Since its invention in 1927, television has been one of the most popular forms of entertainment around the world. Though Hollywood is still seen as the center of the television world, production spans the globe, with many countries producing properties for their own unique audiences. With the internet allowing streaming for popular movies and TV shows all around the world, many of these series continue to find new viewers to engage with and be appreciated by.
Update August 7, 2023: This article has been updated by Valerie Parker with more gems of British television of the 2000s.
As streaming services gain in popularity, many TV studios are making deals with them directly to host their shows, broadening their audience further still. British programming is especially popular because of the abundance of English speakers throughout the world, with series often being sold to streamers such as Amazon and with smaller services such as BritBox and Acorn TV helping to allow access across the globe. While it's easy to find current programs offered on these and other services, there are older gems that audiences may be overlooking. The 2000s were a formative decade for British television, producing staples that are cherished and admired still today. Here’s a look at some of the best British television that started in the 2000s.
10 Top Gear
When Top Gear premiered on the BBC in 2002, there was no way of knowing it would become a powerhouse. This factual series examines and reviews all kinds of motor vehicles, with its main focus on cars, in a dynamic and exciting presentation that includes motoring-based challenges, timed races on their specially built track, and celebrities like Tom Cruise and Matt Damon taking their turns on the Top Gear track behind the wheel of the "reasonably priced car".
Though the show has had several hosts through its 33 seasons, it was the version that ran through the 2000s and 2010s with hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May that it became a phenomenon that saw it enter the Guinness World Record Book in 2013 as the most-watched factual TV program in the world with over 350 million viewers across 200 countries. Its popularity has waned in the years since Clarkson was fired for an altercation with a producer, and Hammond and May chose to exit the series alongside him, but Top Gear is still running on the BBC and has seen multiple spinoffs in other countries.
9 Coupling
Based loosely on the relationship between writer Steven Moffat and his wife and producing partner Sue Vertue, Coupling takes a look at relationships from the eyes of six 20-somethings. Utilizing the ensemble format that was so popular at the time in shows like Friends and Seinfeld, Coupling delves into the lives of its cast of characters and the circumstances that bring this group of people together who would normally never have anything to do with each other - the beginning of a new relationship, and the baggage those two people bring with them.
Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Susan Walker) have just started to date, and along with them come the various hangers on they just can't shake. Jane (Gina Bellman) is Steve's recent ex, a beauty with little brains who doesn't believe a relationship is over unless she ends it. Jeff (Richard Coyle) is Steve's longtime best friend and the real star of the show, as his bumbling behavior and ability to get himself into uncomfortable situations are second to none and often the heart of the comedy. Sally (Kate Isitt) is Susan's best friend and so vain that her moisturizing regime as she attempts to avoid the signs of aging is her one constant concern. And then there's Patrick (Ben Miles), Susan's well-endowed ex, who makes Steve feel inferior, even as he makes his way through a rotating door of women with his player ways.
The show ran for four critic and viewer-acclaimed series that won it numerous comedy awards. Even all these years later, it retains a 96% viewer score on Rotten Tomatoes. Though spinoffs were attempted in both the United States and Greece, neither lasted long as they were unable to capture the magic of the British original.
8 Life on Mars
Life on Mars was a two-season series that combines speculative fiction and police procedural. The story follows Sam (John Simm), a Detective Inspector serving with the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in 2006. After he is hit by a car, Sam wakes up in 1973, working for a predecessor to the GMP but still at the same location and station as it was in 2006. What exactly happened to him is ambiguous to both him and the audience—it’s not clear whether he has died, become comatose, or somehow time-traveled.
Though it was short-lived, it was beloved by audiences and critics alike, being nominated for many awards in 2006 and 2007. The showrunners ended the series on their own terms, as they felt Sam's story had been completed. Life on Mars was later followed by a 3 season arc on a sequel series, Ashes to Ashes, that featured some of the same cast of characters as Life on Mars and further revealed the mythology of the world. Though the creators announced in April 2020 that a third series in the story, Lazarus, was being planned, they have since stated that due to financial constraints, it will not be moving forward. Disappointing news, but new watchers should not lament, as both the ending to the original Life on Mars and its sequel, Ashes to Ashes, feel like complete stories well worth delving into.
7 Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Hannah Baxter (Billie Piper in her first big role post-Doctor Who) lives a double life. To her friends and family she's a late-night legal secretary, but in reality, she's a sex worker who loves her job servicing high-end clients in London society. Based on the true story of an anonymous high-class call-girl living in London, Belle du Jour, as written in her public blog and books, Secret Diary of a Call Girl follows Hannah/Belle and her exploits.
She loves her job, but she's careful to try and keep the world of her work and her private life separate, to varying degrees of success. The series is narrated by Hannah and often features her breaking the fourth wall. She's unabashed in her enjoyment of her job and the fact that she excels in it. Juggling the needs of the clients, whether she accompanies them through normal everyday excursions like business dinners or into the bedroom.
6 Inbetweeners
This coming-of-age teen comedy follows four teenage boys at a fictional equivalent of a U.S. high school and their misadventures as they deal with the usual teen shenanigans. Inbetweeners addresses typical stories of life at that age such as male bonding, adolescent sexuality, and the transition from childhood to adulthood, with a uniquely British perspective including things like lad culture. Will (Simon Bird) has just transferred from a private school, and he's having the usual issues adjusting to his new school life. A normally studious boy, he's also somewhat of a pushover and often finds himself succumbing to peer pressure that finds him in precarious situations that inevitably embarrass him.
