There’s plenty of British TV on Hulu, but what’s the best?
Sure, you could enjoy Colin Firth striding gallantly out of a pond in Pride and Prejudice again — it’s a classic. Yes, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks are always there if you need them. But what about something a little more fresh, emblematic of all the incredible shows that are coming out of the UK?
The 31 best British TV shows of 2023 (so far)
We’ve gone through Hulu’s British TV shows to find the best series you should really add to your list. From the heart-wrenching twists and twirls of Normal People to Gillian Anderson trotting out her stellar accent game again with Bleak House, these UK-produced shows are long-loved classics, provocative hidden gems, and newer showstoppers that everyone can’t stop talking about (in no particular order).
1. Extraordinary
Credit: Laura Radford/Disney+
Disney’s Extraordinary is a wildly fun take on superpowers, in a world where everyone’s kind of rubbish at using them. Created by Emma Moran and directed by Toby McDonald, Jennifer Sheridan, and Nadira Amrani, Extraordinary follows the plight of Jen (Máiréad Tyers), a 25-year-old who didn’t get her superpowers in a world where everyone else got theirs at the age of 18. The show’s brilliance, beyond its playful special effects and overarching hypothetical, is the cast.
As Mashable’s Caitlin Welsh writes in her review, “Extraordinary earns its place among the best of the millennial romcom sitcoms — and stands well above certain other eight-or-so-episode-long shows about people with superpowers on Disney-owned streaming platforms — thanks to its whip-smart writing and lived-in performances.”* — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
How to watch: Extraordinary is now streaming on Hulu.
2. Am I Being Unreasonable?
Credit: Boffola Pictures/Simon Ridgway
Daisy May Cooper and Selin Hizli’s dramedy Am I Being Unreasonable? tells the story of Nic (Cooper), a mum balancing her difficult home life with intrusive memories of the sudden death of a man she was having an affair with. It’s tense, it’s funny, and there’s a healthy dose of mystery thriller and psychological horror mixed in for good measure.
“Am I Being Unreasonable? is juggling a lot of plates,” I wrote in my review for Mashable. “But it juggles them well, with the script weaving seamlessly between jokes and foreboding, heartfelt moments, as well as twists you don’t see coming. There are very few TV shows I’ve seen where I’ve laughed out loud and been hit with a genuinely unnerving jump scare in the same episode, but this is the kind of story Am I Being Unreasonable? tells.”* — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor
How to watch: Am I Being Unreasonable? is now streaming on Hulu.
3. Love Island
We stand by it.
Credit: ITV
“I’ve got a text!” If these words mean nothing to you, then chances are you’re missing out, hun. Love Island season marks the beginning of the horniest time of year in Britain, when the words “Can I pull you for a chat?” promise a world of opportunity for bevs, NVQs, and getting pied.
ITV’s Love Island sees 11 islanders share a villa in Mallorca, Spain, where, upon arrival, they couple up with someone they fancy, and promptly have to share a bed with them until the producers announce a recoupling. As islanders get to know one another, loyalties change, and curveballs are thrown in when “bombshells” show up at the villa to make contestants question who they really want to be with — the person in their bed, or the new person standing before them? Will their decision lead to someone getting dumped from the island?
Choices are made, some of them good, some terrible — but you’ll likely be unable to tear yourself away from the messy drama of it all. It is what it is, babes. — Rachel Thompson, Features Editor
How to watch: Love Island is streaming on Hulu.
4. The Aliens
At only six episodes this 2016 series, which used a science-fiction plot about the integration of space aliens into society to reflect current concerns over immigration, might be frustrating for those who’ll be left wanting more. But it has a couple of things going for it, beyond the smart use of that metaphor at its heart, that make it worth diving into (as long as you go in expecting it to feel unfinished). One, it was created by Fintan Ryan, who was one of the writers on In the Flesh, also included on this list, and you can sense the overlap. And two — it co-stars the wondrous Michaela Coel, who’d already had success with 2015’s Chewing Gum and four years later went on to win every award within reach for her barn-burner limited series I May Destroy You. See her before she became Her! – Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: The Aliens is now streaming on Hulu.
5. This Way Up
Credit: Channel 4
Created by and starring Aisling Bea, whipsmart, hilarious, and poignant Channel 4 series This Way Up is a song for the lonely, as Cher would put it. Bea stars as Aine, a London teacher who’s really going through it, while Sharon Horgan stars as her sister Shona, who has her back through any and all storms. Season 1 is “one of the few accurate portrayals of millennial loneliness that truly distills the reality of what it’s like to be lonely in a city packed with people,” while Season 2 “captures mental health issues and sisterly relationships with compassion.”* — S.C.
