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The Best TV Shows on BritBox to Stream Right Now

One of two niche streaming services* dedicated to serving U.K. content to global audiences, BritBox comprises everything from the biggest contemporary hits to the most beloved classics from BBC and ITV eras past—plus Inside No. 9, which manages to be both. This means the BritBox catalog is sure to have something to fit whatever mood you might be in. Got a hankering to watch an alien Timelord travel through space and time? BritBox is the exclusive home of the first 26 series of classic Doctor Who. Curious to see how the British medical drama differs from Grey’s Anatomy? Holby City Hospital is ready for you to burst through its ward doors. Itching to pe into the classic misadventures of your friendly neighborhood vicar? Well, has BritBox got a truly—and I mean truly—incredible number of clergy-adjacent options for you to choose from.

With the service’s investment in original content and readers’ obsession with revisiting programs in mind, these are the top 9 recommended titles (plus a bonus lightning round featuring the best of the service’s curated “channels”). But first, a quick primer:

What Makes It Unique: All-but-live streaming of daily BBC/ITV programming like Good Morning Britain, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as topical weekly programming like Brexitcast, Gardener’s World and Mock the Week; the entirety of Classic Doctor Who and Midsomer Murders; exclusive access to other popular BBC/ITV programming, both new (Vera, Death in Paradise, RHS Chelsea Flower Show) and from the vaults (the Up series, Mr. Bean, The Sweeney)

What You’ll Find on This List: For the most part, BritBox pides its extensive catalog into categories defined either by recency—Now, Classics, Last Chance—or by genre—Drama, Mystery, British Home & Garden.

* Profiled in a separate column, Acorn TV aims to scratch the same anglophilic itch that BritBox does. But while the two services cater to similar audiences, the experiences (and catalogs) they provide are different enough that it isn’t really a question of which one is best. They are, like Hulu and Netflix, just… different. With its investment in not just original but also international content, Acorn TV is more reminiscent of Netflix. Meanwhile, with its network television roots and the fact that it posts new episodes of soaps, panel shows, and morning news programs within 24 hours of them airing in the U.K., BritBox much more closely resembles Hulu. Acorn TV gives its subscribers an eclectically global experience while BritBox has the edge in the “this is what to watch when you want to feel like you’re in Britain” department.

That out of the way, let’s get to the streaming goods:

