100 Greatest TV Shows to Watch Now – the British comedies

Peep Show

4oD

Every episode of this suffocatingly funny comedy is free on 4oD. Uptight office worker Mark (played by uptight comedian David Mitchell) and layabout Jeremy (Robert Webb) share a flat and a love/hate/hate relationship. No TV show has so perfectly captured the everyday, unending, constant horror of existence. Listening to their thoughts, it’s like you’re a passenger trapped in the slow-motion car crash of their lives.

The Thick of It

Netflix / Amazon Prime Instant Video

The comedy that had every politician smirking with recognition. From second homes to omnishambles to a missing bell-end — no, wait, that was Jeremy Hunt’s bell-ringing malfunction — Armando Iannucci’s satire reflected and prefigured life with vicious clarity. The series never feels preachy, never lets “the message” get in the way of character and comedy. Even Malcolm Tucker would struggle to pull that off.

The Gavin & Stacey

Netflix / Amazon Prime Instant Video

James Corden and Ruth Jones made their comedy names by writing and starring in a sitcom that’s impossible to dislike. Mathew Horne and Joanna Page play the long-distance lovers who put clans from opposite sides of the country — Billericay and Barry Island — on a collision course. Like The Royle Family before it, it’s all about the lovable quirks of our nearest and dearest — it doesn’t take long before the characters feel like family.

Read the full guide to The 100 Greatest Shows to Watch Now in the latest issue of Radio Times, out from Tuesday 13 January.

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