How to watch: This Way Up is streaming on Hulu.
6. Normal People
Credit: BBC Three
Yes, it’s Irish, but it was produced by BBC Three so we’re counting it in here (any excuse) — see also Conversations with Friends. Based on Sally Rooney’s novel, the BBC/Hulu’s tear-jerking adaptation of Normal People seemed to capture everybody’s hearts when it aired in spring 2020, and with good reason. Telling the years-long story of the romance between two troubled Irish teenagers, Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), the show merges beautiful writing and cinematography with gut-wrenching performances.
Hulu’s ‘Conversations with Friends’ omits all the best conversations from the novel
“Before watching, know this: there will be feelings, and plenty of them,” wrote Mashable’s Rachel Thompson in her review. “You might cry (I certainly did). You might see your own experience in amongst the drama. You might remember past loves, past heartbreaks…And for that, you will feel thankful, young again, alive, and no longer numb.”— S.H.
How to watch: Normal People is streaming on Hulu.
7. In the Flesh
Credit: BBC/Des Willie
After 28 Days Later kicked off the new millennium’s zombie craze (eventually culminating in the endlessly spin-off-able The Walking Dead franchise in 2010) it felt like we got every twist on the zombie story possible. There were zombie girls (Deadgirl in 2008) and zombie dogs (Frankenweenie in 2012) and zombie beavers (Zombeavers in 2014). But 2013 for some reason turned out to be a big year for zombies in love — on the big screen we had undead Nicholas Hoult romancing Teresa Palmer in Jonathan Levine’s film Warm Bodies.
But even better and far more unsung there was the BBC-3 series In the Flesh from creator Dominic Mitchell. Across two seasons and nine too-brief episodes we were introduced to the tale of the reanimated twink Keiran Walker (Luke Newberry), his bestie Amy (Emily Bevan), and the hot zombie next door Simon (Emmett J Scanlan), all of whom have been medicated and restored, mostly, from their undead state thanks to a post-apocalyptic scientific discovery.
Queer love, ostracism, an outstanding turn from the great Wunmi Mosaku as the village’s dangerous mayor — In the Flesh is a horror masterpiece reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer at its best, where the metaphors of the genre thrive amid unexpected yet ingenious twists and turns. Watch it and then start signing every petition you can get your hands on for a third season! – Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: In the Flesh is now streaming on Hulu.
8. Absolutely Fabulous
Eddy and Pats 4eva.
Credit: Don Smith / Radio Times / Getty Images
Sweetie, darling, if you haven’t watched Absolutely Fabulous, grab a bottle of Bolly or Stoli or both, and let’s get bloody going, shall we? Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are simply everything as the iconic Edina and Patsy, Eddy and Pats, inseparable friends creating chaos in the high-flying London fashion world, spectacularly tumbling out of cabs and generally recovering face down on Eddy’s kitchen table. Offsetting the pair’s hilarious, booze-fuelled pandemonium is Edina’s long-suffering, haughty daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalha), her mischievous mother (June Whitfield), and her well-meaning but fairly useless assistant Bubble (Jane Horrocks). — S.C.
How to watch: Absolutely Fabulous is now streaming on Hulu.
9. Harlots
Credit: Hulu
Harlots on Hulu is about two warring brothels in Georgian-era London, each run by a formidable woman who straight up wants to murder the other. The first is Margaret Wells, whose working-class institution services men from all walks of life. Her nemesis is Lydia Quigley, a puffed up and powdered pseudo-lady whose pastel-toned mansion is a playground for blue-bloods and their ilk.
Their beef is as old as Margaret herself, and the murder-filled, underhanded plots they hatch to take each other down makes the show less of a sex-filled period drama and more of a tale of two madam mobsters.* — Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Harlots is now streaming on Hulu.
The 30 best period dramas to stream your way through history
10. Skins
Look at their happy fresh faces! Nothing bad’s going to happen!
Credit: Channel 4
Unlike fellow show about sixth form students The Inbetweeners, Skins isn’t just an out-and-out comedy — it also contains a fair bit of drama and darkness. One of the interesting things about Skins is its structure; every two seasons we get a new group of characters, following them on their two-year journey through college in the city of Bristol, and injecting the show with a batch of fresh faces. The same issues and themes crop up throughout, though, with the show refusing to shy away from topics like bereavement, mental illness and suicide. Does it get slightly far-fetched every now and then? Yes. But at its best (as it is in the first two seasons), it’s an engaging and poignant study of complex characters navigating a difficult chapter in life. – S.H.
