Posted inBritish TV Drama Entertainment
The British TV Death Scenes That Broke Our Hearts
With its willingness to kill its characters and its gift for emotional truth, British drama has produced television's most devastating deaths.
Posted inBritish TV Channel 4 Comedy
The Inbetweeners: Why the British Original Beat Its American Remake
The E4 teen comedy captured adolescence perfectly - and the failed US remake showed exactly what made the original special.
Posted inBritish TV Classic television Drama
The Naked Civil Servant: John Hurt, Quentin Crisp and a TV Landmark
In 1975 ITV dared to tell the story of an openly gay man with wit and dignity - a landmark of LGBTQ+ representation.
Posted inAnimation British TV Channel 4
The Snowman: The Wordless Animation That Became a Christmas Tradition
Raymond Briggs's wordless tale of a boy and his snowman became a beloved, bittersweet Christmas classic of British animation.
Posted inBBC British TV Classic television
Cathy Come Home: The TV Play That Changed Britain
Ken Loach's harrowing 1966 Wednesday Play about homelessness shocked the nation and helped found the charity Shelter.
Posted inBritish culture British TV Period drama
The History Period Dramas Get Wrong (and Why It Matters Less Than You Think)
From invented events to modern attitudes in period dress, why costume dramas bend history - and why that's usually fine.
Posted inBritish culture British TV Period drama
How Accurate Are the Accents in Period Dramas?
The voices we hear in costume dramas are a polite fiction - shaped more by class signalling and modern ears than by history.
Posted inBritish TV Music Nostalgia
The Greatest British TV Theme Songs
A great theme tune can outshine the show it introduces - a celebration of the small, evocative art of the British TV theme.
Posted inAdvertising British culture British TV
Why British Christmas Adverts Make Us Cry
The British Christmas advert has become a tear-jerking cultural event - how commercials came to hold such emotional power.
Posted inBBC British TV Classic television
Dad’s Army: The Gentle Comedy That Captured a Nation’s Heart
Jimmy Perry and David Croft's beloved sitcom about a hapless Home Guard platoon remains one of Britain's best-loved comedies.