The BEST Channel 4 shows of all time
Every Channel 4 show, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every Channel 4 show to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - Channel 4 (UK) Documentaries
Channel 4, in common with the other main British stations, airs a highly comprehensive range of programming. It was established in 1982 with a specific intention of providing programming to groups of minority interests, not catered for by its competitors, which at the time amounted to only the BBC and ITV.
View Episode Rankings#2 - Big Fat Quiz
Jimmy Carr presents his big, fat and fiendishly difficult pub quiz with top celebrities.
View Episode Rankings#3 - The Adam And Joe Show
The Adam And Joe Show was a sketch series featuring the talents of Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish. As well as starring in the show they also wrote and directed it. The series was filmed in their from their bedsit in Brixton, London.
View Episode Rankings#4 - The Big Fat Quiz of Everything
Jimmy Carr returns to asks questions on art, literature, television, music, geography, politics, science and celebrity from the last 100,000 years of human history.
View Episode Rankings#5 - Ali G, Innit
Ali G travels throughout Britain, interviewing unsuspecting leaders and politicians.
View Episode Rankings#6 - The State (2017)
Four young British ISIS recruits are excited to begin their new lives in Syria.They take oaths of allegiance to ISIS, convinced they have made the right decision, but are soon confronted with the harsh realities of life.
View Episode Rankings#7 - Four in a Bed
B&B owners throw open their doors and take turns to stay with each other, as they compete to be crowned best hosts.
View Episode Rankings#8 - Speed with Guy Martin
Guy Martin loves pushing the boundaries of speed in search of a buzz. He claims that nothing can match the adrenaline rush he gets when he's racing on public roads around the Isle of Man TT course at 200mph. Now he wants to see if he can find anything that can give him the same kick. In this series, he creates four-speed based challenges, exploring the boundaries of physics, learning about the science of speed, and getting his hands dirty in a range of unique engineering projects.
View Episode Rankings#9 - Inside Nature's Giants
Inside Nature's Giants will delve under the skin of the world's largest animals to reveal their unique anatomy and unravel their evolutionary secrets. Most wildlife documentaries show you how animals behave, but by exploring inside nature's giants we emerge with a deeper understanding of how these animals work. We will discover how elephants are able to consume so much food; why crocodiles have such an incredibly strong bite; why giraffes have such a long neck and why the closest living relative of the whale is a hippo. This is Natural History as you have never seen it before - from the inside out.
View Episode Rankings#10 - Taskmaster
Greg Davies is the Taskmaster, and with the help of his ever-loyal assistant Alex Horne, he will set out to test the wiles, wit, wisdom and skills of five celebrity contestants. At the end of the series, who will be crowned the Taskmaster champion?
View Episode Rankings#11 - Trigger Happy TV
A hidden camera comedy program starring Dom Joly deliberately entering into ludicrous or embarrassing situations in public places, all filmed surreptitiously. Sketches took place in a variety of locations primarily on the streets of Central London and Cheltenham. The humor is derived through the public’s reactions to Joly’s shenanigans rather than the usual format, where members of the public are themselves pranked.
View Episode Rankings#12 - Jamie at Home
Jamie Oliver is back doing what he does best - cooking at home, with simple, accessible ingredients, including fruit and veg that he recently started to grow in his garden. Each programme is themed around one primary ingredient, it could be a look at all the different varieties of tomatoes, what you can do with lovely home-grown potatoes, or how to cook different cuts of lamb - but he also looks at how easy it is to grow your own produce; sometimes in weird and wonderful ways.
View Episode Rankings#13 - Jamie's 30 Minute Meals
Jamie's back in the kitchen, and this time he's against the clock After his culinary tour in Jamie Does, Jamie Oliver is bringing his culinary inspiration back home to boost our kitchen confidence in the revolutionary new cooking show, Jamie's 30 Minute Meals . In this amazing new show, Jamie makes mouth-watering family meals from scratch with every half-hour episode playing out in real time. To keep you on track, Jamie will take you step-by-step through the cookery process. Forget staged food shows with clever editing, this is the real deal - not one carrot has been peeled beforehand, or one pan sneakily preheated.
View Episode Rankings#14 - Grand Designs
Presenter Kevin McCloud follows some of Britain's most ambitious self-building projects, as intrepid individuals attempt to design and construct the home of their dreams.
View Episode Rankings#15 - Derren Brown Investigates
Derren Brown looks at some extraordinary claims from around the world, documenting a medium, a ghost hunter and a psychic expert who claims to make the blind see.
View Episode Rankings#16 - Peep Show
Mark and Jez are a couple of twenty-something roommates who have nothing in common - except for the fact that their lives are anything but normal. Mayhem ensues as the pair strive to cope with day-to-day life.
