The Best TV Shows on BBC One

Every BBC One Show Ranked From Best To Worst

BBC One’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1964 to 2025. As of August 2025, our compilation of BBC One’s top-rated series boasts over 20 unique shows. For top-tier entertainment, BBC One delivered Top of the Pops and Play for Today in 1964 and 1970.

  • Sherlock
    Sherlock (2010)8.5

    A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.

  • Peaky Blinders
    Peaky Blinders (2013)8.5

    A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world.

  • Line of Duty
    Line of Duty (2012)8.2

    A drama about the investigations of AC-12, a controversial police anticorruption unit.

  • King & Conqueror
    King & Conqueror (2025)8.0

    The story of a clash that defined the future of a country and a continent for a thousand years. Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy were two men destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. These two former allies with no design on the British throne found themselves forced by circumstance and personal obsession into a war for possession of its crown.

  • His Dark Materials
    His Dark Materials (2019)7.9

    Lyra is an orphan who lives in a parallel universe in which science, theology and magic are entwined. Her search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children and turns into a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust. She is later joined on her journey by Will, a boy who possesses a knife that can cut windows between worlds. As she learns the truth about her parents and her prophesied destiny, the two young people are caught up in a war against celestial powers that ranges across many worlds.

  • Merlin
    Merlin (2008)7.8

    The unlikely friendship between Merlin, a young man gifted with extraordinary magical powers, and Prince Arthur, heir to the crown of Camelot.

  • Spooks
    Spooks (2002)7.7

    Tense drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid.

  • Silent Witness
    Silent Witness (1996)7.6

    A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.

  • Doctor Who
    Doctor Who (2005)7.6

    The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it.

  • Top Gear
    Top Gear (2002)7.5

    This fast-paced and stunt-filled motor show tests whether cars, both mundane and extraordinary, live up to their manufacturers' claims. The long-running show travels to locations around the world, performing extreme stunts and challenges to see what the featured cars are capable of doing. The current hosts are Paddy Mcguinness, Chris Harris and Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff.

  • Call the Midwife
    Call the Midwife (2012)7.5

    Drama following the lives of a group of midwives working in the poverty-stricken East End of London during the 1950s, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth.

  • Father Brown
    Father Brown (2013)7.5

    Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.

  • Shetland
    Shetland (2013)7.5

    Created from the novels by award winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland follows DI Jimmy Perez and his team as they investigate crime within the close knit island community. In this isolated and sometimes inhospitable environment, the team have to rely on a uniquely resourceful style of policing.

  • Death in Paradise
    Death in Paradise (2011)7.4

    A brilliant but idiosyncratic British detective and his resourceful local team solve baffling murder mysteries on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint-Marie.

  • The Graham Norton Show
    The Graham Norton Show (2007)7.2

    Each week celebrity guests join Irish comedian Graham Norton to discuss what's being going on around the world that week. The guests poke fun and share their opinions on the main news stories. Graham is often joined by a band or artist to play the show out.

  • Bergerac
    Bergerac (1981)6.7

    Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it.

  • Top of the Pops
    Top of the Pops (1964)6.6

    The biggest stars, the most iconic performances, the most outrageous outfits – it’s Britain’s number one pop show.

  • Towards Zero
    Towards Zero (2025)6.4

    After a scandalous divorce, a tennis star, his ex-wife and a volatile mix of guests converge at a coastal estate. When murder strikes, a troubled detective must unravel the truth.

  • Play for Today
    Play for Today (1970)6.3

    Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

  • EastEnders
    EastEnders (1985)4.2

    The everyday lives of working-class residents of Albert Square, a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses surrounding a park in the East End of London's Walford borough.