Though the series originally received a rather lukewarm reception with poor ratings, it went on to win countless British comedy awards, including the 2010 Audience Award at the BAFTAs, the only award voted on by the audience. When the series ended in 2010, it was followed by two successful films in 2011 and 2014. A U.S. adaptation was attempted for MTV but was quickly canceled for low ratings.
5 The Office (UK)
The British mockumentary The Office didn’t have a very long run. Over two seasons and just 14 episodes, the program follows the day-to-day lives of office workers, utilizing a documentary-style, direct-to-camera approach, which was a fresh approach to storytelling at the time. The series focuses on the trivialities of corporate life and the self-importance and conceit of human behavior, drawing its comedy from the social clumsiness, desperation, and frustration inherent in most office life.
When it first aired, the show suffered from low ratings even after several prestigious awards. It was upon its introduction to an international audience, including airing on BBC America, that it quickly gained international renown. This kicked off an entire Office franchise, including the popular, Emmy-winning American remake many people associate with the name, along with the careers of Steve Carell, Martin Freeman, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, and Ricky Gervais.
4 Black Books
Centered on a small London bookshop called Black Books, the series focuses on the cynical trio who spend their lives living in and running the store. Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) is the owner of the shop who has a hatred of the outside world and the customers who frequent his shop, often treating it more as a library than a business. His best friend Fran (Tamsin Grieg) owns the knick-knack store next door called Nifty Gifty, though she spend more time in Black Books than her own shop. Manny (Bill Bailey) is a one-time customer who stumbled into the shop looking for a book called The Little Book of Calm, but somehow finds himself living in the flat above the shop and working there with Bernard, and along with Fran, he spends his time trying to bring Bernard into the real world. Their efforts to integrate Bernard into society and bring him to a more favorable view of the world are often unsuccessful, with chaos often ensuing and leading instead to their own acceptance that Bernard might just be right about the world outside of Black Books.
The series won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 2001 and 2005, meeting its unfortunate end in 2004 after only three series. Moran was once approached in 2015 and asked if he'd consider reviving the series, but he refused most decisively and concluded he'd never do another situational comedy again.
3 Merlin
BBC One HD
Five seasons of Merlin aired from 2008 to 2012, with this re-imagining of the classic Arthurian Legends closely following the relationship between Merlin and King Arthur. Merlin is sent to Camelot by his mother, only to quickly find out that magic has been outlawed by Arthur’s father, King Uther, and anyone found to be practicing it would be executed. Finding himself with the job of Arthur’s manservant and knowing that Arthur is supposed to have a great destiny, Merlin must hide his magic while also helping the future king towards the right path in his life.
The series was nominated and won many awards throughout its run. After the series was completed, the story was expected to continue in various forms, such as a trilogy of movies or a show revival, but have all since been canceled. Though it’s been over 10 years since the series finale premiered, the show still remains largely popular amongst fans, and thanks to streaming, is still being discovered by new audiences.
2 The IT Crowd
Set in the fictional London-based company Reynholm Industries, The IT Crowd follows the exploits of the members of the IT Department. Relegated to a sort of basement dungeon while their coworkers look out on the London skyline from gleaming stainless steel offices above, the "standard nerds" of the IT office at Reynholm Industries do their best to avoid work and social interaction with the outside world.
Roy (Chris O'Dowd) is a snarky bloke from Ireland, who does everything he can to avoid work and instead spend company time reading comic books and playing video games. Moss (Richard Ayoade) is socially inept and shy but highly skilled, and when he realizes someone knows nothing about technology, he can get downright arrogant, but if a fire starts in front of him, he'll be unable to handle it. Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is their boss who lied about her technological abilities to get the job, and rebrands herself as a 'relationship manager' as she attempts to bring her department into the wider company.
The series follows the precarious situations the trio get themselves into, often playing on the technological ignorance of others to cause mayhem, including the destruction of the internet, in the form of a black box and Roy and Moss convince Jen (who then convinces others) holds the entire internet.
1 Doctor Who
Perhaps one of the biggest pieces of media in recent years is Doctor Who. The show follows the Doctor, a rogue Time Lord, and their travels across time and space. The Doctor always travels with one or more companions, who are usually human, leading to adventures through interesting points of time and trying to protect the Earth from evil forces before they can harm innocent people or change history.
The 2005 version of Doctor Who is both a continuation of the original show from the 60s and a fresh start. After 15 years on hiatus, the show returned in a more colorful, bizarre, delightfully humorous form, reigniting the fan base with their newest incarnation of the Doctor and quickly becoming an international sensation that is still airing today. This sci-fi show has become a significant piece of popular culture, largely because it has built-in an ingenious plot device that allows new actors into the series with the act of "regeneration," where a traumatic event causes the Doctor to change physical form.
Different performers continue to add their own unique touches to the show and keep it interesting, even 14 seasons since it was reintroduced to audiences, making this a great British series that seems unlikely to stop anytime soon. On November 23, 2023, Doctor Who fans will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the series with a one-off special that sees popular Doctor Who actor David Tennant return to the role that made him a star and introduce the 15th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa.