The British Broadcasting Corporation turns 100 this week! To mark the anniversary, The Ringer is celebrating one of the BBC’s chief exports to the United States: British TV. From Masterpiece Theatre to Love Island, follow along as we look back on some of the iconic shows that have crossed the pond over the past century.
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Welcome to British TV Week
The British Broadcasting Corporation turns 100 this week! To mark the anniversary, The Ringer is celebrating one of the BBC’s chief exports to the United States: British TV.
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October 21, 2022
Britain Holds the Talk Show Crown, Thanks to Graham Norton
The U.S. late-night circuit has been lacking of late. Hosts should look to none other than ‘The Graham Norton Show’ to see how it’s done.
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October 21, 2022
Meet ‘Only Connect,’ Your Favorite ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant’s (Other) Favorite Quiz Show
Widely regarded as the hardest quiz show on either side of the Atlantic, BBC Two’s sleeper hit has attracted a fan club of American trivia greats
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October 21, 2022
The Dreamiest, Darkest, and Daffiest British-American TV Analogues
Plenty of British television ideas have crossed the pond over the years, and a few have even gone back the other way. Here are some of the best, from Elmo and Peppa Pig, to ‘The Thick of It’ and ‘Veep,’ to Cosmo Kramer and, well, you’ll see.
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October 20, 2022
‘Love Island UK’ Isn’t a Reality Show. It’s a Lifestyle.
Every summer, it’s survival of the fittest—and of a remarkable fan base with enough stamina and enthusiasm to watch a proudly trashy TV series six days a week for eight weeks straight
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October 20, 2022
The U.S. Loves British TV. They’ll Do Whatever It Takes to Watch It.
British and American cultures have intertwined and overlapped for generations. The rise of easily accessible piracy in the early 2000s only accelerated that.
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October 19, 2022
If That British Actor Seems Familiar, They Probably Are
If you think you see the same actors over and over in British TV shows, you’re not the only one—and an in-depth look at the numbers suggests you’re not wrong, either
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October 19, 2022
A Taxonomy of British TV Detective Coats
From ‘Luther’ and ‘Sherlock’ to ‘Broadchurch’ and ‘Midsomer Murders,’ one thing is clear: In order to catch the criminal, you’re going to need the right outerwear
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October 18, 2022
The Mythical Majesty of ‘Masterpiece Theatre’
The PBS series was long one of the sole purveyors of British TV in the U.S. But even as streamers and other broadcasters have gotten in on the action, ‘Masterpiece’ remains an essential part of American TV culture.
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October 18, 2022
The Brits Have Been Teaching Americans How to Be Funny for Decades
For the past 20-plus years, American TV has been a major importer of the grim, sarcastic wit from across the pond
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October 17, 2022
There’s No ‘Fleabag’ Without Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ‘Crashing’
Before she became a household name with the Amazon series, Waller-Bridge honed her twisted brand of romantic comedy on the underappreciated ‘Crashing’
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October 17, 2022
The British (TV) Invasion: How America Came to Love the BBC and Beyond
Despite the U.S.’s status as a cultural juggernaut and the home of Hollywood, many Americans enthusiastically watch British TV. How did this come to happen, and why does British television still resonate across the Atlantic today?
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October 17, 2022
British Teen Shows Shaped a Generation of Messy Weirdos
While American teen series in the 2000s often felt heightened and aspirational, shows like ‘The Inbetweeners,’ ‘Skins,’ and ‘Misfits’ embraced less glamorous realities of adolescence