The Best TV Shows on Sky Arts

Every Sky Arts Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Classic Albums and What the Dickens? represent the pinnacle of Sky Arts’s programming, launching in 1997 and 2008. Sky Arts’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1997 to N/A. As of July 2025, we’ve curated over 20 of Sky Arts’s premier shows for your viewing pleasure.

  • Discovering Music
    Discovering Music (N/A)8.0

    Music journalists take a closer look at the work of some of the biggest recording artists in the world, past and present.

  • Brian Johnson's A Life on the Road
    Brian Johnson's A Life on the Road (2017)7.9

    One of rock music’s iconic and tour-hardened frontmen, Brian Johnson, gives us a brand new and exclusive take on one aspect of the rock and roll life: live performance, touring and being ‘on the road’.

  • Classic Albums
    Classic Albums (1997)7.7

    A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.

  • Urban Myths
    Urban Myths (2017)7.5

    Our Urban Myths are stories that have been passed down over time and have now become part of urban folklore. But are they true? We take a slightly tongue in cheek, mischievous – and deliberately ambiguous – look at what might have happened...

  • The Legacy
    The Legacy (2014)7.3

    The death of a matriarch brings forgotten secrets out into the open and causes a prolonged battle for the family inheritance.

  • A Young Doctor's Notebook
    A Young Doctor's Notebook (2012)7.1

    A young doctor who has graduated at the top of his class from the Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry is thrust out into an isolated and impoverished country side as the village's only doctor. As he learns to adapt to his new lifestyle, he develops a morphine addiction to stay his sanity while realizing what being a doctor in the real world means.

  • Wonderland: From JM Barrie to JRR Tolkien
    Wonderland: From JM Barrie to JRR Tolkien (2022)7.0

    An extraordinary variety of writers, who often suffered terrible adversity throughout their lives, created wonderful places full of happiness in which children lived far from the sorrows of adult life.

  • Psychobitches
    Psychobitches (2013)6.8

    Sky Arts takes famous females from history and puts them in the psychiatrist's chair.

  • Portrait Artist of the Year
    Portrait Artist of the Year (2013)6.7

    Artists from the UK and Ireland compete by creating portraits of famous people.

  • The Nightmare Worlds of H.G. Wells
    The Nightmare Worlds of H.G. Wells (2016)6.2

    The Nightmare Worlds of H. G. Wells is a 2016 horror-fantasy television miniseries, based on short stories by H. G. Wells. The four-part series of 30-minute episodes was commissioned for broadcast by Sky Arts. The series is hosted by Ray Winstone as Wells.

  • Discovering Film
    Discovering Film (2014)6.0

    Leading movie experts celebrate the lives and work of some of the most prolific and iconic Hollywood stars.

  • Master of Photography
    Master of Photography (2016)2.6

    Sky Arts hosts a competition like no other to find the best European amateur or professional photographic talent. An eight-week, eight-episode trial in which finalists must convince a jury of world-famous photographers and experts of their creativity, instinct and versatility,to become the first Master of Photography. The winner will receive €150,000; a show; and a catalogue.

  • What the Dickens?
    What the Dickens? (2008)N/A

    What the Dickens is a television panel game hosted by Sandi Toksvig. Team captains were Dave Gorman and Tim Brooke-Taylor for the first series and Sue Perkins and Chris Addison for the second and third. It is recorded at Sky Studios in West London.

  • Songbook
    Songbook (2008)N/A

    Exclusive interviews and acoustic performances with the legends responsible for some of the most famous songs of our times. Each acclaimed songwriter discusses their unique musical inspiration and writing processes before giving an exclusive intimate acoustic performance of some of their seminal songs.

  • Fotografi
    Fotografi (2012)N/A

  • Artists in Love
    Artists in Love (2016)N/A

    A Sky Arts Production Hub docu-series that gives an insight into the relationships between writers, musicians, directors, painters and their muses, from Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina to Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe.

  • Tate Britain's Great Art Walks
    Tate Britain's Great Art Walks (2017)N/A

    Danny Baker, Simon Callow, Richard E Grant, Cerys Matthews, Miriam Margolyes and Michael Sheen follow in the footsteps of their favourite British artists.

  • Comedy Legends
    Comedy Legends (2018)N/A

    Barry Cryer pays tribute to the heroes of comedy he has worked with over his many years in the business. Each episode celebrates one artist and include highlights from their comedy careers. Stars include Tommy Cooper, Ronnie Barker, Joan Rivers, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd and Morecambe & Wise and Barry recalls some of his funniest moments working with each of them.

  • The Directors
    The Directors (2018)N/A

    This series looks at the 20th century’s iconic film directors; the real innovators whose breakthrough direction made film into the movies. Their early lives, often escaping war or poverty found expression in theatre, then film, forming the fundamental art that is cinema. Each episode brought to life by Derek Malcolm, Neil Norman, Stephen Armstrong, Dr. Bonnie Greer OBE and Ian Nathan along with classic moments from each film career.

  • Bill Bailey's Master Crafters
    Bill Bailey's Master Crafters (2022)N/A

    Heritage Crafts President HRH The Prince of Wales has lent his name to a new series, The Prince’s Master Crafters: The Next Generation, set to spotlight Britain’s rich heritage of traditional crafts. Backed by Heritage Crafts and The Prince’s Foundation who put forward the featured experts from amongst Heritage Crafts members, the series sees a selection of top amateur craftspeople take on a variety of crafting challenges to supercharge their skills before each of them creates a final showcase piece to present to His Royal Highness in person.