The best TV of 2026 so far has been a treasure trove of delights, from ludicrously fun 80s love affairs to outrageously scandalous drama. Here are our favourite shows of the year.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Departing from the doom and gloom of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, this lighter, funnier Westeros spin-off was infinitely more enjoyable from the off. Ser Dunk and Egg are a duo worth rooting for as they prepare for the tourney, with Dunk chasing his dream of becoming a knight. The series isn't without gore, and the Targaryen twist sent things into a blood-soaked spiral. But its simpler storytelling and mostly sweet characters made us excited to be back in George RR Martin's world.
Amandaland
Lucy Punch has created one of the best TV antiheroes in years. Insufferable, yes, but the divorced middle-class mum, influencer, and kitchen shop worker Amanda cracks us up so much that, by this second series, we just want her dream of moving into a bigger house in SoHa to come true. With Philippa Dunne as her long-suffering friend and dogsbody Anne, and Joanna Lumley as Amanda's overbearing mother, this is a celebration of some of the best women in comedy.
Bait
Patrick Stewart voices a dead pig's head. Guz Khan plays an entrepreneur trying to disrupt the taxi market with Muber, the Muslim Uber. Riz Ahmed's semi-autobiographical story of an actor striving to become the next James Bond sounds like a straight-up comedy, but it plays out as the woozy tale of a borderline breakdown induced by the pressures of fitting into the mainstream while staying true to one's community. It's the most wry, witty, and brilliant look at cultural identity we'll watch this year.
Children of the Blitz
Given that anyone who can recall the Blitz is now at least pushing 90, this 90-minute film transcends documentary-making and enters historical record-building. Speaking to Blitz survivors from across the British Isles, it was enlightening and deeply touching, with testimony reminding viewers that childhood trauma often lasts a lifetime, alongside stories of resilience and redemption. The death of the wonderful Patsy Moneypenny between filming and broadcast was a poignant reminder that time is running out to preserve these memories.
Heated Rivalry
Based on Rachel Reid's novels, this sexy hockey romance has taken the world by storm, unleashing the star power of Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The story of pro hockey players Ilya and Shane, who pretend to loathe each other but have secret trysts and fall for each other hard, is a gorgeous queer love story in the butch world of pucks and padding. It's pumped full of sex but also packed with beautiful moments, from Storrie's soul-bearing monologue in Russian to their blissful days in a lake house.
Industry
Industry is no longer the show it started as; long gone are the slanging matches on the brutal Pierpoint trading floor. But the fourth season was outrageously scandalous. Harper and Yasmin are the only original finance grads left, trying to straddle friendship with rivalry. The show features overdosing journalists, bloody bust-ups, and claims of incest at a Marie Antoinette party. The next season has been confirmed as the last, and the nightmares we have witnessed suggest it will end with a bang.
Last One Laughing UK
The lineup of this brilliantly daffy game show's first outing was so stellar that it seemed impossible to replicate, but thankfully it wasn't. Another starry bunch of comics get sublimely silly as they attempt to spend six hours without cracking a smile. Sam Campbell dressed in a giant cockatoo costume, David Mitchell putting on the most committed and tuneless musical theatre performance ever seen on TV, and Alan Carr trying to operate a sausage-making machine live on stage make for hilarious viewing.
Making Life on Earth: Attenborough's Greatest Adventure
Who'd have guessed that the 100th year of the broadcasting legend's life would see some of his greatest work? Alongside Wild London and Secret Garden, he greeted his centenary with stunning retrospectives. This raucously entertaining tale of how he created his first masterwork, Life on Earth, includes tales of donkey allergies, dodging political coups, and being terrorised by giant tortoises. It also covers his encounter with Rwandan gorillas, with whom he reunited this year in Netflix's A Gorilla Story.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair
This four-episode special catching up with the titular Malcolm in adulthood, as he attempts to weasel out of his parents' 40th wedding anniversary, is absolutely glorious television. The cast's chemistry is as effervescent as ever, the zingers just as sharp, and it remains the best TV portrayal of loving your family while finding them a source of meltdown-inducing rage. Bryan Cranston's ludicrously committed turn as dad Hal, in which he necks dangerous amounts of hallucinogens and has a reckless dalliance with glitter, is one of the funniest moments of the year.