The Cleaner

<p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: Greg Davies and Zita Sattar, with guest spots from Helena Bonham Carter, David Mitchell, Stephanie Cole and more<br /> Seasons available: 1 (new series)</p> <p>We may love Greg Davies most around these parts for his iron rule as the Taskmaster on, well, <i>Taskmaster</i>, but late last year he pulled on his bright white noddy suit and stepped into the role of small town crime scene cleaner for, funnily enough, <i>The Cleaner</i>. In a premise pretty much tailor-made for pandemic-era production, <i>The Cleaner</i> opens each episode with Paul “Wicky” Wickstead rolling up to a crime scene after the police have left, lorry full of cleaning supplies at hand, only to be confounded in one way or another by someone else on the premises. In some cases, it’s the murderer. In others, it’s a neighbor. Sometimes, it’s initially unclear, which lets Davies take the episode to unexpected places. With this set-up, most episodes only need Davies and one other person for the story to work, which lets the show take full advantage of booking flash guests like Helena Bonham Carter and David Mitchell. But even with such a limited cast, the writing is solid enough that the texture and scope of Wicky’s world outside of work is bracingly clear. </p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>Sherwood</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: David Morrissey, Robert Glenister, Lesley Manville, Lorraine Ashbourne, Claire Rushbrook, Adam Hugill, Adeel Akhtar, Clare Holman, Terence Maynard, Nadine Marshall<br /> Seasons available: 1 (limited series)</p> <p>Given the galvanizing upswing of unionization we have been in the middle of here in the States these past few years, the moment could hardly be better for a show like <i>Sherwood</i>, a limited series crime thriller which takes its narrative inspiration from two different historical events from the Nottinghamshire mining region. First, a pair of astonishing murders that took place in Nottinghamshire in 2004 (and which eventually led to the largest manhunt in UK history), and second, the violent clashes sparked by the miners’ strike in the mid ‘80s, which set the miners on strike against both the local miners that crossed the picket line (scabs), and the brutish Met officers imported from London on Margaret Thatcher’s orders to put the strike down. How the reverberations of that (fictionalized) 1984 strike inform not just the crossbow mayhem of the current day, but all the ways in which the community relates to one another (or, as often, <i>doesn’t</i>) is the main question <i>Sherwood</i> sets out to answer, so no spoilers here. But if the power of collective action and the complexity inherent to building community is as interesting to you as serial crossbow murder, <i>Sherwood</i> is a show for you.</p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>Gardeners’ World</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Hosted by: Monty Don<br /> Seasons available: 2 (2021, 2022, and the most recent trio of Winter Specials)</p> <p>One of the features that makes BritBox as a platform stand out is its dedication to next-day streaming of quintessential British series that air new episodes on both a daily and weekly basis. Daily secretions include news programs like <i>Good Morning Britain</i> and long-running soap operas like <i>EastEnders</i> and <i>Emmerdale</i>. Weekly options comprise of everything from topical panel shows like <i>Mock the Week</i> to more straightforward punditry like <i>Question Time</i> to, most delightfully, seasonable home and gardening programming like <i>Springwatch</i>, <i>Escape to the Country</i>, and <i>Gardeners’ World</i>. </p> <p>This last one has been running since 1968 and has been gently hosted by master gardener Monty Don (and his dogs) more or less constantly since 2003. <i>Gardner’s World</i> runs every Friday through the growing season and features a comforting combination of real-time planting projects Don has taken on in his gigantic home garden, visits by co-hosts to interesting gardens around the U.K., and real-time growing tips Don calls “Jobs to do this weekend” that close out each episode. Since the start of the pandemic, they’ve added in home videos of gardens from viewers not just around the U.K., but around the world, a feature which thus far has never failed to make this critic (and newbie home gardener) tear up. </p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>Hope Street</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: Amara Karan, Ciarán McMenamin, Kerri Quinn, Niall Wright<br /> Seasons available: 1 (new series)</p> <p>Despite being billed as an “uplifting original crime drama,” and opening with a cheerfully sweeping seaside credit sequence that would have been right at home in USA Network’s Blue Skies era, <i>Hope Street</i> is surprisingly tricky to make tonal sense of. Starring Amara Karan as DC Leila Hussain, a Nottingham detective seconded to a quiet seaside North Irish hamlet for mysterious reasons, and Ciarán McMenamin, Kerri Quinn and Niall Wright as said seaside hamlet’s Chief Inspector, Sergeant and PC, respectively, the series swings wildly, especially in early episodes, from Serious Crime Drama to “<i>Gilmore Girls</i>, but in