T he Including WandaVision best shows Succession I Hate Suzie streaming Staged Normal People right now Small Axe Fantastic shows at your fingertips THERE HAS NEVER been a better time to find your new favourite show, with more content available at the press of a button or the swipe of a screen than ever before. Traditional broadcasters continue to add more shows to their catch-up services every day, while a raft of new subscription streaming services has flooded the TV market, bringing us a wealth of gripping dramas, out-of-this-world sci-fi, insightful docs and exciting entertainment formats. But with such a vast choice available, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. But never fear, our expert editors have done the hard work for you, selecting 50 of the very best shows designed to suit every taste that you can watch right now. Contributors So sit back, stop scrolling and start Eleanor Bley Tim Glanfield Griffiths Grace Henry watching great TV… Flora Carr Morgan Jeffery David Craig Lauren Morris Patrick Cremona Michael Potts Tim Glanfield Helen Daly Minnie Wright Huw Fullerton Editorial Director RadioTimes.com The Last Kingdom FOR HALF A decade fans have Dreymon gives an electric been gripped by The Last Kingdom, performance in the lead role an epic historical drama that and the series is at its strongest follows noble warrior Uhtred of when his fierce fighter shares the Bebbanburg in the dangerous years screen with David Dawson’s pious prior to the formation of England. King Alfred (later to be known as Based on the novels by Bernard “the Great”). The Last Kingdom Cornwell (Sharpe), this series maintains a brisk pace across its blends fact and fiction to create an four seasons, so expect plenty of action-packed medieval saga that shocking twists, bitter rivalries and rivals Game of Thrones. Alexander epic confrontations. DC WATCH UK/US Netflix US HBO Max WATCH UK BBC iPlayer His Dark Materials ADAPTING PHILIP PULLMAN’S about Dust, evade the evil acclaimed His Dark Materials books Magisterium and her mother (Ruth was never going to be easy — just Wilson) and generally fulfil her look at ill-fated film attempt The destiny, stepping into parallel worlds Golden Compass — but over two and meeting terrifying creatures. series screenwriter Jack Thorne and What other TV show delivers Bad Wolf Studios have brilliantly talking animal souls, armoured brought Pullman’s world of bears, flying punk witches and daemons, witches, subtle knives and dimension-slicing weapons? As alethiometers to audiences. The a piece of TV production, His Dark sprawling story follows Lyra (Dafne Materials is unparalleled — and as Keen) as she tries to learn the truth a story, it’s a must-watch. HF Derry Girls SET IN NORTHERN Ireland during watching Derry Girls and finding it the Troubles, Derry Girls is written anything other than hilarious, but by Lisa McGee and follows a group the show’s backdrop also means of Irish schoolgirls (and one that it can occasionally deliver out-of-place English schoolboy) as incredibly touching and thoughtful they navigate their teenage years moments, too. So it’s no surprise at their Catholic girls’ school in that it’s become one of the most the city of Derry, with the lead cast popular and talked-about comedies including Saoirse-Monica Jackson, of recent times, scoring accolades Dylan Llewellyn, and Nicola ranging from Baftas to the 2018 Coughlan — who has since gone on Radio Times Comedy Champion to star as Penelope in Bridgerton. Award. EBG It’s hard to imagine anyone WATCH UK All 4 US Amazon Prime Video US Netflix WATCH UK BritBox Broadchurch IT’S BARELY EIGHT years old, but culminating in an emotional already Broadchurch feels like a TV tour-de-force from Olivia Colman as classic, with future Doctor Who DS Ellie Miller. It was Broadchurch showrunner Chris Chibnall’s crime that first made Colman — now an trilogy set in the titular Dorset town Oscar winner — a household name, capturing viewers’ imaginations and but the ITV drama’s ensemble cast dominating pop culture discourse is note-perfect across the board, throughout its three-series run. The from David Tennant’s surly copper first series in particular was a with a heart of gold, DI Alec Hardy, phenomenon, delivering one of the to (Chibnall’s future Doctor) Jodie most involving and fervently debated Whittaker as grieving mother whodunnit plots in TV history, Beth Latimer. MJ US Sundance Now WATCH UK ITV Hub Des DEPICTING THE ARREST and subsequent trial of Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen, the eerie Des was magnificent on all fronts — Luke Neal and Kelly Jones’s compelling, sophisticated scripts, Lewis Arnold’s taut direction, Jason Watkins’s superb turn as Nilsen’s biographer Brian Masters and, of course, David Tennant’s utterly magnetic performance as Nilsen himself. But arguably the heart and soul of the piece was Danny Mays’s portrayal US Hulu of DCI Peter Jay — WATCH UK Disney+ a performance less showy than that of Anderson) — he a believer in all his co-stars but with The X-Files things paranormal, she a sceptic — so much power and ONE OF THE most iconic and investigating unsolved cases truth to it. A bleak, influential science-fiction series related to seemingly inexplicable unpretentious of all time, The X-Files is a much- phenomena. But The X-Files is so depiction of the true vaunted TV classic that lives up to much more than a run-of-the-mill monotony of evil, Des the hype, spanning 11 seasons (nine sci-fi procedural — it’s a playful and was not just great produced between 1993 and 2002, inventive series that experiments drama but the perfect with two revival seasons in 2016 with tone, veering from grotesque example of how to and 2018) and two feature films. body horror to pastiche and parody, approach true crime The basic premise involves FBI and remains a hugely rewarding storytelling. MJ special agents Fox Mulder (David watch almost three decades on Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian from its premiere. MJ WATCH UK My5 US PBS Masterpiece All Creatures Great and Small BASED ON THE James Herriot Ralph), who has landed a job at a novels, which were previously rural Yorkshire veterinary practice adapted as a film and as a with eccentric boss Siegfried Farnon much-loved BBC television series, (Samuel West). As soon as he this new version of All Creatures arrives, he falls head-over-heels for Great and Small is a real treat. local woman Helen Alderson (Rachel The drama, set in the late 1930s, Shenton). The show also features follows newly trained Glaswegian plenty of dogs, horses, cows, lambs, veterinary assistant and “fish out chickens and more. It’s relatively of water” James Herriot (Nicholas gentle, and absolutely lovely. EBG WATCH UK/US Netflix Floor Is Lava FIRST LANDING ON Netflix in face-plants are funny) and June 2020 (aka The Summer surprisingly compelling. You’ll That Never Was), Floor Is Lava was find yourself screaming in horror exactly the sort of undemanding along with contestants as their entertainment we needed, just teammates take a tumble and sink when we needed it. Based on into the bubbling basalt… Best of all, the children’s game of the same the show is fully aware of how name, it throws groups of budding ridiculous it is, with winners being adventurers together to navigate gifted a lava lamp trophy (along an obstacle course flooded with with a $10,000 cash prize) and host “lava” (bright red gunge) and the Rutledge Wood compering the end result is both hilarious (yes, madness in suitably manic fashion. MJ US Amazon Prime Video WATCH UK BBC iPlayer Fleabag FOR THOSE WHO missed the boat with Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, it can feel too late and daunting to start now. But for anyone making the plunge, it’s worth it — not least because various jokes, characters and phrases have already entered the nation’s lexicon. (“Hair is everything” and “The only person I’d run through an airport for is you” are just two that spring to mind.) Forget the mantelpiece worth of Emmys — the show speaks for itself. In the title role, Waller-Bridge plays a grieving, messy WATCH UK/US Apple TV+ café owner obsessed with everything to do with sex. In season two, however, she Ted Lasso originally devised by Sudeikis for has made some DEVELOPED BY STAR Jason a series of NBC Sports skits could lifestyle changes. Sudeikis alongside Scrubs creator carry a series. But with its warmth, It’s here that the Bill Lawrence, Ted Lasso follows its winning humour and unrelenting series really hits its title character — a college-level optimism, Ted Lasso’s ten-part first stride, delving into American football coach — as he’s season quickly proved the cynics Fleabag’s relationship with recruited to coach an English wrong. Best of all, you didn’t even The Priest (Andrew Scott), Premier League football team, have to be a football fanatic to with whom she has despite his total lack of experience. enjoy it. Released on Apple TV+ in fallen in love. FC Some had asked, perhaps the autumn of 2020, this was the justifiably, whether a character perfect antidote to a rotten year. MJ The WATCH UK/US Netflix Umbrella Academy BASED ON THE graphic novel by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, The Umbrella Academy follows an adopted family of superpowered misfits, whose exploits as child heroes have left them wounded, traumatised, dead or just disaffected despite their incredible abilities. Forced back together by the death of their cruel “father”, the Hargreeves siblings — played by Elliot Page, Robert Sheehan, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Aidan Gallagher and Justin H Min — stumble through a quest to save the world in the present day, before being thrown back through time and forced to do the same thing again in 1960s Dallas during the (superior) second season.