Margo's Got Money Troubles
This clever, charming comedy drama stars Elle Fanning as Margo, a bright, working-class teen whose English tutor is convinced she's Harvard material. When she becomes pregnant, he leaves her holding the baby, ending her Harvard ambitions but beginning a new kind of creativity involving an OnlyFans account. The show is a soulful journey about found family and female solidarity, with excellent performances, most notably Michelle Pfeiffer as Margo's tough-as-teak mother Shyanne.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
This thriller about a divorced mum who gets embroiled in a blackmail scam with a gorgeous camboy lives up to its clickbait title. Tatiana Maslany is incredible as Paula, the hockey stick-wielding mum who witnesses Trevor being attacked during one of their sexy sessions and ends up taking matters into her own hands. The cast is ace, from Jake Johnson as Paula's conniving ex to Murray Bartlett as the big bad. Every episode has a cracking cliffhanger, with some of the wildest injury and death scenes in TV memory.
Rivals
Jilly Cooper's 80s bonkbuster was ludicrously fun when it first titillated us in 2024; the second season holds up even stronger. As the rivalry between Rupert Campbell-Black and Tony Baddingham intensifies, there are endless love affairs and beautiful teary moments. Pool sex, helicopter chases, and the great storm of '87 make each scene like taking a sip of chilled chardonnay on a scorching hot day. Naughty, dizzying, and absolutely vital, the yearning between Lizzie and Freddie alone is enough to keep us glued.
Saturday Night Live UK
Hopes weren't high for this UK spin-off of the US comedy staple, but the show's mixture of sketches, banter, and music turned out very well. Highlights include George Fouracres' consistently fun impressions, the dangerously Undérage skincare treatment, and the spot-on Traitors spoof. This show definitely has legs, which is more than can be said for several visitors to the terrifying immersive Paddington Bear experience with an actual hungry bear.
Scrubs
This revival of the hit medical sitcom could easily have flatlined, but it instantly came to life by doing everything it used to do so well. Wacky daydreams, daft jokes, and brutal putdowns make it good to be back at Sacred Heart. Most of the original cast are there, including John C McGinley as the inimitable, now retired Dr Cox. It's slightly unnerving that they all look exactly the same as they did 20 years ago, but that's the only distraction from this brilliant reboot.
Small Prophets
The long-awaited new sitcom from Detectorists creator Mackenzie Crook is a low-key joy. It's a melancholy tinged tale of Mancunian retail worker Michael's search for his missing girlfriend and his unexpected foray into the supernatural. Gentle, charming, and funny, it features a long-overdue return to TV comedy for Michael Palin as the lead's father. It could hardly get more lovable.
Star City
This counterfactual spin-off from For All Mankind offers a parallel Soviet take on the space race. It's a much darker affair than its parent show but every bit as gripping, focusing on the glory of Mother Russia and the extreme peril facing anyone who fails to serve her. Rhys Ifans stars as the frustrated but dutiful Chief Designer, while Anna Maxwell Martin is magnificently chilling as KGB functionary Lyudmilla. It's a ferocious study of the crushing weight and inherent absurdity of totalitarianism.
The Assembly
Since its first outing in 2024, this celebrity interview show has never failed to make our annual best-of list. It's far and away the most revealing interview with a famous person on TV, as their encounter with a room full of neurodivergent interviewers unlocks something no chummy chatshow sofa seems able to. Guests sit down with genuine nervousness, find themselves stunned by the emotive power of questions, or get giddy with delight at the frankness of the interviewers. The tear-inducing singalong that ends each episode is a total joy.
The Cage
Another TV triumph from Tony Schumacher, creator of The Responder, this show proves he is no one-trick pony. Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha are extraordinary as Leanne and Matty, harried casino worker pals who discover they're both skimming off the takings. The moment Leanne's ex robs the shoebox stuffed with all £34,000 of her house savings is heart-rending. Five relentlessly stressful hours culminate in Matty's heroic act of selflessness. The devastating 80s soundtrack gives the show a wonderful payoff.