Northern Ireland.” Ultimately it becomes clear that the stories it is more interested in telling are the quirky (and possibly romantic) interpersonal ones between the officers and the rest of the oddball local community, but it may take awhile for viewers more accustomed to darker psychological small town crime dramas like <i>The Bay</i>, <i>The Victim</i> and <i>Shetland</i> (all of which BtirBox also has) to stop expecting something truly terrible befalling Leila and her new Northern Irish friends. </p> <p>That said, once you get on board with <i>Hope Street</i>’s actual vibe, you’ll be hooked. And given the massive cliffhanger the recently wrapped first season ended on, if it doesn’t get renewed, I’m going to riot. </p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>The Curse</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: Emer Kenny, Allan Mustafa, Tom Davis, Steve Stamp, Hugo Chegwin, Abraham Popoola, Peter Ferdinando, Geoff Bell, Ambreen Razia<br /> Seasons available: 1 (Series 2 coming in 2023)</p> <p><i>Some of this might have happened.</i> So opens each episode of the 1980s-set crime comedy <i>The Curse</i>, which may or may not be loosely based on an infamous accidental heist of gold and diamonds in a Heathrow warehouse in 1983. Starring Allan Mustafa, Tom Davis, Steve Stamp, and Hugo Chegwin as a group of down-on-their-luck friends who stumble into a suspiciously easy cash grab, literally in the middle of which they stumble into a suspiciously fortuitous gold heist (alongside Emer Kenny as Mustafa’s wife—and the series’ regretfully omniscient narrator), <i>The Curse</i> is both a richly stylized romp of a period piece, and a thrillingly plotted doomed-from-the-start heist. Already set to return for a second run in 2023, no better time than now to invest in its short first season.</p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>Murder in Provence</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: Roger Allam, Keala Settle, Nancy Carroll, Patricia Hodge, Kirsty Bushell<br /> Seasons available: 1 (new series)</p> <p>One of BritBox’s newest Originals, <i>Murder in Provence</i> is another crime drama that’s tonally hard to pin down. Based on the <i>Verlaque &amp; Bonnet</i> novels by M.L. Longworth, series is set in Aix-en-Provence and stars Roger Allam as  Investigating Judge Antoine Verlaque and Nancy Carroll as his romantic (and sometimes professional) psychologist partner Marine Bonnet, and takes as its subject a criminal investigative system that will be completely foreign to both British and American audiences, alike. Aside from the novelty of who’s doing the investigating in <i>Murder in Provence</i>, the format itself isn’t what makes this title’s tone hard to pin down. The 90-minute procedural set-up will be comfortingly familiar to anyone who’s watched even a handful of episodes of <i>Columbo</i> or <i>Murder, She Wrote</i>, though the BritBox series is much more leisurely and chatty than either of those two American series. What’s confounding is the fact that, despite being played by an entirely British ensemble cast, whose dialogue is peppered with recognizably British slang and turns of phrase, the characters themselves are all meant to be read as French. It’s incredibly distracting! And at the same time, fascinating. Basically, once you’re in, it’s hard to stop watching. So, you know, take this recommendation however you want.</p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>QI</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Hosted by: Sandi Toskvig (Series N-S), Stephen Fry (Series J-M)<br /> Seasons available: 10 (J-S)</p> <p>Unless one listens to much <i>Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me</i>, it’s like that the panel show, as a comedic format, won’t be very familiar. Don’t worry, though, BritBox has a whole heap of the BBC’s best panel shows ready and waiting to get you quickly up to speed. <i>8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown</i> (hosted by Jimmy Carr) and <i>Would I Lie to You?</i> (hosted by Rob Brydon) are fairly well known quantities here in the states, but if you’re going to watch just one, make it <i>QI</i>. </p> <p>An oddball combination trivia/quiz show that’s been on the air since 2003, <i>QI</i> (which stands for “Quite Interesting”) takes the alphabet as a loose organizing principle, theming the fact-packed episodes of each new season according to the next letter down the line (in early 2022, we’re up to “S”). Originally presented by Stephen Fry (Series A-M), the program handed hosting duties off to Sandi Toksvig in 2016. Featuring comedian Alan Davies as the series’ anchor competitor slash co-presenter and a rotating trio of most British comedians, actors and noteworthy names, the “competition” aspect of <i>QI</i> is more a race to the bottom than anything else, as most competitors—including the winners—end up in negative points. It’s a weird little show, with a funny retro vibe, and I want everyone to love it as much as I do.