The BEST ITV1 shows of all time
Every ITV1 show, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every ITV1 show to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - The Trap Door
Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions where nobody goes, stands an ancient castle. Deep within this dank and uninviting place lives Berk, the overworked servant of The Thing Upstairs. But that's nothing compared to the horrors that lurk beneath The Trap Door. For there is always something down there, in the dark, waiting to come out...
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#2 - Hornblower
The epic saga of legendary seafaring hero Horatio Hornblower comes to swashbuckling life in these epic films based on C.S. Forester's classic novels. As the Napoleonic wars rage, Hornblower survives battle after battle, evades capture, and works his way up the ranks in the king's royal navy. With danger at every turn and unending adventures, Hornblower must use every ounce of his wit and courage to prevail.
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#3 - Sharpe
Sharpe is a British series of television dramas about Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is the hero of a number of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books. Produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network, the series was shot mainly in Turkey and Crimea, although some filming was also done in England, Spain and Portugal.
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#4 - Rumpole of the Bailey
Horace Rumpole (played by the late Leo McKern) is an untidy, ageing London barrister who defends in criminal cases. His clients rarely cut elegant figures. He is fond of red wine, poetry, and fair dealing, and is not looked on as a great success by his wife ('She Who Must Be Obeyed'). Rumpole has had a few triumphs, and the Penge Bungalow murders are often on his mind... Rumpole shares Chambers at Number 3, Equity Court, with a mixed group of barrister colleagues, including Guthrie Featherstone (Peter Bowles) and Phyllida Trant (Patricia Hodge). He also takes pupils - notably Fiona Allways (played by Rosalyn Landor) and Liz Probert. The creator and writer of the series, Sir John Mortimer, received an Edgar Allan Poe Award for crime and mystery for Rumpole.
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#5 - The Wind in the Willows
Based on the novels by Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows is the classic story of the adventures of Mole, Badger, Rat and Toad of Toad Hall, set in Edwardian England of 1908. Mole sets out from his underground home to discover the world and is befriended by the river loving Water Rat who introduces him to the madcap aristocrat Mr. Toad. Together with Grandfatherly Badger they encounter the rascally Weasels, face the terrors of Wild Wood, and see Mr. Toad through a series of headlong escapades until they return once again to the peace of the English countryside.
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#6 - The X Factor
Aspiring singers compete to become the nation's next singing sensation.
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#7 - Billy Connolly's Route 66
New four-part series in which Billy Connolly travels the world's most famous highway - Route 66.
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#8 - Joanna Lumley's Japan
Joanna’s 2,000 mile journey through Japan as she explores some of the most uncharted corners of the country's 6,800 mystical islands. In Hokkaido, Joanna traverses the island’s areas of outstanding natural beauty, meeting some of the country’s most endangered wild animals en route, before heading south towards Tokyo and the ancient capital of temple-filled Kyoto. On foot she takes in the forgotten island of Shikoku – one of Japan’s four main islands – home to the Iya Valley and the yuzu fruit flavours now becoming popular in UK supermarkets. Finally, after exploring the geologically active region of Kyushu with its volcanic landscape and abundance of hot springs, Joanna finishes her journey in Kohama, one of Japan’s smallest and most remote pacific islands, luxuriating on its idyllic beaches.
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#9 - The World at War
A groundbreaking documentary series narrated by the actor Laurence Olivier about the deadliest conflict in history: World War II.
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#10 - On the Buses
Running from 1969 to 1973, with three spin-off movies, 'On the Buses' was made by London Weekend Television. Stan Butler lives at home with his overbearing mother, his frumpy sister Olive and his lazy brother in law Arthur. Stan works as a bus driver for the Luxton & District Bus Company, with his conductor Jack. The bane of their lives Inspector 'Blakey' Blake who often checks up on them and threatens them with the sack for lateness and untidiness.
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#11 - Agatha Christie's Poirot
The adventures of Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, adapted for television over more than twenty years and covering every Poirot book and short story ever written. This enormous lifelong project starring David Suchet takes the eponymous detective from England to Egypt, from country estate to weekend lodge, from dinner party to train ride, with his good friend Captain Hastings at his side, solving some of the most celebrated murder mysteries ever conceived.
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#12 - Rising Damp
Popular sitcom set in a seedy bedsit lorded over by the mean, vain, boastful, cowardly landlord Rigsby. In each episode, his conceits are debunked by his long suffering tenants.
