb as clueless lothario housemate Jez, the series takes the ordinary and makes it so mad, horrifying and gut-wrenchingly funny that you can’t look away. Case in point: when Jez cooks and eats his crush’s dog. Kate Lloyd

Watch it if you like awkward situations, Alan Partridge.

Stream right now on All 4

Aziz Ansari both writes and stars in this romcom about a thirty-something bit-part actor finding love in Los Angeles. While that summary alone sounds cute, Ansari’s clever writing means the show has a whole other layer of biting social commentary. Each episode explores a deep theme, from immigration to old age and sexism, with some scenes taken straight out of the writer’s stand-up sets. It’s impossible to watch without falling a bit in love with Aziz. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like Aziz Ansari’s stand-up, ‘Community’, ‘Parks & Recreation’.

Stream right now on Netflix

The golden age of British sitcoms, the 1970s were stuffed with scalpel-sharp, beautifully characterised takedowns of social class and crumbling masculinity, none more so than the still-hilarious ‘Porridge’. Ronnie Barker comes on like everyone’s favourite uncle as Fletch, the wily old lag who takes Richard Beckinsale’s Brummie loser Godber under his wing. The episode where Fletch confronts the judge who convicted him – and who’s since been banged up for fraud – is one of the most powerful statements about British society you’ll ever see. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Rising Damp’

Stream right now on BBC Store

This ensemble comedy drama is easily one of Netflix’s most-loved Originals series. It follows middle class New Yorker Piper after she’s sent to jail for a drug crime she committed ten years ago. With an almost totally female cast, the series deals with race, transphobia, rape and gay relationships with bravery that’s lacking elsewhere. While Taylor Schilling plays Piper with snobby realism, it’s her fellow inmates, like hyper-religious hick Tiffany, who steal the show. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Girls’, ‘Prison Break’, shanking.

Stream right now on Netflix

‘Mad Men’ plays it cool and quiet, refusing to bow either to popular taste or audience expectations. But if you allow yourself to succumb to its unique mood of slow-burn drama, suburban panic and big-city cool, this might be the finest serious drama series of the age. Jon Hamm became an instant star as Don Draper, the advertising exec who can’t stay faithful to his wife and kids, and whose dark past informs his troubled, complicated, weirdly inspiring journey through the late ’60s and early ’70s. Incredible to look at and listen to and wonderfully challenging to think about, this is Cadillac TV. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Hour’

Stream right now on Amazon Prime 

Outrageously funny, endlessly quotable (‘I hear you’re a racist now, father’) and unexpectedly moving, ‘Father Ted’ remains the gold standard for controversy-baiting sitcoms. We lost another icon from the show recently – Frank Kelly, aka Father Jack, who’ll be bellowing at the angels – which only makes the original episodes more bittersweet. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Blackadder’.

Stream right now on All 4

Are you a feminist who loves to hate comic book movies? Marvel’s 'Jessica Jones' is the answer to your prayers. Played by Krysten Ritter, the character’s a tough, boozy private investigator with a dark past and a superpower. No PVC bodysuit in sight. She’s brilliant, but ‘Jessica Jones’ is more than just a one-woman show. The series features plenty of plot twists and one of TV’s most evil villains ever: Kilgrave, a mind controller who uses his powers to rape and torture civilians. He’s played by David Tennant. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Daredevil’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Orange is the New Black’.

Stream right now on Netflix

There have so far only been six episodes of Charlie Brooker’s ‘Black Mirror’ but it’s hard to think of many shows with as much cultural impact. Every episode has a standalone story that leaves you with that tingly I-need-to-talk-to-someone-about-what-I-just-saw feeling. Technology, shaming culture and reality TV all get a shakedown by these modern day fables. Plus, there’s that one episode where the Prime Minister is blackmailed into fucking a pig… Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like the pitch-black humour of Charlie Brooker.

Stream right now on All 4

Both series of Steve Coogan’s sitcom about the world’s least talented TV presenter are available to stream (as well as chat-show spoof ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’), and the first one – the one where Alan is desperate to get a new show after the collapse of his chat empire – is the best. Arguably the most quotable comedy series of all time (‘Kiss my face!’ ‘Monkey tennis?’ ‘Dan! Dan! Dan!’ ‘Half a pound of mashed-up Dundee cake’), it’s still almost unbearably acute and hilarious. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Trip’, the life and times of Steve Coogan.

Stream right now on BBC Store

If you love creepy, bloody and very dark humour, you’ll be a fan of ‘Utopia’. It’s a cult Channel 4 thriller that was cruelly cancelled ended after two series. It follows a motley group of people who find a graphic novel manuscript that’s rumoured to predict the future. Warning: I had the worst nightmares of my life after watching the whole first series on one hungover Sunday. Kate Lloyd

Watch if you like ‘Misfits’, ‘Black Mirror’.

Stream right now on All 4

The word ‘addictive’ gets bandied around a lot when it comes to TV shows, but as someone who’s watched every series of ‘Game of Thrones’ between three and six times now, I can safely say this show is as moreish as marshmallow-flavoured crack. And it’s not just the random violence that keeps the nerds coming back, or the dragons, or the buttocks, or the broadswords. It’s the characters – this has to be the most witty, thoughtful, beautifully written show on TV. The other stuff doesn’t hurt, though. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

Stream right now on NOW TV

Hands down the best TV drama this country has produced in the past decade, ‘This is England’ expands Shane Meadows’s semi-autobiographical movie about a 12-year-old skinhead into a loving, nostalgic but desperately sad look at Britain in the 1980s. The highlights are far too many to count, but special mention is due to the mighty Vicky McClure, whose intense, empathetic central performance is one of the best we’ve seen in any medium. The fact she’s still slogging on TV while Carey Mulligan swans round the Oscars proves how outrageously public-school-skewed the acting industry has become in the twenty-first century. Tom Huddleston

Watch it if you like ‘Tiswas’.

Stream right now on All 4

Netflix has announced its new releases for the coming months, and from the looks of things we won’t be leaving the house until August. There are remakes, new seasons of old favourites and some brand new original series.