The Other Bennet Sister
Another Pride and Prejudice drama might make even the biggest Jane Austen fan sceptical, but this gorgeous, funny show offers a spirited new take: the overlooked sister, Mary, telling the classic story from her perspective. Ella Bruccoleri is superbly cast as the misunderstood spinster who goes on to carve her own path and fall into a love triangle of her own. A perfect period drama.
The Pitt
It's no mean feat to serve up two seasons of spotless TV that make you feel like someone's applied superglue to your sofa, but the Noah Wyle-starring medical drama from the creators of ER is yet to make an hour of TV that isn't utterly captivating. It's an excellent, faultlessly realistic tale of life in a Pittsburgh hospital's emergency department, with the emotional range to leave viewers chuckling, weeping, or seething with righteous anger. As characters battle mass shootings, cyber-attacks, and nuns with gonorrhea, it's hard not to marvel at the incredible humanity of doctors and nurses.
The Testaments
Despite becoming way too bleak to watch in parts, last year's powerful final series of The Handmaid's Tale proved it was a fine adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel. That same quality is found in the sequel, which picks up the story years later in Gilead, where life seems more relaxed for the next generation of women. But the pastel hues, soft filters, and catchy covers of pop hits only make everything feel more sinister. When June sends in an undercover teenage girl to befriend Agnes and Aunt Lydia, it's tense edge-of-your-seat stuff with shock twists and a cameo from Atwood herself.
The Traitors
What an absolute rollercoaster. At points, this year's hooded assassins were so brutal it threatened to tip over into high drama, but the show revealed it had far more going for it than the fights and machiavellian ways. It became a tale of trust and loyalty between Rachel and Stephen, and after that finale, consider our faith in humanity restored.
This Is a Gardening Show
Each episode of Zach Galifianakis's offbeat look at horticulture is only 15 minutes, but they pack in more smiles and laugh-out-loud moments than some sitcoms deliver in an entire series. As he visits farms and sings the virtues of the agrarian lifestyle, he never fails to goof around. The highlight is interviews with kids about vegetables, where they might sit silently, crack ludicrously surreal jokes, or claim to have fathered an entire family. Absolutely joyful.
Waiting for the Out
Josh Finan is staggering in this brilliant BBC drama about Dan, a man who teaches philosophy in a prison while reckoning with his own demons. Based on Andy West's memoir The Life Inside, creator Dennis Kelly masterfully brings Dan to life as a man tormented by the fact that his dad and brother have both done time, living in mortal dread that he might follow them. Watching Dan descend into a full-blown OCD nightmare, taking countless photos of his gas stove to check it's not on, is sheer agony.
Widow's Bay
The oddball, off-the-wall horror comedy we are totally obsessed with. The exceptional cast, from Matthew Rhys as the put-upon mayor of the eponymous cursed island to a revelatory Kate O'Flynn and Jeff Hiller, bring the eccentric place to life beautifully. There are plenty of laughs and jump scares, and it's been likened to Twin Peaks. If that won't make you watch, nothing will.
Wonder Man
For anyone suffering MCU fatigue, Wonder Man is the Marvel TV show that feels nothing like a Marvel TV show. It is set in a world that frowns upon superhero powers and gives us a story about the unlikely friendship between enigmatic aspiring actor Simon and eccentric has-been actor Trevor. Except Trevor has been tasked with secretly investigating Simon's unusual strength. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley are fantastic as this chalk-and-cheese pairing, with genuinely poignant moments and laugh-out-loud scenes.
The Zero Line
Ben Steele's chilling documentary about life inside Putin's war is the kind of TV that will always stick with you. He gained remarkable access to men who reluctantly joined the Russian army and/or showed resistance, and their accounts of military torture, meat storms, and summary executions are harrowing. You can't help but still fear for the men who have escaped and speak on camera, making it all the more powerful and terrifying to watch.
