The BEST BBC Two shows of all time
Every BBC Two show, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every BBC Two show to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - Civilisations (2018)
Explore the visual culture of societies from around the globe, revealing alongside the magnificent objects made in the West the wealth of treasures created by other cultures, from the landscape scrolls of classical China and the sculpture of the Olmecs to African bronzes, Japanese prints and Mughal miniatures.
View Episode Rankings#2 - Stressed Eric
Eric Feeble is a middle-class divorced father of two who resides in London, England. An average man, with a less than average life, Eric is endlessly at his wits end -- stressed out with his family, coworkers, and his life in general.
View Episode Rankings#3 - Man In An Orange Shirt
A love story in two films charts the very different challenges to happiness for Michael and Thomas in the aftermath of World War II, and to Adam and Steve in the present day.
View Episode Rankings#4 - Frankie Boyle's New World Order
In a time where Donald Trump can be president, who better to dissect the week's news than Frankie Boyle. The show features Frankie at his brilliant best doing stand-up, review, discussion and audience interaction - all in an attempt to make sense of what's going on around us. Each week Frankie makes a series of bold and often outrageous statements about the week's news.
View Episode Rankings#5 - Cunk on Britain
Philomena Cunk's landmark mockumentary series taking us through Britain's history.
View Episode Rankings#6 - Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail
The programme follows Theroux as he spends time in the Miami-Dade County jail system: the Pre-Trial Detention Center (PTDC) (formerly known as DCJ or "Main Jail"); Metro West Detention Center (Metro West); Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK); and the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department Boot Camp Program (Boot Camp).
View Episode Rankings#7 - Madagascar
Over 80% of Madagascar's animals and plants are found nowhere else on Earth. Discover what made Madagascar so different from the rest of the world, and how evolution ran wild there.
View Episode Rankings#8 - Elizabeth R
Historical mini-series documenting the reign of Elizabeth I. Each episode focuses on one dramatic period in the lengthy reign of the Virgin Queen, including her ascension to the throne, her various marital intrigues, her problems with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada. The series is dominated by a tour de force performance by Glenda Jackson, who won an Emmy for her portrayal of Elizabeth.
View Episode Rankings#9 - The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom is a BBC documentary series by British filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares. It began airing on BBC Two on 11 March 2007. The series consists of three, one-hour programs which explore the concept and definition of freedom, specifically "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom." What does freedom actually mean today? This series of films by BAFTA-winning producer Adam Curtis argues that our freedom is a limited kind of freedom. It shows how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. This model was apparently derived from techniques developed by nuclear strategists during the Cold War. Genetic biologists, anthropologists, radical psychiatrists and free market economists took it further until it became a new system of invisible control.
View Episode Rankings#10 - Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise
Documentary series delving into a rarely seen South American wilderness, home to surprising creatures who survive from the mighty Andes Mountains to Cape Horn.
View Episode Rankings#11 - Robot Wars
Robot Wars is a British game show modelled on a US-based competition of the same name. Teams of amateur and professional roboteers make their own robots to fight against each other in both friendly and tournament matches.
View Episode Rankings#12 - David Attenborough's First Life
Sir David Attenborough goes back in time to the roots of the tree of life, in search of the very first animals, telling their story with stunning photography, state of the art visual effects and the captivating charm of the world’s favorite naturalist.
View Episode Rankings#13 - The Power of Nightmares
This documentary argues that during the 20th Century politicians lost the power to inspire the masses, and that the optimistic visions and ideologies they had offered were perceived to have failed. The film asserts that politicians consequently sought a new role that would restore their power and authority. Writer Adam Curtis, who also narrates the series, declares in the film's introduction that “Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares”. To illustrate this Curtis compares the rise of the American neoconservatives and radical Islamists, believing that both are closely connected; that some popular beliefs about these groups are inaccurate; and that both movements have benefited from exaggerating the scale of the terrorist threat.
