I must confess I do like this top 50 or top 100 polls. And recently the Guardian did top 50 television dramas of all time (Yes! Of all time!!!!) Hurrah…
The list in full:
1. The Sopranos
2. Brideshead Revisited
3. Our Friends in the North
4. Mad Men
5. A Very Peculiar Practice
6. Talking Heads
7. The Singing Detective
8. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
9. State of Play
10. Boys From the Blackstuff
11. The West Wing
12. Twin Peaks
13. Queer as Folk
14. The Wire
15. Six Feet Under
16. How Do You Want Me?
17. Smiley’s People
18. House of Cards
19. Prime Suspect
20. Bodies
21. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
22. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
23. Cracker
24. Pennies From Heaven
25. Battlestar Galactica
26. Coronation Street
27. The Jewel in the Crown
28. The Monocled Mutineer
29. Clocking Off
30. Inspector Morse
31. This Life
32. Band of Brothers
33. Hill Street Blues
34. The Prisoner
35. St Elsewhere
36. The L Word
37. The Shield
38. Brookside
39. 24
40. The Twilight Zone
41. Pride and Prejudice
42. Red Riding
43. Oz
44. The Street
45. The X-Files
46. Bleak House
47. The Sweeney
48. EastEnders
49. Shameless
50. Grange Hill
I can’t really criticise the list though I wish Edge of Darkness and A Very British Coup were on there from the 1980s. Brilliant to see The Sopranos at the top spot (Back in 1999 I saw the pilot and never looked back), Brideshead takes me back to the early ’80s and Sunday nights (was televised on a Sunday…wasn’t it?). Oh yes, Our Friends in the North…. moved to London from Bristol on the day of the final episode remember watching Geordie (pre-oo7 Daniel Craig) walking away from his friends to Oasis’s “Don’t Look Back In Anger”… still brings a tear to the eye. Too many to name but Twin Peaks (early 90s iconic and surreal Lynch style brilliance!), Cracker (I liked Robbie Coltrane). Surprised to see A Very Peculiar Practice in there but it too was rather surreal and funny. Buffy….need I say more! I really enjoyed watching St Elsewhere…pre-ER, Chicago Hope and so on. Again surreal and off-the-wall drama. The X-Files… conspiracy theories and the truth being out there somewhere. The day in the life of Jack Bauer ….24. State of Play…excellent. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit…. Charlotte Coleman was wonderful, fantastic novel. Yes, just had finished school forever when The Monocled Mutineer was first shown in ’86. Brookside, and Grange Hill both from the Phil Redmond social realist stable. Red Riding brilliant adaptation of David Peace’s novels. Sweeney and Inspector Morse…. John Thaw (‘Get your trousers on, you’re nicked”…Or something like that). Boys From the Blackstuff …. reminds me so much of the Thatcher years.
That’s just a quick look through the 50 but am sure I have missed some television gems not in that list…..
Glad to see A Very Peculiar Practice in the list, one of my favourites along with A Very British Coup, which as you say isn’t on there.
As to the Sweeney, that sounds like a typical catch phrase, another one that rattles around my mind is ‘We’re the Sweeney, and we haven’t had our breakfast.’
None of the American offerings have ever grabbed me, nor for that matter the period dramas.
No I, Claudius? Are they mad?
Pleased to see Buffy at No 22.
Need!!!! Totally forgot about I, Claudius (note to self, how could I forget that?!) and it shoulda been a contender.
Where’s ’30 Something’??!
I have no idea why, but I was totally addicted to that programme back in the 80s.
Gosh yes….. that was cult drama and memories are flooding back
‘State of Play’ only at number 9? Shocking. Totally agree about ‘A Very British Coup’ too.
And can someone please explain why everyone loves ‘Mad Men’? I absolutely hate it.
Not as much as I loathe ‘Glee’, mind…
The Wire at 14? Oh the injustice!
And Queer As Folk? Good grief. If it wasn’t for the ground breaking man-on-man love action it would be forgotten.