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Table of ContentsTable of ContentsThe Inheritance (2023)Joan (2024)What Remains (2013)The Responder (2022-present)Age Before Beauty (2018)Life in Squares (2015)The Victim (2019)Time (2021-2023)Why Didnt They Ask Evans? (2022)Pride & Prejudice (1995)Remember that old saying, There are 100 channels, and nothings on? Well, the opposite is true nowadays. That theres an abundance of high-quality TV shows is both a reward and a punishment, as its tough to find the right program to watch amid a sea of content. And thats just British television!From the BBC to Channel 4 to ITV, British television is in its second Golden Age, and BritBox has most of the good stuff. The streamer has hundreds of comedies, dramas, period pieces, soap operas, morning chat programs, and reality series at its disposal, and the following 10 shows are the best it has to offer in 2025.Recommended VideosInterested in more great British programming? Then check out the best British TV shows on Netflix, 3 great BritBox shows you should watch right now, and the 5 most anticipated British crime shows of 2025.RelatedChannel 5Why is a reading of a will so dramatic? Tons of movies and shows use it as a plot device, and it almost always works. Thats especially true with The Inheritance, a modern riff on William Shakespeares King Lear. Its no spoiler to reveal Dennis Watson, the elderly man at the center of the plot, turns up dead in the opening episode. His three grown children Daniel, Chloe, and Sian are shocked, but not nearly as much as when they all found out theyd been cut from dear dads will and deprived of a hefty cash windfall.Why were they deprived of their rightful inheritance when they all seemingly had a decent, if strained, relationship with their father? And did Dennis really die of natural causes, or was it foul play? Across its four episodes, The Inheritance dishes up juicy family melodrama and a central mystery that will keep you hooked.Joan | New Series | BBC PlayerJoan Hannington is a woman with few options. Still only in her 20s, she has a 6-year-old daughter, Kelly, whom she adores, and a husband, Boise, whom she loathes. Her life is seemingly over before its even begun, except Joan decides one day to change things up: Shell become a jewel thief.At first, she gets all the fur coats and diamond earrings she could ever desire, but her new taste for crime has a cost, and soon, her secret life as a thief threatens not only her but her entire family as well. Game of Thrones vet Sophie Turner stars as the title character in this acclaimed drama, which is based on actual events. There really was a Joan Hannington, and she really did become The Godmother of the British criminal underworld. Her story proves the adage that life is sometimes stranger than fiction and more interesting as a result.BritBoxWhat Remains has an intriguing premise: A dead body is found in the top floor apartment of a tenement building in downtown London. To make matters worse, the body, which used to be a young woman named Melissa (Jessica Gunning), had been there for two years. Why had no one noticed a rotting corpse in their building? And why did no one from Melissas family or friends report her missing?Thats what Detective Len Harper (David Threlfall) wants to find out as he interviews the other occupants of the building, which include a man and his pregnant partner, a married couple who work as designers, and a middle-aged teacher who secretly shares his flat with a younger companion. All of them have something to hide, but who had a role in Jessicas murder? What Remains features a bevy of future stars, including Lookings Russell Tovey and Baby Reindeers Gunning, in a four-part mystery that will keep you guessing right up until the end.The Responder | Trailer BBCChris Carson isnt having the best time of his life. Hes a glorified night security guard following an illustrious career as an inspector, his current Liverpool apartment is depressing as hell, and he has to go to therapy to deal with some past trauma thats destroyed his personal life. To make matters worse, hes been assigned a new partner, Rachel, whose sunny optimism annoys him to no end.When he tries to save an innocent man from a drug deal that has gone terribly wrong, Chris sees an opportunity to turn his life around. But can he escape from the sins of his past? The Responder is both a great British crime procedural and a fascinating portrait of a man slowly piecing his life back together. As Carson, Martin Freeman, best known for his comedic work in Love Actually and the British version of The Office, gives a terrific performance thats worth watching the show for him alone.Age Before Beauty | Trailer | BritBoxManchester is famously known as the hometown of The Beatles, but it also serves as the location for some