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The Best TV Shows on BBC Television

Every BBC Television Show Ranked From Best To Worst

With its programming history stretching from 1947 to N/A, BBC Television offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. BBC Proms and Family Affairs represent the pinnacle of BBC Television’s programming, launching in 1947 and 1949. As of November 2024, our compilation of BBC Television’s top-rated series boasts over 20 unique shows.

  • Flower Pot Men
    Flower Pot Men (1952)8.0

    The Flower Pot Men is a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years, which was produced in a new version in 2001. The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine Robin.

  • Doctor Who
    Doctor Who (1963)7.9

    The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.

  • BBC Proms
    BBC Proms (1947)7.5

    The World's Greatest Classical Music Festival. The BBC Proms is a classical music festival held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and in recent years has explored an innovative series of Proms around the UK with concerts in all four nations. Its aim: to bring the best in classical music to the widest possible audience, which remains true to founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original vision in 1895. Whether you are a classical connoisseur or think classical music isn’t for you, there is something for everyone in the eight-week stretch of concerts.

  • Storyboard
    Storyboard (1961)7.0

    'Storyboard' is a BBC drama anthology series of 30 minute plays, each written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, the first series created by the prolific screenwriter. The series was followed by Studio 4

  • Radio 2 Piano Room
    Radio 2 Piano Room (N/A)7.0

    Live performances from much-loved music stars, alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra, at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios.

  • The Quatermass Experiment
    The Quatermass Experiment (1953)6.6

    The story of the first manned flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.

  • The Sooty Show
    The Sooty Show (1955)6.1

    The Sooty Show is a British children's Puppet series which aired on the BBC from 1955 to 1967 and ITV from 1968 to 1992. It follows the adventures and comedic day to day life of puppets Sooty, Sweep and Soo with their owner Harry Corbett, and in later years, his son Matthew.

  • Suspense
    Suspense (1962)5.5

    Anthology series telling suspenseful tales.

  • Crackerjack
    Crackerjack (1955)5.0

    Crackerjack was a British children's comedy/variety BBC television series. It started on 14 September 1955 and ran for over 400 shows, first in black and white and later in colour, until 21 December 1984. It was revived in 2020 on CBBC.

  • A for Andromeda
    A for Andromeda (1961)5.0

    Set in 1970, a team of scientists decipher a mysterious signal from space and discover that it provides instructions to build a powerful super-computer. Once built, this computer provokes argument between two of leading team members, Fleming and Dawnay, over the machine's real intentions as it provides further instructions to create a living organism, which Dawnay starts to develop. Later it appears to compel lab assistant Christine to commit suicide, and when the organism is fully developed, it appears in the exact form of Christine, and named Andromeda. But what is the purpose of this "creature" ...?

  • Studio 4
    Studio 4 (1962)5.0

    Studio 4 is a BBC drama anthology series, filmed at the BBC TV Centre's Studio Four, and screening over two seasons in 1962. The series was envisaged as a sequel to Storyboard, an anthology series which had been transmitted the previous year.

  • Family Affairs
    Family Affairs (1949)N/A

    Family Affairs was the first television serial broadcast by BBC Television.

  • The Three Hostages
    The Three Hostages (1952)N/A

    An adaptation of the novel The Three Hostages by John Buchan.

  • Pride and Prejudice
    Pride and Prejudice (1952)N/A

  • Playbox
    Playbox (1955)N/A

    Playbox was a British children's television show that ran on BBC from 1955 to 1964. Presenters who appeared on it included Eamonn Andrews, Rolf Harris, Tony Hart, Cliff Michelmore and Johnny Morris

  • Pride and Prejudice
    Pride and Prejudice (1958)N/A

  • Bleak House
    Bleak House (1959)N/A

    Bleak House is the first BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. It was adapted by Constance Cox as an eleven-part series of half-hour episodes first transmitted from 16 October 1959. It stars Andrew Cruickshank in the role of John Jarndyce, Diana Fairfax as Esther Summerson and Colin Jeavons as Richard Carstone. The complete series still exists.

  • Sunday-Night Play
    Sunday-Night Play (1960)N/A

    BBC anthology drama series that ran over four seasons and replaced the previous BBC Sunday Night Theatre series.

  • Emma
    Emma (1960)N/A

  • Hurricane
    Hurricane (1961)N/A

    The story of two newly qualified nurses on their first assignment in the West Indies.