British TV Shows You Should Be Watching

Note for American viewers and British readers: Within Britain, tv series aren't generally referred to as having "seasons". Everything's just called a series, whether a particular series happens to continue year after year, or not. 

Quite frankly, I think the American habit of referring to a show as being a series and each year's worth of episodes being called a season makes more sense.  You can then tell whether a particular episode is a season finale (and can thus expect it to continue in future) or a series finale (the end, kaput!) when you see the info printed in your TV guide or on your DVR, so I'll be using the American vernacular here since this lens is primarily for viewers in the US.

Also, British series have much shorter seasons -- most of these shows run about 12-13 episodes per season, but some of them are as short as 6-8 episodes.  US network series run anywhere from 21 to 24 episodes each season. So watching British tv series bears more resemblance to watching series on HBO or Showtime.  The quality level also remains as high as the shows on our premium cable channels. It's difficult to maintain this kind of quality consistently if the writers have to pump out 23 episodes.

Additionally, with the exception of Doctor Who, even highly successful British tv shows tend to have much shorter runs than their American counterparts. Often series will only run for a couple of seasons.  The British television production philosophy appears to be "always leave them wanting more". This is highly different from the American production philosophy of "let's milk this sucker for all its worth".

Enjoy! 

MI-5 is a British spy show based upon the British govt agents who do internal security. If I understand it properly MI-5 is to MI-6 what Homeland Security would be to the CIA. Of course, they don't parallel perfectly -- but I think that's close enough.

MI-5 is called Spooks in the UK. I don't know why the title change was needed since I don't think MI-5 really enlightens US viewers all that much. Spooks has aired five seasons in the UK already and season 6 starts in the Fall of 2007. There was a major cast change during season 3 and most of the cast members from seasons 1-2 are now gone.

In the US, the second season of MI-5 is airing on BBCAmerica currently. It is a brilliant show and its current main character, Tom Quinn, is played beautifully by Matthew MacFadyen. It is a great break from US procedurals since all of the major characters have personal lives and we get to see them.

Life on Mars is a crime drama featuring John Simm as DCI/DI Sam Tyler. In a unique sci-fi twist for this type of show, the major premise is that after being involved in car accident, Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler wakes up in the year 1973 and finds himself not only demoted to Detective Inspector, but in an entirely different world of policing. The show highlights the dramatic changes in both crime investigation and forensics between the 1970s and today.

But has Sam really traveled through time or his dreaming within a coma? You'll need to watch the show to find out.

One of the major highlights of the show is the musical score. Both the original score and 70s rock music are used to stunning dramatic effect and every episode will leave you nostalgic for all the great albums of the 1970s.

Season 2 has not aired yet on BBCAmerica, but season 1 is repeated fairly often and I'm sure we can expect to season 2 sometime in the near future.

The show concluded with its second season.

Extra is a British sitcom produced by Ricky Gervais (The Office). It is financially backed by both the BBC and HBO. It airs first in the UK and then airs on HBO a few months later.

Each episode has at least one guest star; a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves.

There are a total of two seasons of Extras (six episodes each), but they are filming a one-off series finale this month. It will probably air this Christmas.

In series one, Ricky Gervais and the regular supporting cast play "extras", the beleagured actors and actresses who work in the background.

In series two, Ricky Gervais has his own sitcom, but it's not doing so well.

Extras frequently re-airs on the HBO Comedy channel

Jekyll stars James Nesbitt, playing both Tom Jackman and Mr Hyde. In a brilliant updating and/or sequel to the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Tom Jackman is a descendant of Doctor Henry Jekyll. Jackman and his family are pursued and threatened by a secretive organization who have reasons of their own for wanting Mr Hyde.

A total of six episodes were filmed for the series and it begins airing on BBCAmerica in August, 2007.

If this were an American show, in my opinion, the finale would definitely leave things open for a second series, but since its British -- it's really hard to say. They are less prone to milking a concept to death.

Jekyll is now available on Region 1 DVD.

After a 16 year absence from British tv, the BBC launched a new series of Doctor Who in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston playing the Ninth Doctor and Russell T. Davies producing.

Christopher Eccleston only agreed to sign for one year, so he was replaced at the end of season 2 by the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant.

I've never been a big fan of the original series because the production values really annoyed me, but this series is brilliantly conceived and maintains a great balance between cheesiness, seriousness -- with excellent production values all around.

In the US, the first season of the new series debuted on the SciFi channel, due to BBCAmerica's lack of interest. But season 1 is now shown regularly on BBCAmerica.

Season 3 of Doctor Who is currently airing on the SciFi channel.

As as result of the massive popularity of Captain Jack Harkness on the first season of Doctor Who, a spin-off series about the secret alien hunting service, Torchwood, was created. Again produced by Russell T. Davies, it features John Barrowman reprising his role as Captain Jack as he heads the Torchwood group in Cardiff. Aimed at an older audience, there's lots of sex and shenanigans as well as alien threats to humanity.

Season 1 of Torchwood airs on BBCAmerica in September.