View Episode Rankings#14 - Life on Earth
Life on Earth (1979) is an epic 13-programme series, presented by David Attenborough, offering a chronological account of the flora and fauna of planet Earth over a period of 3,500 million years. Whether recounting the first journey from the sea to the land, the development of insects and flowers, or "The First Forests" and "The Lords of the Air", Attenborough's enthusiasm is infectious. He guides us through The Infinite Variety of life from microbes to marsupials, via an unforgettable meeting with mountain gorillas, to conclude with The Compulsive Communicators, mankind itself. Three years in the making, involving 1.5 million miles of travel and featuring some of the most beautiful, breathtaking and ambitious photography then seen on television, Life on Earth was the first natural history blockbuster. It redefined TV by showing that an epic, serious wildlife documentary could be a massive success. As such, it remains a true television landmark and paved the way for further entries in what became known as his Life series.
View Episode Rankings#15 - South Pacific
South Pacific is a British nature documentary series on the natural history of the South Pacific region, including many of the coral atolls and New Zealand. Both wildlife and human cultures developed in a unique variety, largely determined by such natural conditions as huge distances, sea depths, currents and winds.
View Episode Rankings#16 - Boys from the Blackstuff
Alan Bleasdale's five-part series relates the further experiences of unemployed Liverpudlian tarmac layers Dixie, Chrissie, Loggo and Yosser, and their revered older friend, retired longshoreman and union leader, George Malone. As they struggle to make ends meet in a depressed economy, and to hold together their financially battered families, they are harrassed by the petty bureaucrats of the DHSS. But the lumbering investigational juggernaut is, both comically and tragically, guided by drivers with only a provisional license.
View Episode Rankings#17 - Yes Minister
This is the story of the endless battles between the Government in the form of Jim Hacker, a brand new Cabinet Minister and the Civil Service of his department run by Sir Humphrey Appleby. Stuck in the middle of it all is civil servant Bernard Woolley.
View Episode Rankings#18 - Dara Ó Briain's Science Club
Combining lively and in-depth studio discussion with exploratory films and on-the-spot reports, Dara Ó Briain's Science Club takes a single subject each week and examines it from lots of different and unexpected angles, from sex to extinction, Einstein to space exploration and brain chemistry to music. It brings some of the world's foremost thinkers together to share their ideas on everything, from how to avoid asteroid impact to whether or not we are still evolving.
View Episode Rankings#19 - I, Claudius
Based on Robert Graves' epic novels about the decline of Roman civilisation in the first century AD, this award-winning drama redefined the boundaries of television when it was broadcast in 1976. Jack Pulman's brilliant script conveys the unrelenting depravity during the reigns of the four Emperors who succeeded Julius Caesar: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. The star-studded cast includes Derek Jacobi as Claudius, John Hurt as Caligula and Brian Blessed as Augustus.
View Episode Rankings#20 - How to Grow a Planet
In this TV programme Professor Iain Stewart journeys from the spectacular caves of Vietnam to the remote deserts of Africa and sees how plants first harnessed light from the sun and created our life-giving atmosphere. He describes how the plant kingdom has transformed a lifeless planet into our living world
View Episode Rankings#21 - Smiley's People
Adaptation of John Le Carré's novel, following on from the previous BBC adaptation TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. George Smiley returns to the Game. A member of one of George Smiley's old networks seems to have caught on to something big. When he turns up dead the Circus asks George to tie up the loose ends with minimal fuss. But George Smiley does not like loose ends. Especially if they lead to the darkest recesses of the KGB - to Karla, the Sandman.
View Episode Rankings#22 - Yes, Prime Minister
Yes, Prime Minister is the sequel to the popular British series Yes Minister. It aired from 1986 to 1988 and is the story of the continuing battles between Jim Hacker, who is now Prime Minister, and Sir Humphrey, who has been promoted to Cabinet Secretary.
View Episode Rankings#23 - Dancing on the Edge
This five-part series follows the Louis Lester Band as they find fame amongst the parties and performances of upper class society in the capital. Initially shocked by black musicians performing in polite society, many recoil but London's progressive socialites take the band under their wing.