</p> <p><i>Star Wars</i> fan Pro-tip: The L series’ holiday episode, “No L,” features Carrie Fisher herself among the panelists. </p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>Karen Pirie</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: Lauren Lyle, Emer Kenny (also the series creator &amp; writer), Chris Jenks, Zach Wyatt, Anna Russell-Martin, Ariyon Bakare, Buom Tihngang, Jack Hesketh, Michael Shaeffer, Bobby Rainsbury, Rakhee Thakrar, Jhon Lumsden<br /> Seasons available: 1 (new series)</p> <p>Set across the decades in St. Andrews, Scotland, with half of the story taking place in 1996 and the other in 2021, the first three-episode season of new BritBox Original <i>Karen Pirie</i> (based on the Val McDermid series of the same name) is an ambitiously dense whirlwind of an experience. In the 1996 timeline, a young bartender named Rosie Duff (Anna Russell-Martin) is found brutally murdered in the middle of St. Andrews’ most famous (and wind-whipped) cemetery, and the trio of college kids who allegedly found her are punted straight to the top of the suspect list. In the 2021 timeline, DS Karen Pirie (Lauren Lyle) is assigned the cold case after a true crime podcaster (Rakhee Thakrar) digs it up and, in the process, starts dragging the reputation of the local constabulary through the Scottish mud. Visibly young, physically small, and one of the only female detectives on the force, Pirie’s assignment is more about strategic optics than her superiors believing she’s got the goods to solve the thing, but joke’s on them: this series is called <i>Karen Pirie</i>; the big solve is just three stylishly clever episodes away.</p>  <hr /> <h2>  <i>Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?</i> </h2> <p> </p>    <p>Watch Now </p> <p>Starring: Will Poulter, Lucy Boynton, Jonathan Jules, Conleth Hill, Daniel Ings, Maeve Dermody, Hugh Laurie, Miles Jupp, Amy Nuttall, Alistair Petrie<br /> Seasons available: 1 (new series)</p> <p>The latest Agatha Christie adaptation to hit the small screens—and BritBox’s biggest commission to date—<i>Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?</i> is a classic British mystery lover’s dream. Starring Will Poulter as the earnestly charming village vicar’s son Bobby Jones and Lucy Boynton as the firecracker Frankie (Lady Francis) Derwent, the series comes to the streamer from director and executive producer Hugh Laurie (who also co-stars as Dr. James Nicholson). Based on a standalone Christie novel of the same name, the three-part limited series, which is set after the First World War, features impeccable production design, gorgeous costuming, and very clever dialogue. Moreover, it is just jam-packed with immediately iconic performances, all of which are led capably by the push-pull of Poulter’s easy-going loyalty and Boynton’s tightly coiled, wise-cracking independence. Honestly, while I understand that <i>Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?</i> is a standalone novel, the chemistry between Poulter and Boynton is so winning that I wouldn’t say a thing if BritBox (along with Laurie) decided to adapt other lesser-known Christie novels to give them even more runway to work with.</p> <hr /> <p><br /><img class="aligncenter" /> </p> <h2>A BritBox “Channels” Lightning Round </h2> <p /> <p>  BritBox Destinations: <br /> What Makes it Unique: A geographically curated collection that will help demystify some of the regional nuances that might otherwise be hard to parse for audiences not based in the U.K. <br /> Best Bets: <i>Prime Suspect</i> (London), <i>The Office</i> (The South), <i>All Creatures Great and Small</i> (Yorkshire and the Humber), <i>Vera*</i> (Scotland and the Northeast)</p> <p>  Cozy Muders<br /> What Makes it Unique: Does what it says on the tin! If you’ve ever spent a Sunday evening cozied up to PBS for <i>Masterpiece Mystery</i>, this is the channel for you.<br /> Best Bets: <i>Father Brown</i> (and its follow-up, <i>The Sister Boniface Mysteries</i>), <i>Agatha Christie’s Marple</i></p> <p>  Comedy<br /> What Makes it Unique: Just a wildly exhaustive collection of fantastic (and fantastically dry) British comedy, both classic and brand new.<br /> Best Bets: <i>Up the Women</i>, <i>Toast of London</i>, <i>Miranda</i>, <i>The Thick of It</i>, <i>Moone Boy</i></p> <p>  Classic Doctor Who<br /> What Makes it Unique: Your exclusive home for all things classically Whovian, helpfully organized by Doctor, with a smattering of can’t-find-them-elsewhere specials.<br /> Best Bets: <i>Doctor Who</i> (all 26 original seasons!)</p> <p>  BritBox Live<br /> What Makes it Unique: Like flicking on a physical television in a cozy estate in London’s outer boroughs.<br /> Pros:  Defeat the tyranny of (streaming) choice! Let BritBox do the picking for you!<br /> Cons: No identifying information or subtitles for what’s airing (though a live closed captioning transcription can be turned on via the screencasting toolbox in the bottom right corner).</p> <p>*To read an interview Brenda Blethyn did with <i>Paste</i> in 2017 in the lead-up to the seventh season of <i>Vera</i>, go here.</p> <p><i>A BritBox subscription costs $7.99 per month, or $79.99 per year for American subscribers (with a 7-day introductory free trial period), and can be used across up to 5 devices. Gift subscriptions are available, and credentialed educators can get a 30%  Teacher’s Discount.</i> </p> <hr /> <p><br /><i> Alexis Gunderson is a TV critic and audiobibliophile. She can be found @AlexisKG.</i> </p> <p><i>For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow @Paste_TV.</i>