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#13 - Danger Man
Every government has its secret service branch. America, CIA; France, Deuxième Bureau; England, MI5. NATO also has its own. A messy job? Well that's when they usually call on me or someone like me. Oh yes, my name is Drake, John Drake.
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#14 - The Avengers
"Always keep your bowler on in time of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds." [Mrs Peel] The Avengers is one of the most popular and beloved television series of all time. Its outrageous blend of wit and style and its unique mix of the fantasy and spy genres, coupled with the marvellous characters of John Steed and Emma Peel make it one of television's great classics.
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#15 - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a story of the rise and fall of seven very different people. There are three Geordies, one Scouser, one Brummie, one Cockney and one from Bristol. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet shows what life was really like for self - employed workers in the 1980's. And after 20 years they are reunited and begin working together again.
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#16 - Touching Evil
Touching Evil follows the exploits of the Organized and Serial Crime Unit (OSC). Maverick Detective Inspector Dave Creegan is the newest member of the unit, an elite, rapid-response crime squad. The OSC uses their diverse crime-fighting skills to bring justice to society. Along with his stalwart partner DI Susan Taylor, Creegan squares off against some of England's most dangerous criminals – a serial murderer of children, a killer intent on murdering hospital patients, and a cyber-criminal who lures young Web-surfers with a gothic fantasy game and manipulates them into committing violent crimes.
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#17 - Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969)
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is a late 1960s British private detective television series starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk, respectively. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman. In the initial episode Hopkirk was murdered in the line of duty, but returned as a ghost only Randall was able to see or hear to help his former partner fight crime from beyond the grave. ITC film corporation produced a single series of 26 episodes during 1968 and 1969 which were aired between September 1969 and March 1970. The pilot episode was originally broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom on Friday 19 September 1969 on ATV Midlands.
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#18 - The Prisoner (1967)
The series follows a British former secret agent who is held prisoner in a mysterious coastal village resort where his captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job. Although sold as a thriller in the mould of the previous series starring McGoohan, Danger Man (1960–68), the show's combination of 1960s countercultural themes and surreal setting had a far-reaching effect on science fiction/fantasy programming, and on popular culture in general.
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#19 - The Sandbaggers
"The Sandbaggers" was a taut British spy series comprising twenty 50-minute episodes produced by Yorkshire Television. The stories centered on the elite covert operations section of British Intelligence, nicknamed the Sandbaggers, and their boss, Neil Burnside (Roy Marsden), himself a former Sandbagger, but now having to battle more with British bureaucracy than enemy agents. It was set contemporaneously with its original broadcast in the late '70s and early '80s when the Cold War still dominated the Western intelligence agenda. Burnside's main operative is Willie Caine, his most experienced agent. Burnside's main opponents in the series are not his KGB adversaries but the bureaucrats and functionaries of his own government, often his own superiors. He he is constatly at odds his his Deputy Chief and occasinally with the head of the Secret Service codenamed "C".
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#20 - Upstairs, Downstairs
Covering a span of 27 years (1903-1930), Upstairs, Downstairs follows the lives of the wealthy Bellamy family residing upstairs at 165 Eaton Place, London, as well as the lives of those employed in their service living downstairs. Richard Bellamy, the son of a poor parson, is married to Lady Marjorie, the daughter of the wealthy Earl and Countess of Southwold, whose family money provides for the Bellamy's lavish lifestyle. As an influential member of the Conservative party, the Earl secures a seat in Parliament for Richard, with the expectation that he will support conservative policies. He tries his best to please his wife's family but, being a Liberal at heart, Richard finds it's not always that easy. These political and financial differences are a reoccurring source of contention for the Bellamys. On the surface, the lives of the family living upstairs couldn't seem more different than those of the servants living below but, strangely enough, through the years their lives often intersect, becoming increasingly entwined as time goes by. The addition of real-life events, like the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic and the horrors of World War I, incorporated into the storylines add a touch of authenticity and realism to the show.
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#21 - Wire in the Blood
Wire in the Blood is a British crime drama television series, created and produced by Coastal Productions for the ITV network, that ran from 2002 to 2008. The series is based on characters created by Val McDermid, including a university clinical psychologist, Dr. Anthony "Tony" Valentine Hill (Robson Green), who is able to tap into his own dark side to get inside the heads of serial killers. Working with detectives, Hill takes on tough and seemingly impenetrable cases in an attempt to track down the killers before they strike again.
