KILL AN EVENING WITH A THRILLER
his tickets into this exclusive world, where peers and cabinet ministers mingled at Lord Astor’s Cliveden country house. Sophie Cookson is Christine, hardbitten but innocent, and Ellie Bamber is Mandy, her worldly-wise friend. One series
Upstairs, Downstairs AMAZON PRIME
The show that defined everything we want from period drama — sets dripping with wealth, sumptuous costumes, superheated stories and plenty of reassurance that, though it’s the rich wot’s got the money, it’s the poor wot has the fun. Gordon Jackson was Hudson the butler, keeping order at 165 Eaton Place — the father figure to the three maids and the household’s cook Mrs Bridges (Angela Baddeley). The show spans 30 years, from the late Victorian era to beyond World War I. The first series is in black and white but after a few minutes you’ll barely notice. Five series
Downton Abbey NETFLIX
Without Upstairs, Downstairs there could never have been a Downton. This time the butler is called Carson (Jim Carter) and the unmarried daughters of Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) behave far more scandalously than would ever have been permitted at Eaton Place. Dame Maggie Smith steals every scene she’s in as the Dowager Countess with a tongue dipped in acid, but there isn’t a weak character. Six series
Victoria AMAZON PRIME
Jenna Coleman is perfect casting for the tiny, imperious princess whose reign defined the 19th century. Her real-life boyfriend Tom Hughes is Prince Albert. Written by novelist Daisy Goodwin, each episode draws closely on real events such as the Corn Law riots and London’s cholera outbreak. There’s a dusting of romance as servants fall in love with aristocrats, princes scheme to marry wealthy duchesses, and the young queen finds herself inexplicably drawn to her wolfish Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell). Three series
Brideshead Revisited AMAZON PRIME
This 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel is perhaps the greatest costume drama of all time. Jeremy Irons is Charles Ryder, an undergraduate at Oxford who forms an intense friendship with hedonistic Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews). Flyte loathes his family but insists on taking Charles to their country estate ‘to meet mummy’, but it is Sebastian’s sister Julia (Diana Quick) who really catches his eye. Laurence Olivier plays Lord Marchmain and John Gielgud is Charles’s snobbish, small-minded father. One series
The Jewel In The Crown AMAZON PRIME
A sensational staging of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet, a portrait of the disintegration of British rule in India and the social upheavals this brought. Among a stupendous cast, Tim Pigott-Smith stands out as the bigoted policeman Merrick, who has a young, privately educated Indian man named Hari (Art Malik) arrested and beaten following the rape of a British woman. One series
The Darling Buds Of May SKY GO
David Jason is at his most rascally as Pop Larkin, a Kentish farmer in the late 1950s whose schemes on the side keep his family in comparative luxury. Pam Ferris is Ma Larkin, but all the media attention at the time was focused on newcomer Catherine Zeta-Jones as their daughter Mariette. Three series
Catherine The Great NOWTV/SKY
Helen Mirren defies age to play the Russian empress, three decades younger than herself, in this opulent drama. Gina McKee is the scheming courtier, Richard Roxburgh is the queen’s discarded lover and Jason Clarke, as the dashing soldier Potemkin, is her next love interest. One series
Deadwood NOWTV/SKY
For scene-stealing and sheer relish, no one can outdo Ian McShane who fulminates and erupts his way through the Wild West here. All the characters are based on real people: McShane plays Al Swearengen, the saloon keeper who wages a constant war against town sheriff Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) – until the two have to face a bigger enemy in oil and gold baron George Hearst (Gerald McRaney). Three series
Boardwalk Empire NOWTV/SKY
Before Peaky Blinders there was Nucky Thompson and his illegal liquor racket in Prohibition America. Nucky is a politician but he’s surrounded by gangsters including Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. Steve Buscemi plays the corrupt treasurer in Atlantic City, whose ruthless business instincts are undermined by a weakness for forcing his help on people when he thinks they need it. Kelly Macdonald is the woman he saves from an abusive marriage, who becomes his mistress. Five series
Mad Men NETFLIX
Jon Hamm radiates charisma as advertising exec Don Draper who masks a secret: he stole his identity from a dead officer in the Korean War and watches his life as if it’s happening at a distance. But his efforts to fill the void destroy his comfortable existence as he betrays his wife and clients. January Jones is his wife Betty, the fairytale bride who hates living happily ever after, and Elisabeth Moss is copywriter Peggy Olson — Mad Men’s real heroine. Seven series
CRIME SHOWS TO DIE FOR
Line Of Duty NETFLIX