View Episode Rankings#24 - Rick Stein's India
Rick Stein sets out on a journey around India to discover the different cuisines celebrated the world over.
View Episode Rankings#25 - Wartime Farm
In a new eight-part series, historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn take on their biggest challenge yet - to turn back the clock and run Manor Farm exactly as it would have been during the Second World War. They will face one of the biggest challenges ever seen in the history of the British countryside - what Churchill called ‘the frontline of freedom’.
View Episode Rankings#26 - The Catherine Tate Show
Comedy legend Catherine Tate plays all her best-loved characters in this riotous sketch show. Expect sulky teens, offensive nans and the most tactless women in the world.
View Episode Rankings#27 - The Story of India
For over two millennia, India has been at the centre of world history. But how did India come to be? What is India? These are the big questions behind this intrepid journey around the contemporary subcontinent. In this landmark series, historian and acclaimed writer Michael Wood embarks on a dazzling and exciting expedition through today's India, looking to the present for clues to her past, and to the past for clues to her future. The journey takes the viewer through majestic landscapes and reveals some of the greatest monuments and artistic treasures on Earth. From Buddhism to Bollywood, from mathematics to outsourcing, Michael Wood discovers India's impact on history - and on us.
View Episode Rankings#28 - Wild China
Created in co-operation with China's own national broadcast service, Wild China examines the country's rarely documented range of wildlife. Take a look at some of China's most impressive natural sites such as the ancient Han kingdom, the Mongol steppes, the Silk Road and the Tibetan Plateau.
View Episode Rankings#29 - I'm Alan Partridge
This classic BBC comedy comes courtesy of Steve Coogan. Alan is a fictional self-obsessed DJ who has had several TV jobs in the past (including chat show 'Knowing Me Knowing You') and has failed to bounce back from his long dead career. Each episode normally sees Alan resorting to embarrassing anecdotes, insulting someone without noticing and failing to revive his career.
View Episode Rankings#30 - The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
Possibly Vic and Bob's finest hour, The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer displays the madcap duo at their most surreal, anarchic best with characters such as the bra-wearing men Pat Wright and Dave Arrowsmith; awful folk duo Mulligan and O'Hare and flatulent farceurs the Petomanes. Among the many other highlights were occasional visits from Slade, the 1970's glam-rock group, brilliantly imitated by Reeves, Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and Mark Williams, plus hosts of other guests including Little Britain's Matt Lucas, Caroline Aherne, Charlie Higson and Sting.
View Episode Rankings#31 - Horizon
Amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
View Episode Rankings#32 - David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates
David Attenborough embarks on a remarkable 500 million-year journey revealing the extraordinary group of animals that dominate our world, and how their evolution defines our human bodies.
View Episode Rankings#33 - Terry Jones' Medieval Lives
"Monty Python" veteran Terry Jones hosts "Terry Jones' Medieval Lives", a series that delves into the lives of different medieval occupations, including kings, knights, and minstrels.
View Episode Rankings#34 - The Peter Serafinowicz Show
The Peter Serafinowicz Show is a BBC Two comedy sketch show written and starring Peter Serafinowicz. The show is a mixture of sketches based on parodies of British television, using Peter's and other actor's impression notable television personalities.
View Episode Rankings#35 - The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion
Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.
View Episode Rankings#36 - The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast in 2005, initially with a small cast focussing on a government minister, his advisers and their spin-doctor. The cast was significantly expanded to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's appointment as prime minister in 2007, which saw a number of new characters forming the opposition party. These characters continued for its third series in 2009, and the fourth and final series about a coalition government was broadcast in Autumn 2012.
View Episode Rankings#37 - Ice Age Giants
Ice Age Giants is a documentary series which sees Alice Roberts going back 40,000 years looking for the great beasts of the Ice Age. This was the last time that giants like mammoths, woolly rhinos, and sabre-tooth cats ruled the Earth and Alice attempts to reconstruct their lives in incredible detail.