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#22 - Bad Girls
British hard-hitting drama about the staff and inmates of a women's prison.
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#23 - Harry Hill's TV Burp
Harry Hill stars in this surreal comedy show, revolving around the previous week's shows on British television.
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#24 - Foyle's War
Touted as the new Inspector Morse, this ITV detective show stars Michael Kitchen as a police inspector frustrated at being stuck at home investigating provincial crimes during the Second World War. Honeysuckle Weeks is an inspired choice as Foyle's sidekick, a clergyman's daughter posted from the Women's Royal Army Corps to serve as his driver, and she plays the part with an admirable period style. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940 - which may seem a strangely remote period in which to place a new detective, but the setting turns out to be a means of adding moral and dramatic depth to the storylines.
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#25 - Agatha Christie's Marple
Miss Jane Marple is an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St. Mary Mead with a remarkable talent for solving crimes. Her sharp mind and shrewd intellect prove invaluable in unravelling a slew of murder mysteries, earning her the grudging respect of the police. The title role was played by Geraldine McEwan for the first three series, after which she was succeeded by Julia McKenzie.
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#26 - Catweazle
The series featured Geoffrey Bayldon as the title character, an eccentric, incompetent, dishevelled and smelly (but lovable) old 11th century wizard who accidentally travels through time to the year 1970 and befriends a young red-headed boy, nicknamed Carrot (Robin Davies), who spends most of the rest of the series attempting to hide Catweazle from his father and farmhand Sam. Meanwhile Catweazle searches for a way to return to his own time whilst hiding out in 'Castle Saburac', a disused water tower, with his 'Familiar', a toad called Touchwood.
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#27 - Sherlock Holmes (1984)
Sherlock Holmes is one of the world’s most popular fictional detectives, famed for his legendary powers of observation and deduction. Adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original novels, this classic series by Granada Television starred Jeremy Brett as the definitive Holmes, with David Burke and later Edward Hardwicke as his able assistant Dr. Watson.
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#28 - Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era—with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.
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#29 - Press Gang
Press Gang was a teen programme that followed the trials and tribulations of a group of teens setting up and running a young people's newspaper "The Junior Gazette". Egos clash, professional and personal feelings collide and lots of one-liners and "crazy" situations made this every teenage-plus person's top of the list viewing. Shown as a prime time children's programme it was actually ahead of it's time socially. With mature and occasionally controversial storylines it shaped a lot of it's viewers minds those few precious years.
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#30 - Midsomer Murders
A veteran DCI and his young Sergeant investigate murders around the regional community of Midsomer.
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#31 - Prime Suspect
Oscar winner Helen Mirren is Det. Jane Tennison, rising through the ranks, solving horrific crimes while battling office sexism and her own demons
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#32 - The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, based on the best-selling book by Kate Summerscale, is about an infamous murder in a Victorian country house. It is a summer's night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is almost certainly still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, is sent to investigate the murder at Road Hill House. With only an inept local police to help him and no material evidence, he faces an unenviable task: to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects...
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#33 - Cracker
Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Robbie Coltrane) is an alcoholic, chain-smoking, womanizer who just happens to be an expert psychologist. In spite of marital and family problems, he is often called to assist the police in difficult cases that cannot be easily solved.
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#34 - Minder
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard.
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#35 - Hell's Kitchen (UK)
Hell's Kitchen is a British cookery reality show airing on ITV which features prospective chefs competing with each other for a final prize. Four series have aired since 2004, three presented by Angus Deayton and the latest by Claudia Winkleman. The show has had different formats and different head chefs for each season so far, including Gordon Ramsay, Gary Rhodes, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Marco Pierre White.
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#36 - Victoria
The story of Queen Victoria, who came to the throne at a time of great economic turbulence and resurgent republicanism – and died 64 years later the head of the largest empire the world had ever seen, having revitalised the throne’s public image and become “grandmother of Europe”.
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#37 - Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses.
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#38 - Footballers' Wives
They're beautiful, they're filthy rich and they can have anything money can buy... so why are they hardly ever happy?... The makers of hit ITV1 show 'Bad Girls' invite you to join the wives of the Earls Park FC footballers as they discover the perils, both in the spotlight and out, of being married to their famous husbands - catfights... newspaper allegations... even murder... anyone who's anyone watches Footballers' Wives.