Now we’re sucking diesel! Northern Irish actor Adrian Dunbar became an unlikely hero as Superintendent Ted Hastings, the officer in charge of investigations into police corruption at AC-12. Martin Compston and Vicky McClure star as his underlings on the trail of the mysterious ‘H’. Five series
Sherlock NETFLIX
Benedict Cumberbatch brings the archetypal detective up to date, with smartphones and nicotine patches instead of the classic briar pipe. Martin Freeman is his Dr Watson, and writer Mark Gatiss tries to upstage both of them as Sherlock’s prissily camp big brother, Mycroft. Four series
Love/Hate RTE PLAYER
A chance to go back in time to the very begining when John Boy Power ruled the roost and that cat hadn’t been killed by Barry Keoghan. Love/Hate now resembles a who’s who of our celebrated acting stars, from Robert Sheehan to Killian Scott. And it’s still the most gripping show to have come from RTE, Five series
Death In Paradise RTE PLAYER/NETFLIX
Ben Miller was Richard Poole, the first fish-out-of-water British detective on the Caribbean island of St Marie. He was followed by gangling Humphrey Goodman, played by Kris Marshall, who handed over to Ardal O’Hanlon. The baton has now passed to Ralf Little as DI Neville Parker. Each detective is a misfit, riddled with quirks but supremely gifted at solving quirky crimes. Nine series
Wallander/NETFLIX
Kenneth Branagh is the veteran detective fighting rising crime in Ystad, Sweden, while trying to recover from a brutal divorce. The world isn’t how it used to be, and Wallander isn’t getting any younger. But he can’t afford to give in to despair: someone has to stop evil from taking over. Four series
The Missing/Baptiste AMAZON PRIME
Julien Baptiste, the mournful, obsessive policeman with a limp who specialises in abduction cases, won an ardent following from two series of The Missing, which earned actor Tcheky Karyo a spin-off series set primarily in Amsterdam. But there’s so much else that is great about these shows. James Nesbitt surprised with the power of his performance as a father who loses his child in the first series of The Missing, but David Morrissey and Keeley Hawes are arguably even better in the second as the parents of a daughter who unexpectedly appears after years held captive by a monster. Three series
Darklands VIRGIN MEDIA PLAYER
If it’s a gangland thriller you’re after, lookout for this cautionary tale about a young mixed martial arts fighter, Darren, who wants to be at the top of his game. He idolises his older brother Wesley but when Wes disappears after a drugs bust, it has disastrous consequences for the whole family. One series
Poirot/Miss Marple ITVHUB
No one embodies Poirot more than David Suchet. Every one of Agatha Christie’s novels and short stories featuring the pompous little Belgian sleuth has been adapted for him. BritBox has three Miss Marples for you too — Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie. 27 series
Father Brown RTE PLAYER
Mark Williams has never been better than as the portly priest from G.K. Chesterton’s 1950s detective stories. There’s a humanity to this character that’s rare in crime series — Father Brown wants to catch the killers so that he can save their souls. Seven series
Endeavour/Inspector Morse/ Lewis ITV HUB
Inspector Morse came first in the 1980s and 1990s, with John Thaw as the operaloving grump, with a taste for real ale and cryptic crosswords, solving crime in Oxford. Sidekick Lewis (Kevin Whately) graduated to his own series after Morse died, and now Shaun Evans is exploring Morse’s early years in the detailed Endeavour. 25 series
Broadchurch SKY
David Tennant is an embittered Scottish detective in a south coast town when a child is found dead at the foot of cliffs. Olivia Colman, in the role that made her a household name, is the detective sergeant who sees the best in everyone and pays a terrible price. The second and third series of Chris Chibnall’s thriller divided opinion, but the verdict on the first was magnificent. Three series
The Sopranos NOWTV/SKY
What a brilliant concept. A Mafia boss suffering from panic attacks goes to see a shrink, and enjoys talking about himself to the female psychiatrist so much that he stays in therapy for years. It’s not his work that’s causing the stress, it’s his family, especially his vindictive mother and smug uncle, who barely treat Tony (James Gandolfini) as an adult. And as fast as he solves one psychological problem, another arrives. It’s enough to drive a gangster crazy — whatcha gonna do? Seven series
Top Of The Lake NETFLIX
Elisabeth Moss plays traumatised policewoman Robin Griffin, returning to the rural New Zealand town where she grew up after a difficult case. She discovers that the family who used to throw their weight around when she was a teenager are still in charge — and now she’s older Robin can see layers of corruption and criminality she had only sensed before. But how can one off-duty officer bring down the local kingpin? Peter Mullan is especially menacing as the greedy, vicious gangster. In the second season, Robin returns to Australia and is paired with Gwendoline Christie to investigate a case with undercurrents of human trafficking, with a barely recognisable Nicole Kidman in a terrific cameo. Two series