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Looking back: the best TV shows in 2016

By Helena Kealey on 14/12/2016

Our round-up of the best TV shows of 2016 and how to watch them

The Crown, Netflix

It was the most expensive show in TV history: The Crown on Netflix was a lavish ten episode dissection (and possibly elaboration) of the private lives of the British royal family.

Ten hour long episodes created by Peter Morgan and starring Claire Foy as our majestic Queen Elizabeth II, Matt Smith as the sumptuous Prince Phillip and John Lithgow as the impossible Winston Churchill were not enough to quench our thirst for royal intrigue. The Crown will be back with nine more series.

WHERE

Netflix

What we learned from The Night Manager: episode six review

The Night Manager, BBC

The BBC’s sparkling Le Carré thriller brought Hugh Laurie back to British screens as the monstrous Richard Roper in a battle between good and evil, an arms trade deal and Tom Hiddleston as the undercover British agent and over the heart of Jed Marshall, played by Elizabeth Debicki. Imagine James Bond with nothing but a 2001 Nokia flip phone, and you've got the general idea.

WHERE

Buy on the BBC Store or iTunes

Divorce, Sky Atlantic

"He doesn't just make me come. He makes me come a lot". Sarah Jessica Parker starred as Carrie Bradshaw in this dirty, scandalous and deeply insightful drama into our messy, miserable lives by the hilarious mastermind behind Catastrophe, Sharon Horgan.

WHERE

Sky customers can watch on Sky Go

National Treasure, Channel 4

What happens to a public figure's life when they're accused of historic sex crimes? Until the devastating climax, National Treasure kept us in a state of antagonised ambiguity exploring power and deception from top to bottom.

Click here to watch it now

WHERE

Available on Channel4

Poldark, BBC

Our favourite rugged and hairy vision of manhood, Poldark (Aidan Turner), returned to the BBC for a action-packed series two that saw Cornwalls' green and rugged land go through one court case, one death by drowning, one death by falling rocks, one rape, one wedding, one baby, one pregnancy, one saucy young heiress causing havoc, one failed marriage, one failed mine and one mass revolt. Fewph.

WHERE

Buy on Amazon Video, BBC Store or iTunes

The Durrells, ITV

Exotic blue skies, sultry young men, period costumes and lashings of laughter: The Durrells was a masterpiece in charming Sunday night British television based on Gerald Durrell's fictionalised memoir My Family and Other Animals, The Durrells that transported us to the dusty idyl of 1930s Corfu and into the company of the five bafflingly eccentric Durrell family members.

WHERE

Available to buy on Amazon Instant Video. Season 2 is coming to ITV next year

The Young Pope, Sky Atlantic

Jude Law starred in his career-defining performance as the machiavellian orphan from New York who unexpectedly become Pope and set about traumatising the Vatican with his controversial, Borgia-esque views. Aesthetically spectacular, earth-shatteringly tense, weird, wonderful and directed by Paolo Sorrentino The Young Pope was seriously sophisticated stuff.

WHERE

Sky subscribers can catch up via Sky Go

Stranger Things, Netflix

This crepuscular, scy-fi Netflix break-out hit set in the '80s and featuring Winona Ryder and Millie Bobby Brown became an obsession for all young, slight-nerdy kids. It's a good enough reason to get Netflix all by itself.

WHERE

Netflix

The Fall, BBC

How beautiful does a serial killer have to be for the British public to fall madly in love with him? The answer is Jamie Dornan: he of the chiselled jaw, designer stubble, and Fifty Shades of Grey series. Dornan returned for series three of The Fall as the sexy lady-stranger to continue running from DSI Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson) in this slow-paced and unsettling TV show.

WHERE

Buy via Amazon Video, BBC Store or iTunes

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, Netflix

Charlie Brooker’s dystopian look at what the world could so easily become first crawled onto our screens in 2011. It returned this year on Netflix, having moved from Channel 4.

Many of us found ourselves tied to our laptops for a whole weekend binge-watching all six episodes when they were released, before obsessing over what would happen if we meant what we said online, if people found out what we do behind closed doors, if we allow our technological obsession to dictate our future. It was hard to forget about this sci-fy TV show at work on Monday.

WHERE

Netflix

War and Peace, BBC

The titanic Russian classic by Leo Tolstoy was whittled down by the BBC last Christmas to give us six lavish episodes of period drama that were full of blood, lust and intrigue, and starred 2016's break-out acting success: Lily James.

WHERE

Buy via Amazon Video, BBC Store or iTunes

Planet Earth II, BBC

David Attenborough's career-best (and what stiff competition it's had), Planet Earth II took us from the highest mountains to the driest deserts via the wettest grasslands before stopping off in our the biggest cities, exploring the amazing lives of animals great and small on this one green planet.

Click here to watch it

WHERE

Still available on BBC iPlayer if you hurry!

Fleabag, BBC

Walking the fine line between sexual liberation and self-degradation, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag was adapted from her debut solo show and is a blistering, hilarious, nightmarish interrogation of what it means to be a woman in the 21st century.

Click to watch it here

WHERE

BBC3 online

NW, BBC

Orange Prize winner Zadie Smith's 2015 novel NW was adapted into a traumatising 90 minute drama documenting the impact of race, sex and class on Britain. Two troubled women, foetally-confused Leah (Phoebe Fox) and over-achiever Natalie battled with their histories, desires and messed-up friendship.

Click to watch it here

WHERE

Available on BBC iPlayer if you hurry

Louis Theroux: Drinking to Oblivion, BBC

The pain! The frustration! The agony! King of the documentary makers Louis Theroux spent his time at King's College Hospital in London - a specialist liver centre - immersing himself in the lives of patients in the grips of alcohol addiction and the medical staff trying to make them better.

WHERE

Buy via Amazon Video or BBC Store

Victoria, ITV

Not as good as The Crown but not bad from ITV: Victoria by novelist Daisy Goodwin attempted to lay bare the inner workings of our girlish, priggish, often silly and (until recently) longest reigning monarch, Queen Victoria.

Criticised for starring Dr Who's Jenna Coleman, who 21st century audiences considered much too attractive to be old Queen Vic, those who could see past the hot totty were treated to six episodes of social drama and a very British TV show.

WHERE

Available to buy on Amazon. Series 2 comes to screens in 2017

Orange is the New Black, Netflix

Between Piper’s swastika, Lolly’s sectioning and poor Poussey, the fourth series of Orange is the New Black was unmissable TV telling stories about wistfulness, regret and longing, all set in a women's prison and helping mark 2016 out as a stella year for women on TV

WHERE

Netflix