IT’s been a vintage 12 months for telly, with some old favourites returning to remind us why they have been thrilling us for years.
There have also been one-off curveballs and newcomers that have shocked us, left us in tears and made us question our faith in humanity entirely.
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Here we pick some of the best of 2024, in no particular order, mostly available on catch-up or relevant streaming sites and perfect to binge over the Christmas break.
Now, go fill your boots.
INDUSTRY, BBC ONE, September: When you thought they simply couldn’t pack in any more sex, drugs or cash into the bonking and banking drama they up the ante, then cap it off with a heartbreaking ending. Series three of Industry remained the kind of high- octane TV that makes compelling viewing.
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MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE, ITV, January: Few shows can captivate the entire country like this shocking true story of how a group of subpostmasters were treated by the Post Office. Leading man Toby Jones was superb. A great drama and a vital tale for anyone battling injustice.
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CLARKSON’S FARM 3, PRIME VIDEO, May: After two series of hilarious antics, we got a tearjerker. Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat saw tragedy as it became home to pigs. But lighter moments include when Jeremy puts his hand in his pocket to discover one of the swine has vomited in there.
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DATING NAKED, PARAMOUNT+, August: Host Rylan Clark took romance reality to a new level as a group of strangers live and find love in the nude. It was a jaw-dropping concept that proved to have a whole load of heart, as the cast swiftly dropped any act and made great, twisty telly.
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THE GENTLEMEN, NETFLIX, March: A Guy Ritchie drama that manages to streamline his usual style while retaining all his best gangster film flourishes. It’s aided by great performances from Theo James, Kaya Scodelario and Daniel Ings. With a meaty story at its heart, this was a triumph.
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WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, BBC ONE, December: The sequel to Wolf Hall had very big Tudor slippers to fill after the first adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s books, but they were on pretty safe ground with Damien Lewis returning as King Henry VIII and Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.
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CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER, ITV, March: An impressive gaggle gathered in ITV’s spy house for its first celeb series. The scenes between Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Ekin-Su Culculoglu rightly earned their place in reality history with drama and gossip that rumbled on for months.
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MONSTERS: THE LYLE AND ERIK MENENDEZ STORY, NETFLIX, September: The story of the murdering Menendez brothers was stretched out by Netflix’s insistence on milking stories to death. But Monsters was still a worthy deep dive into a sensational story that was well worth revisiting.
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DAY OF THE JACKAL, SKY ATLANTIC, November: Trying to recreate the magic of Frederick Forsyth’s acclaimed book and the seminal movie was a tough task but Sky managed it by giving us a modern take on the assassin on the run. A tad drawn out but served up a shocking ending that left us wanting more.
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SLOW HORSES, Apple TV+, September: Gary Oldman is superb as a cynical, dishevelled, dangerously clever “spymaster” in this undervalued story of agents cast on the scrapheap who confound both bosses and the opposition. Fourth series adapted from Mick Herron’s novels was the best yet.
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TOUR DE FRANCE: UNCHAINED, NETFLIX, June: Perhaps the most eye-opening of the trending must-watch factuals lifting the lid on sports we love. It joins the world’s best cyclists in the wake of Gino Mäder’s tragic death in a mountain crash last year as the riders battle through 21 gruelling stages.
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THE BROTHERS SUN, NETFLIX, January: This tale of Taiwanese gangsters in California was an action thriller with real heart featuring a multicultural cast – including the great Michelle Yeoh as matriarch of the Sun family. It probably won’t win any awards, but it will win you over if you give it a chance.
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LOVE IS BLIND UK, NETFLIX, August: American formats can flounder on British telly but this thrived under Emma and Matt Willis. It had the shock dumplings at the altar and secret hook-ups we now expected from this dating show, but with the addition of dry wit, banter and cultural discussions.
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THE DIPLOMAT, NETFLIX, October: The second season of this geopolitical drama built on the brilliance of the first, ramping up the action to a new level. You’d need to have watched the first season, to be set to binge on this. Smart, sophisticated and witty, diplomacy never looked so confrontational.
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THE GRAND TOUR, PRIME VIDEO, September: It may not have been their most sensational foreign trip, but the farewell helping of The Grand Tour from Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May was certainly one of the most emotional. It melted the hearts of the toughest of petrolheads.
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DNA JOURNEY: JOHN SIMM AND PHILIP GLENISTER, ITV, October: These types of show can be pretty mediocre but this was an absolute corker of a story. It saw Life On Mars actor John accidentally discover his dad wasn’t his biological father and the emotional search for the truth that ensued.
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A VERY ROYAL SCANDAL, PRIME VIDEO, September: Yes, Scoop, the Netflix dramatisation of Prince Andrew’s car-crash BBC interview, came out first. But Prime’s one, dropping months later, was superior. Michael Sheen as the royal and Ruth Wilson as Emily Maitlis were inspired choices.
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LUDWIG, BBC ONE, September: David Mitchell’s quirky comedy mystery about an agoraphobic puzzle-setter and his missing twin was one of the year’s best new series. David plays John, who has to infiltrate the local police department to solve the clues left by his detective brother.
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OLIVIA ATTWOOD’S BAD BOYFRIENDS, ITV2, September: Sassy Love Islander Olivia’s clever and original reality TV format grabbed my attention. Based on her own experience with bad lad to honed husband Bradley Dack, she tricked a group of fellas into becoming better men.
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AFTER THE PARTY, CHANNEL 4, November: It didn’t land with a bang, but it has been talked about ever since. Arguably one of the channel’s best dramas all year. Made in New Zealand, it sees Brit actor Peter Mullen give one of the best performances of his career as a man embroiled in a family crisis.
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THE TRAITORS 2, BBC ONE, January: If the producers had scripted the reality show from start to finish, they couldn’t have given us a better narrative or a more delicious conclusion. Baby-faced assassin Harry Clark took things to a new treacherous level as he conned all his fellow contestants.
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BABY REINDEER, NETFLIX, April: Love the show or hate it, there was no denying the huge impact of the unique drama. We grappled with the question of just who was right or wrong in this shades-of-grey story based on real events, and ripples of controversy radiated from the show for months.
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BOYBANDS FOREVER, BBC TWO, November: Anyone who grew up in the Nineties and Noughties watching this would have felt waves of nostalgia but also the sad realisation that behind the cheeky smiles and choreography there was real heartbreak, with some incredible confessions too.
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BLACK DOVES, NETFLIX, November: A surprisingly sophisticated spy thriller with real heart and some serious laughs too. Keira Knightley is scarily good as a secret agent leading a double life while her co-star Ben Whishaw is the most unlikely but terrifying gun for hire. Great plot, great characters.