View Episode Rankings#17 - The Restoration Man
George Clarke is The Restoration Man, travelling the British Isles meeting the stubborn romantics who want to breathe new life into the architectural treasures he unearths on his journey. His mission is to help them transform these undervalued gems into brand new homes fit for 21st century living.
View Episode Rankings#18 - Heston's Fantastical Food
Culinary alchemist Heston Blumenthal brings back the wonder and excitement of childhood food, awakening the kid in every viewer as he builds the world's largest 99 Flake, makes a packed lunch of giant KitKats, and a record breaking bag of Hula Hoops. Heston creates a whole pub inside a pie and a giant pyramid tea bag, served in a suitably enormous teapot. He also rejoices in all that is magical about Christmas treats with Britain's biggest Christmas pudding, edible tree decorations, and a snow globe and snowball cocktail.
View Episode Rankings#19 - Father Ted
Father Ted is an Irish comedy about 3 parish priests living on Craggy Island - a remote island, off the Irish west coast. The main four characters are Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan), Father Dougal Maguire (Ardal O'Hanlan) and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly) and their housekeeper (who just can't stop making tea) Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn). Ted was put on the island as a punishment for going on holiday to Las Vegas with money intended for a sick child - of course..."The money was just resting in his account"!
View Episode Rankings#20 - Ultraviolet (1998)
Ultraviolet began airing on Channel 4 in the UK in September 1998. Only 6 episodes were made, but the series had a lot of people talking at the time. It was the brain child of Joe Ahearne, who also created the gritty lawyer-soap 'This Life' (also starred Jack Davenport). Stylish, dark and often humourous, Ultraviolet delivered a blend of vampire myth with a modern slant. It is notable that the programme never once mentions the word 'Vampire', instead referring to the antagonists as 'leeches' or a 'code five infection'. Ultraviolet charted the exploits of an investigative government unit, armed with the latest weaponry, whose aim is to track down and exterminate Code 5 infected subjects whilst attempting to work out their agenda. A policeman, Michael Colefield, is reluctantly drawn into the group after a confrontation with his 'turned' former best friend, Jack, when Michael, defending himself after being bitten, is forced to 'kill' Jack.
View Episode Rankings#21 - Escape to the Legion
Bear Grylls breaks through the romance surrounding the French Foreign Legion by taking 11 other 'lost souls' to an old camp in the Sahara to undertake a 4-week boot camp to see who can cut it.
View Episode Rankings#22 - This Is England
The story takes place during the 1986 FIFA World Cup. As Shaun completes his last school exam, he realises he will have to find his way in the world. His friends, who include Woody, Lol, Smell, Gadget and Meggy, are still around, looking for love, entertainment and employment
View Episode Rankings#23 - The Secret Life of Machines
Tim Hunkin explains how the machines we use every day actually work, using a fascinating combination of experiments, analogies, animation, and larger-than-lifesize working models. The TV series was the outgrowth of a series of cartoons for the Observer newspaper called "The Rudiments of Wisdom", which Tim researched and drew for 14 years. The theme music is a version of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" by Val Bennett, retitled "The Russians are Coming".
View Episode Rankings#24 - The IT Crowd
The comedic misadventures of Roy, Moss and their grifting supervisor Jen, a rag-tag team of IT support workers at a large corporation headed by a hotheaded yuppie.
View Episode Rankings#25 - 1066: The Battle for Middle Earth
The untold story of the Norman Conquest, 1066 sheds new light on one of British history's darkest events, not through the eyes of Kings and Conquerors but from behind the shield wall, through the eyes of the ordinary villagers caught up in the chaos. Combining full-throttle battle action, compelling performances and epic cinematography, 1066 is an epic adventure of invasion, resistance and war that tells the story of ordinary men and their families across three tribes - the English, the Normans, and the Vikings.
View Episode Rankings#26 - You Have Been Watching
Writer and presenter Charlie Brooker hosts a brand new comedy quiz, joined by three guests to help him dissect the week in television.
View Episode Rankings#27 - Phoenix Nights
Award-winning comedy. Peter Kay plays Legendary social club owner Brian Potter and his hapless band of staff and regulars are determined to make the Phoenix Club a success no matter what.
View Episode Rankings#28 - Green Wing
A British "medical" drama with a mixture of comedy, bizarre soap opera and pure absurdity that would make Scrubs blush. The series was notable for being filmed in a real-live hospital (with genuine patients and doctors as extras), the plot rarely ever touched actual medicine or patient storylines in favor of focusing on the surgeons playing games mid-operations, the love dodecahedron the staff are trapped in, and the misadventures of the HR department. It was nominated for several awards, including 2 BAFTAs, and won "Comedy of the Year" in 2006.
View Episode Rankings#29 - Dispatches
Covers issues about British society, politics, health, religion, international current affairs and the environment, and often features a mole inside organisations under journalistic investigation.
