The Best TV Shows on Channel 4

Every Channel 4 Show Ranked From Best To Worst

With its programming history stretching from 1982 to 2017, Channel 4 offers an impressive lineup of over 20 shows. Among Channel 4’s finest offerings are Brookside and Drop the Dead Donkey, which debuted in 1982 and 1990, respectively. As of June 2025, we’ve curated over 20 of Channel 4’s premier shows for your viewing pleasure.

  • The Crystal Maze
    The Crystal Maze (2017)8.5

    A team of intrepid contestants tackle a series of ingenious games and fiendish challenges in a giant fantasy world, with the aim of collecting as many crystals as possible to win a prize in the Crystal Dome.

  • Black Mirror
    Black Mirror (2011)8.3

    Twisted tales run wild in this mind-bending anthology series that reveals humanity's worst traits, greatest innovations and more.

  • Peep Show
    Peep Show (2003)8.0

    Peep Show follows the lives of two men from their twenties to thirties, Mark Corrigan, who has steady employment for most of the series, and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne, an unemployed would-be musician.

  • Globe Trekker
    Globe Trekker (1994)7.8

    Globe Trekker is an adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The British series was inspired by the Lonely Planet travelbooks and began airing in 1994. Globe Trekker is broadcast in over 40 countries across six continents. Each episode features a host, called a traveller, who travels with a camera crew to a country—often, a relatively exotic locale—and experiences the sights, sounds, and culture that the location has to offer. Special episodes feature in-depth city, beach, dive, shopping, history, festival, and food guides. The show often goes far beyond popular tourist destinations in order to give viewers a more authentic look at local culture. Presenters usually participate in different aspects of regional life, such as attending a traditional wedding or visiting a mining community. They address the viewer directly, acting as tourists-turned-tour guides, but are also filmed interacting with locals and discovering interesting locations in unrehearsed sequences. Globe Trekker also sometimes includes brief interviews with backpackers who share tips on independent travel in that particular country.

  • 8 Out of 10 Cats
    8 Out of 10 Cats (2005)7.1

    8 Out of 10 Cats is a British television comedy panel game produced by Zeppotron for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 3 June 2005. The show is based on statistics and opinion polls, and draws on polls produced by a variety of organizations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by company Harris Poll. The show's title is derived from a well-known advertising tagline for Whiskas cat food, which originally claimed that "8 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas".

  • Drop the Dead Donkey
    Drop the Dead Donkey (1990)7.0

    Drop the Dead Donkey is a situation comedy that first aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 1990 and 1998. It is set in the offices of “GlobeLink News”, a fictional TV news company. Recorded close to transmission, it made use of contemporary news events to give the programme a greater sense of realism. It was created by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. The series had an ensemble cast, making stars of Haydn Gwynne, Stephen Tompkinson and Neil Pearson. The series began with the acquisition of GlobeLink by media mogul Sir Roysten Merchant, an allusion to either Robert Maxwell or Rupert Murdoch. Indeed, Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin note on their DVDs that it was fortunate for their libel lawyers that the two men shared the same initials. The series is mostly based on the on-going battle between the staff of GlobeLink, led by editor George Dent, as they try to maintain the company as a serious news organisation, and Sir Roysten’s right-hand man Gus Hedges, trying to make the show more sensationalist and suppress stories that might harm Sir Roysten’s business empire. The show was awarded the Best Comedy Award at the 1994 BAFTA Awards. At the British Comedy Awards the show won Best New TV Comedy in 1990, Best Channel 4 Comedy in 1991, and Best Channel 4 Sitcom in 1994.

  • Watercolour Challenge
    Watercolour Challenge (1998)7.0

    Three amateur artists are given four hours to paint, in watercolour, the same scene or landscape, often with widely different interpretations. At the end of the four hours, the guest professional artist for the week judged the paintings and selected the winner, who would then appear in a regional final, and if successful would compete in the end of series final.

  • A Place in the Sun
    A Place in the Sun (2002)7.0

    The programme that helps house-hunters find their dream holiday home in the sun.

