TV Shows

www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/best-tv-dramas-all-time/

The Telegraph's Top 50 has some rather curious rankings

50. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
49. Shameless (2004-2013)
48. The English (2022)
47. Gomorrah (2014-2021)
46. State of Play (2003)
45. Utopia (2013-2014)
44. Wolf Hall (2015)
43. Star Trek (1966-1969)
42. The Singing Detective (1986)
41. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
40. I, Claudius (1976)
39. Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
38. Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
37. Borgen (2010-2022)
36. Edge of Darkness (1985)
35. My Brilliant Friend (2018-present)
34. Prime Suspect (1991-2006)
33. Threads (1984)
32. Talking Heads (1988-2020)
31. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979)
30. Happy Valley (2014-2023)
29. Patrick Melrose (2018)
28. Bleak House (2005)
27. Hill St Blues (1981-1987)
26. Oz (1997-2003)
25. Atlanta (2016-2022)
24. The Naked Civil Servant (1975)
23. ER (1994-2009)
22. Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
21. Red Riding (2009)
20. Band of Brothers (2001)
19. Cracker (1993-2006)
18. Succession (2018-2023)
17. GBH (1991)
16. I May Destroy You (2020)
15. A Very Peculiar Practice (1986-1992)
14. The West Wing (1999-2006)
13. Mad Men (2007-2015)
12. Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)
11. A Very British Coup (1988)
10. The Underground Railroad (2021)
9. Our Friends in the North (1996)
8. Chernobyl (2019)
7. Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
6. Pennies from Heaven (1978)
5. Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999)
4. Brideshead Revisited (1981)
3. Cathy Come Home (1966)
2. The Sopranos (1999-2007)
1. The Wire (2002-2008)


- First and foremost, it is a list from a British newspaper, which would explain some of the bias towards mainly British shows, with a sprinkling of American (usually crime) programmes. Apparently, Canada and Australia haven't produced any dramas that would rank on a par with Shameless
- Obviously, the writer has a yen for American police and crime shows, which combine the dingy, the dank and the griminess of society
- The Sopranos was the subject of jokes for being stratospherically overrated back in 1999. A bunch of criminal murderers and thugs becoming compelling television was as edifying as screening close up footage of car crashes; people will look, but is that the only consideration that should be taken into account?
- I'd contrast it with Breaking Bad, which has a clearer moral message, even if it obscures it through the tricks of making the audience identify with the criminal drug trafficking murderer
- Chernobyl is too low
- A Very British Coup was an awful show, with smarmy script writing, silly contrivances, juvenile set pieces (let's dismantle a nuclear warhead on live television!), completely dated politics, sheer fantasy policies (within a few weeks, all pre 1979 industry has been magically restored), completely dated naiveite (lets go borrow money from the Soviet Union in the late 80s!) and the execrable Keith Allen as the journalistic hero/SI. That this slots in at 11 says a lot of when the author had their formative years
- Game of Thrones having fallen so much in but 5 years speaks to how low it will be rated historically. It began well, but after Season 4, when they ran out of published novels to work with, they went off a cliff. Additionally, their stock and trade was shock value, which eventually loses your audience or deadens it to the effect
- The list is missing The X-Files, among others

There are half a dozen similar lists percolating around the place, all of which dwell on the exact same programmes, particular in the top 20. This suggests not only a failure of imagination, but a failure of any independent thought or creativity. Apparently, there was effectively no great television programmes in the 1960s-1990s.

The 50s show you are thinking of is Quatermass.

I agree that it seemed as if a lot of the older rankings were simply 'transferred wisdom', rather than a personal perspective. That there are multiple articles that are very similar floating around on much less (nominally) reputable sites than a 'broadsheet' makes me smell a bit of a rat; I think this may be a case of writing an article based on another article, rather than a truly independent list.

This list, and ones like it, are rooted in the Tyranny of Now; whilst it seemed there was a 'New Golden Age' of television in the early 2010s, there were a lot of really good programmes that have been forgotten. The 1970s gave more than Tinker Tailor and I, Claudius, even if both of those stand out as excellent in their own right. Fall of Eagles, for example, covered a lot of ground with an excellent cast. There were also shows from more recently that seemingly have slipped out of the contemporary, memory, such as Life on Mars.

Did anyone watch this show Years and Years? I didn't, but it got good reviews, and meanwhile, at least parts of it have become honorary AH.