pretty wonderful British shows. One of them is Age Before Beauty, a six-episode series that follows the trials and tribulations of Bel (Polly Walker), a fortysomething woman who decides to become a business owner. The business is the family salon, which has seen better days and is the source of inner family conflict that Bel is caught in the middle of.Life could be a drag for Bel, but she is aided by her loving husband of 25 years, Wesley (James Murray), and her best friend, Teddy (Grantchesters Robson Green), who just happens to be married to Bels sister. Age Before Beauty shows a different side of British life, one filled with tattoo parlors and working-class folk struggling to get by. If you are tired of all the murder mysteries and costume dramas that dominate BritBox, give this one a try. You wont regret it.BritBoxOne of the most famous female authors ever is Virginia Woolf, who wrote such classic novels as The Waves and Mrs. Dallowayand who was memorably portrayed by Nicole Kidman and her prosthetic schnoz in the excellent 2002 film The Hours. But most people dont know about her life as the queen of her social scene in the early 20th century and her complicated relationship with her sister Vanessa.Life in Squares will change that. The three-part miniseries paints in vivid detail Virginias life among the Bloomsbury Group, a lively circle of artists, bohemians, and intellectuals who traded ideas, jokes, criticisms, and (sometimes) lovers with each other. One such lover was Duncan Grant (James Norton), a bisexual Scottish artist who attracts and confounds Virginia. Life in Squares is a costume drama thats vivacious and a bit naughty, and its the perfect way to spend 2025 getting to know a historical figure who is largely remembered today as a suicidal manic-depressive with a severe case of writers block.The Victim: Trailer - BBCWeve all heard those stories of kids murdering other kids, especially in Britain. Child offenders are never named in the press, and due to their age, they are often sentenced to juvenile detention until they turn 18 or are deemed fit to re-enter society as adults. But what happens to them then? Thats the question The Victim wrestles with as it focuses on the mother of a murdered child who thinks shes found the person responsible as a grown man. After she posts his name and address online, he is violently attacked and claims hes not the murderer of her child.Who is to be believed? And should the mother be held accountable for her actions, which caused a potentially innocent man to almost lose his life? The Victim is not your typical crime drama, as theres nothing exaggerated about its central murder. This is an all-too-real issue, and The Victim doesnt diminish its subject matter with cheap theatrics. Its a well-rounded drama, with a great lead performance by Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald (Gosford Park) as the still-grieving mother.Time | Sean Bean and Stephen Graham prison thriller | Trailer - BBCLife in Great Britain isnt all crumpets and afternoon tea. It has problems just like anywhere else, and that includes an imperfect prison system that could be better at handling criminals. His Majestys Prison Service is the primary location for Time, a two-season anthology show that received widespread critical acclaim when it premiered in 2021.The first season focuses on Mark (Sean Bean), who just entered prison and is actually guilty of the crime he committed. Racked with guilt, he struggles to adjust to prison life and befriends a sympathetic prison officer, Eric (Stephen Graham). In the second season, the show focuses on three women Orla (Doctor Whos Jodie Whittaker), Abi (Tamara Lawrance), and Kelsey (The Last of Us starBella Ramsey) who are all experiencing prison life in different ways. Time is as sobering as it sounds think of it as Britains answer to Oz, that groundbreaking HBO show from the 90s but its also a superb drama that is never less than enthralling to watch.BBCWhy Didnt They Ask Evans? is probably the best mystery ever made with the worst-sounding title. After all, who the heck is Evans? But thats the shows only big flaw, as this sparking adaptation of Agatha Christies 1934 novel contains everything thats so great about the British crime drama: an evocative period and setting; two lead protagonists, Will Poulters Bobby and Lucy Boyntons Frankie, who also share an indelible chemistry with one another; and a genuinely perplexing mystery, one that you cant crack until its solved for you at the end.On a seaside cliff one breezy day, Bobby hits his golf ball over the edge and goes down to the beach to retrieve it. What he finds is shocking: a man lies on the coast dying and manages to say a few final words: Why didnt they ask Evans? Disturbed and intrigued, Bobby vows to solve the mans murder and find the answer to