  • Jamie and Jimmy's Food Fight Club
    Jamie and Jimmy's Food Fight Club (2012)7.0

    Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty pair up to open a pop-up caff on Southend pier. They also take to the continent to pit the best of British food against Europe's finest.

  • TFI Friday
    TFI Friday (1996)6.8

    TFI Friday was an entertainment show broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2000. The show was produced by Ginger Productions, written by Danny Baker and hosted by Chris Evans, for the first 5 series. The final series was hosted by a number of guest presenters. It was broadcast on Fridays at 6pm from 9 February 1996 to 22 December 2000, with a repeat later that night. The title officially stood for "Thank Four It's Friday", but was widely understood to mean "Thank Fuck It's Friday" and was a reference to the popular phrase "Thank God it's Friday". The show's theme tune was Ron Grainer's theme from Man in a Suitcase, in keeping with Evans's frequent use of 1960s television themes in his work.

  • Brookside
    Brookside (1982)6.1

    The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.

  • Scrapheap Challenge
    Scrapheap Challenge (1998)6.1

    Scrapheap Challenge is an engineering game show produced by RDF Media and broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. In the show, teams of contestants had 10 hours in which to build a working machine that could do a specific task, using materials available in a scrapheap. The format was exported to the United States, where it was known as Junkyard Wars. The US show was also produced by RDF Media, and was originally shown on The Learning Channel. Repeats have aired on another Discovery network, the Science Channel.

  • Big Brother's Little Brother
    Big Brother's Little Brother (2001)5.8

    Each week, the housemate evicted from the Big Brother house the previous week traditionally spends another week on Big Brother's Little Brother, answering questions and taking part in Call BBLB along with other features. The show also boasts celebrity guests and experts who come in to discuss and analyse the remaining Big Brother housemates.

  • The Last Leg
    The Last Leg (2013)5.6

    Adam Hills and co-hosts Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker provide some offbeat commentary on the significant moments of the past seven days.

  • The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
    The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice (2017)5.3

    The show that gives fans another bite of Bake Off when one helping just isn't enough. Jo Brand chats to a panel of celebrities about all the action, and meets the latest baker to leave the tent.

  • V Graham Norton
    V Graham Norton (2002)5.0

    V Graham Norton was an entertainment programme shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom starring Graham Norton, broadcast every weeknight as a successor to the weekly So Graham Norton. It aired from 6 May 2002 to 26 December 2003. It featured celebrities who chatted with Graham and became involved in studio games which were usually laden with sexual innuendo. The studio games were later featured on the clip show Nortonland in 2007 on digital channel Challenge. The show featured a 'webcam', a roving television camera which was randomly situated in a different place in the UK each week and which followed Graham's instructions and allowed him to interact with the public live. The feature was made technically possible using digital microwave link technology provided by Rear Window Television with the 'spontaneous' webcam feature always produced as a full quality Outside Broadcast, before being made to look like a traditional webcam at the studios.

  • Come Dine with Me
    Come Dine with Me (2005)5.0

    Amateur chefs compete against each other by hosting a dinner party for the other contestants. Each competitor then rates the host's performance with the winner winning a £1,000 cash prize. An element of comedy is added to the show through comedian Dave Lamb, who provides a dry and "bitingly sarcastic" narration.

  • Celebrity Big Brother
    Celebrity Big Brother (2001)4.8

    Celebrity Big Brother is a British reality television game show in which a number of celebrity contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize being donated to the winner's nominated charity at the end of the run.

  • Big Brother
    Big Brother (2000)4.2

    A British reality television game show in which a number of contestants live in an isolated house for several weeks, trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize at the end of the run.

  • Richard & Judy
    Richard & Judy (2001)2.9

    Richard & Judy was a British chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4, from 2001 to 2008, but later moved to digital channel, Watch, in October 2008. The programme featured a number of celebrities and a book club. Its final episode aired in July 2009 due to low ratings.