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#39 - Law & Order: UK
The longest running crime series in U.S. television history is making its way across the pond for a UK reworking. Series creator Dick Wolf is set to give Law & Order a makeover-for fans in the UK. Law & Order: UK promises to retain the grittiness of the original series, but be uniquely British.
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#40 - Endeavour
Set in the mid-Sixties, this Inspector Morse prequel centers around the early career of Endeavour Morse. After leaving his Oxford college without a degree, and spending a short time as a cipher clerk, Morse joins the police, working under veteran DI Fred Thursday.
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#42 - The Persuaders!
English Lord Brett Sinclair and American Danny Wilde are both wealthy playboys, they are teamed together by Judge Fullton to investigate crimes which the police can't solve. These two men are complete opposites, but become great friends through their adventures and constantly risk their own lives for one another.
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#43 - Jeeves and Wooster
Bertram "Bertie" Wooster (Hugh Laurie), a well-intentioned, wealthy layabout, has a habit of getting himself into trouble and it's up to his brilliant valet Jeeves (Stephen Fry) to get him out. Based on the books by P.G. Wodehouse.
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#44 - The New Avengers
In The New Avengers. Patrick Macnee reprises his role of John Steed of The Avengers (1961-69) but this time with two new partners, Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) and Purdey (Joanna Lumley). Like its predecessor, the series often featured fantastical plots with diabolical masterminds as villains, but this new version infused the franchise with a thrilling new feel. Bold colors, spectacular shooting locations, and less-ambiguous plots & characters all combined to present an exciting new series.
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#45 - Lewis
A spin-off of the popular series Inspector Morse, a special two-hour drama picked up five years after the series ended. It is now continuing in its own series, with Lewis and Hathaway investigating in Morse's old stomping ground of Oxford.
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#46 - A Touch of Frost
Detective Inspector Jack Frost is a disorganised DI for the Denton Police Force and will do anything to see that justice is done, even if he has to break the rules.
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#47 - Mind Your Language
Set in a London College Of Further Education the series focused on the activities of the Evening Classes, in particular – English as a Foreign Language, as taught by Mr Jeremy Brown whose class was a motley crew of foreigners, most of who could barely speak English. The comedy comes from the students inability to grasp the basic command of English. This leads to misunderstanding of words and terms causing all manner of disagreements and cultural differences.
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#48 - Broadchurch
The murder of a young boy in a small coastal town brings a media frenzy, which threatens to tear the community apart.
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#49 - The Professionals
The Professionals (1977 - 1983) - "Anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I've got special men - experts from the Army, the Police - from every service. These are The Professionals." - George Cowley. The Professionals was one of British television's most popular and successful action series of the 1970s and 80s. At their peak in 1980 The Pros were earning as many as 17.6 million viewers. The Professionals began life in early 1977, provisionally titled The A-Squad, in an idea conceived by Brian Clemens, the then head of the independent TV company Avengers Mark I Productions. His aim was to create a rival for Thames television's hugely successful long-running police series The Sweeney. Bodie, Doyle and Cowley could have looked very different to how we remember them as. A number of very different actors were considered for the three central roles, with neither of the final chosen team being the original choices. The final three were more or less drafted in when the first choice stars either declined or were axed. Gordon Jackson (formerly the distinctly unmenacing Butler Hudson in Upstairs Downstairs) and Martin Shaw (whose first TV appearance was as a hippie in 1960s Coronation Street) were first to be cast. During the filming of the first episode, Old Dog with New Tricks Bodie was in fact played by Anthony Andrews. Unfortunately, old mates Shaw and Andrews spent much of the time cracking up with laughter - hardly a recipe for ensuring the renowned edgy banter between the two leads. Lewis Collins (best known by this time as Gavin Rumsey in comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz) was brought in to play Bodie, with Andrews being given the heave-ho. Collins and Shaw had previously worked together just months earlier in an episode of The New Avengers, and were cast alongside each other again thanks to the 'sparky, abrasive' on-screen partnership that they generated. In other words, they didn't particularly like each other! But with the central cast c
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#50 - The New Statesman (1987)
A British comedy that might be described as a combination of Yes, Minister and Blackadder, this is the story of A. B'Stard, a statesman in the tradition of Genghis Khan, who will stop at nothing to make himself richer and more comfortable. Arguably the most conservative member of the British Parliament, he is aided by a witless colleague, MP Piers Fletcher-Dervish.
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