View Episode Rankings#38 - Cambridge Spies
The true story of Britain's most infamous spies as it follows them from their iniitial recruitment by the KGB in the mid 1930's, as students at Cambridge University, through the end of their careers in the 1950's. The series attempts to look beyond their crimes by focusing on their dedication to their cause and to each other and how they belived they were serving their country. Four-part drama telling the story of Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby.
View Episode Rankings#39 - Coupling
On average, men and women think about sex every six seconds. Shorten that to every second, and you've got Coupling. This series centers around Susan and Steve (who are a couple), and Sally and Patrick join the gang as friends of Susan (and then Steve), while Steve pulls in his best friend Jeff and his crazy ex Jane.
View Episode Rankings#40 - Coast
The nation's love affair with the coast will be reawakened for this entertaining and ambitious exploration of the entire UK coastline. Every part of the 9,000-mile coast is covered to explore how we've shaped it - and how it shapes us. Hosted by a team of history and geography experts who investigate everything from life on a nuclear submarine; rebuilding the Titanic using computer images; the story behind the first Butlins holiday camp; and the birth of the Severn Bore. Discover the curious, sometimes dysfunctional, relationship between the British and the seas.
View Episode Rankings#41 - Galapagos
Galapagos is a three-part BBC nature documentary series exploring the natural history of the Galápagos Islands and their important role in the formation of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. It was first transmitted in the UK on BBC Two in September 2006. The series was filmed in high definition, produced by Mike Gunton and Patrick Morris of the BBC Natural History Unit and narrated by actress Tilda Swinton. The series was proposed to the BBC by the principle cinematographers Paul D. Stewart and Richard Wollocombe.
View Episode Rankings#42 - The Hollow Crown
The Hollow Crown brings together four filmed adaptations of Shakespeare's History Plays - Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. Starting in the year 1399, this continuous story of monarchy follows events during sixteen years of dynastic and political power play. Kings, with their families and followers, are threatened by rebellion and conflict. The story takes us from the Royal Court at Westminster to battlefields in England and France. These rich films are woven with the finest of Shakespeare's poetry and are filmed in the architecture and landscape of the period.
View Episode Rankings#43 - How TV Ruined Your Life
Charlie Brooker attempts to explain where it all went wrong and just how wildly the TV and movie ideal differs from life's grim reality.
View Episode Rankings#44 - Fawlty Towers
Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.
View Episode Rankings#45 - Gardeners' World
Gardeners' World is a long-running BBC television programme about gardening that continues to this day. The first episode was filmed in 1968, presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Most of the episodes of the show are 30 minutes long, though there are many specials that last longer.
View Episode Rankings#46 - The Day Today
The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs news programmes. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On The Hour. The series is composed of six half-hour episodes and a selection of shorter, five-minute slots recorded as promotion trailers for the longer segments. Only six episodes were made, and were originally broadcast in January and February 1994 on BBC2. The Day Today won many awards and Chris Morris won the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. All six episodes are available on BBC video and DVD.
View Episode Rankings#47 - Wonders of the Universe
Having taken on the Wonders Of The Solar System, Professor Brian Cox takes the next step – the laws of the Universe in Wonders Of The Universe. In another epic series, Brian visits some of the most dramatic parts of the globe to explain the fundamental principles that govern the laws of nature – light, gravity, energy, matter and time. With the world's most profound science at its heart, Wonders Of The Universe reveals how the story of humanity is intimately entwined with that of the complex story of the origins of the universe.
View Episode Rankings#48 - Hebburn
Hebburn is a warm and affectionate tale of north east family life. It tells the tale of the Pearson family and their impetuous and ambitious son, Jack, who has left Tyneside for the bright lights and glamour of Manchester. He has secretly married a middle class Jewish girl, Sarah, and realises that it is about time he introduced her to his family.
View Episode Rankings#49 - Human Universe
Professor Brian Cox asks the biggest questions we can ask. Are we alone? Why are we here? What is our future? Join him in a stunning celebration of human life as he explores our origins, our place and our destiny in the universe.
View Episode Rankings#50 - Later... with Jools Holland
Jools brings together hot, legendary and undiscovered artists for live studio performances, interviews and musical magic.
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