How to watch: Skins is streaming on Hulu.
13. Primeval
Think The X-Files meets Jurassic Park, where a ragtag team of scientists are forced to contend with “time anomalies” that see wormholes suddenly springing open in modern-day London, transporting past and future monsters into the present where they wreak the typical havoc monsters are known for wreaking. Created by Tim Haines, the same man responsible for the extremely popular Walking With Dinosaurs nature miniseries, this was his stab at fictionalizing those scientific instincts – Doctor Who’ing it up, basically.
And for five seasons from 2007 until 2011 they did just that, with tremendous dino-riffic success. The special effects have definitely lost some of their luster in the last decade, but Primeval remains great unserious old-fashioned escapism, of a lineage with the Ray Harryhausen shows that inspired it, with some actual science sprinkled in among the giant monster future bats. – J.A.
How to watch: Primeval is now streaming on Hulu.
12. Line of Duty
Shalom Brune-Franklin and Martin Compston get to the core of corruption in “Line of Duty”.
Credit: BBC/World Productions
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and the wee donkey, Line of Duty was all anyone could talk for years in the UK. When the sixth season of the beloved police corruption drama landed on BBC in 2021, Twitter exploded over the awaited “bent coppers” line delivered by Adrian Dunbar as one Superintendent Ted Hastings.
Although the final episode polarised fans, Season 6 of Line of Duty was undeniably one of the shows that had people glued to their sets during yet another lockdown in the UK (but as it does every season, really). There are excellent performances across the seasons too from some of Britain’s best actors, including Thandiwe Newton as DCI Roseanne Huntley, Keeley Hawes as DI Lindsay Denton, Lennie James as DCI Tony Gates, and Kelly Macdonald as DCI Joanne Davidson.* — S.C.
How to watch: Line of Duty is streaming on Hulu.
11. Bleak House
Gillian Anderson’s not in this image but she’s very much in this.
Credit: BBC Four
Charles Dickens’ epic 1853 serial of murder, tuberculosis, forbidden love, and disputed wills made its way onto the BBC just over a century and a half post-publication with this eight-part miniseries starring, among many, Gillian Anderson, Charles Dance, Richard Giffiths, and a pre-everything Carey Mulligan. Not that this was the Beeb’s first go, having tried previously with 1959 and 1985 adaptations. But this one is considered by most to be the rousing success, with the series nominated for and winning BAFTAs and Emmys and Peabodys left right and center. Anderson’s turn as the tragic Lady Delock was especially well-received, becoming yet another one of Our Lady of Scully’s beloved literary turns alongside other great work in adaptations of The House of Mirth, Great Expectations, and A Streetcar Named Desire. – J.A.
How to watch: Bleak House is now streaming on Hulu.
14. The Office
The OG.
Credit: BBC Two
The OG phenomenon behind the sitcom we’ve all come to quote in our sleep, The Office set the precedent for Michael Scott and co. way back in 2001. Much like its American remake, The Office is set in the dreary town of Slough, at a paper company run by David Brent (Ricky Gervais), a horrendously awkward businessman who thinks he’s supremely cool, funny, and successful. David Brent is, of course, the template for Michael Scott (Steve Carell), which means his endless social faux pas lead to hilarious hijinks doused in wry humor. Keep an eye out for all the original British counterparts of our beloved characters Dwight, Jim, Pam, and Roy, with Mackenzie Crook, Martin Freeman, Lucy Davis, and Joel Beckett as Gareth, Tim, Dawn, and Lee. — Yasmeen Hamadeh, Entertainment Intern
How to watch: The Office (U.K.) is streaming on Hulu.
15. Welcome to Wrexham
It’s a docuseries but it’s been so everywhere we included it.
Credit: Disney+
About three years ago, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds bought Wrexham, a Welsh football club that’s the third oldest professional football club in the world. The two Hollywood actors teamed up to transform the club, never having worked together before and with no experience running a football club at all. In the two-season series Welcome to Wrexham, you’ll follow McElhenney and Reynolds’ journey but also tells the story of Wrexham itself, a North Welsh town, a tight-knit community, their pride in football, and the dreams of one team.* — Meera Navlakha, Culture Reporter
How to watch: Welcome to Wrexham is now streaming on Hulu.
To start streaming, Hulu offers a 30-day free trial for all new subscribers, with a basic plan of $6.99 per month (with ads), and a premium plan of $12.99 per month (with no ads). Hit that button below to begin.