his dying question. This three-episode series adaptation was directed by Houses Hugh Laurie, who keeps things breezy and light even when dead bodies start piling up.BBC1It wouldnt be a complete BritBox list without a period costume drama, so why not watch the best of them all? The 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice is already famous for being one of the best, if not the best, adaptations of Jane Austens comic masterpiece, and thats due to one reason: Colin Firths wet shirt.Well, thats not entirely true; this six-episode limited series faithfully recreates Austens world of genteel courtship and establishes one of the best will they, or wont they? romances between Firths dashing Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehles too-proud Elizabeth Bennett. Yes, this version has aged a bit, but its still the most Austen-like of all the Jane Austen shows and movies and will always be worth a watch or two or 10.Editors Recommendations Jason StrussSection Editor, EntertainmentJason Struss joined Digital Trends in 2022 and has never lived to regret it. He is the current Section Editor of the Entertainment vertical and heads a team of over a dozen writers, editors, coordinators, and assorted hangers-on. When hes not busy editing and writing, you can find him tending to his meticulously planned content schedule or dreaming up new ways to get more eyeballs to the site.Jasons love for cinema started when he was 10 years old. Saddled with a nasty cold, he was forced to stay home from school for a full week. To pass the time, he watched a marathon of classic Alfred Hitchcock films on Cinemax and the rest is history. He furthered his film education by raiding used bookstores to read dusty old film criticism volumes and salacious movie star biographies. His real education included studying at Whitman College and then Syracuse University, where he won a student Emmy for producing a truly terrible television series.His career began at Marvel Entertainment, where he worked in the Digital Products department, and then DC Comics, where he worked in publishing and content strategy. He then worked at Warner Bros. and Screen Rant.Jason currently resides in Seattle but has yet to appear in a Cameron Crowe movie. He loves hot coffee with cream and sugar, video games, bread, napping, and movies (duh), but not necessarily in that order. His favorite movies are The Thing, All About Eve, The Ice Storm, Rear Window, Heat, The Cranes are Flying, Belle de Jour, Showgirls, and Clue. He thinks Mad Men is genius, still watches Seinfeld twice a week, and likes listening to shoegaze music, podcasts, and Lana Del Rey. If you see him on the street, please, for the love of God, do not engage in conversation with him. It's Christmas movie season, and although Netflix isn't exactly crawling with family-friendly holiday options, the best family movies on Netflix offer more than enough to entertain the whole family this December. The collection is so extensivethat you probably don't want to have to deal with scrolling through it on family movie night. That's why we do it for you!This December, it's another small update, with just three new additions to this list: That Christmas, Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas, andThe Secret Life of Pets. Read on for all of the best family movies on Netflix now. Read more Classic movie lovers, you're in luck. Netflix has only shed a single classic film since our last update for this post. And while we'll miss Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the additions of Scarface, Psycho, Sixteen Candles, and The Karate Kid more than make up for it.Netflix doesn't have a lot of films from the 1980s and 1970s and even fewer from the 1960s. So it's worth taking the time to appreciate these classics while they're still around. Netflix has a habit of dropping older movies more quickly than modern hits. Chances are some or even all of these movies will be off the streamer by the end of 2024. So make the most of the time you have, and check out the best classic movies on Netflix right now. Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.Read more To close out 2024, Netflix is not adding any new sitcoms in December. The final month of the year is typically quiet among the streamers, but it would have been nice if Netflix had added another underappreciated comedy like A.P. Bio and Detroiters, both of which arrived last month.Rather than leave December without something fun to watch, we're turning the spotlight on A Man On the Inside and Murderville, both of which share a mystery theme between them. The former is a comedy series starring Ted Danson that debuted in late November, while the latter is an experimental comedy for American viewers. You can find those shows and more among the best sitcoms on Netflix right now. Read more