View Episode Rankings#30 - Black Books
Black Books is a second-hand bookshop in London run by an Irishman named Bernard Black. He is probably the planet's worst-suited person to run such an establishment: he makes no effort to sell, closes at strange hours on a whim, is in a perpetual alcoholic stupor, abhors his customers (sometimes physically abusing them) and is often comatose at his desk. Help comes in the lumpy shape of Manny Bianco, a hairy, bumbling individual who (almost by osmosis) becomes Bernard's assistant. Manny is not exactly great at the job either but he is a million times better than Bernard. Next door is Fran, an anxious, frustrated woman who runs a sort of new-age shop selling the most unlikely bits of arty junk. Fran is friends with Bernard and, through him, with Manny; together the trio become embroiled in escapades that are sometimes extreme or violent or fantastically ludicrous, and always bizarre.
View Episode Rankings#31 - The Promise
The Promise is a drama series which following the lives of an 18-year-old Londoner as she visits present-day Israel and her grandfather, a soldier in the British peace-keeping force during 1940s Palestine.
View Episode Rankings#32 - The Armando Iannucci Shows
The Armando Iannucci Shows is a series of eight programmes directed by Armando Iannucci and written by Iannucci, David Schneider, Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil. It was shown on UK's Channel 4 in October 2001. Each show had a rough theme, often somewhat existentialist in nature, around which Iannucci would weave a series of surreal sketches and monologues. Recurring themes in the episodes are the superficiality of modern culture, our problems communicating with each other, the mundane nature of working life and feelings of personal inadequacy and social awkwardness. Several characters also make repeat appearances in the shows, including the East End thug, who solves every problem with threats of violence; Hugh, an old man who delivers surreal monologues about what things were like in the old days; and Iannucci's barber, who is full of nonsensical anecdotes.
View Episode Rankings#33 - The Island with Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls abandons a group of British men and women on a remote, uninhabited Pacific island, where they must stay completely alone for six weeks. With only the clothes they are wearing and some basic tools, do they have what it takes to survive?
View Episode Rankings#34 - Shameless
The lives and relationships of a group of siblings and their estranged father Frank Gallagher on a rough Manchester estate.
View Episode Rankings#35 - Grand Designs Abroad
Kevin McCloud returns with Grand Designs Abroad. This time the stakes are higher, the risks are multiplied, and the ambition - to build your dream home in the perfect location in Europe - is greater than ever before.
View Episode Rankings#36 - Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course
Gordon Ramsay has been cooking in professional kitchens for over 25 years. He's been taught by some of the best chefs in the world, and in turn has taught some of the best himself. Now he's giving viewers a simple guide to how it's all done. Each episode concentrates on a different theme essential for the modern cook - from the secret of cooking with chilli and spice, through to baking, roasting and slow cooking - and is packed full of useful tricks and tips to save time and money.
View Episode Rankings#37 - Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners
Linda Dykes is a compulsive cleaner from North Wales. She loves cleaning so much she's set up her own cleaning agency. Linda believes that compulsive cleaners have a special set of skills that could change the habits of the nation, and so she's teaming up with other obsessive cleaners to help clean Britain's dirty homes and filthy public spaces. Each week these compulsive cleaners are carefully matched with someone whose home is in dire need of a major 'spring clean'.
View Episode Rankings#38 - Utopia
The story follows a small group of people who find themselves in possession of the manuscript sequel of a cult graphic novel called The Utopia Experiments, which is rumoured to have predicted the worst disasters of the last century. This leads them to be targeted by an organisation known as The Network, which they must avoid to survive. Using the manuscript, they must uncover the meaning hidden in its pages before the disasters depicted become reality.
View Episode Rankings#39 - The Crystal Maze
A team of 6 contestants play a series of physical, mental, skill and mystery games across 4 themed zones gaining as many crystals as possible which determine how many seconds they get as they attempt to win a prize inside the Crystal Dome.
View Episode Rankings#40 - Very British Problems
Twitter feed Very British Problems is adapted for television. The show features different famous faces talking about the crushing weirdness and awkwardness of life as a Brit.
View Episode Rankings#41 - Queer as Folk
Set in and around the Manchester 'scene', this groundbreaking drama, written by Russell T Davies, documents the lives and loves of young gay men Stuart, Vince and Nathan
View Episode Rankings#42 - The Ascent of Money
In this six-part series, historian Niall Ferguson tells the story of money and the rise of global finance. Bringing context and understanding to the current economic crisis, he reveals how the history of finance has been punctuated by gut-wrenching crashes. Each episode shows how a big bang in the ascent of money has changed the course of history. Note: also tt1358383
View Episode Rankings#43 - Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life
Ideas about the soul and the afterlife, of sin and God's purpose have shaped human thinking for thousands of years. Religious rituals remain embedded in the major events of our lives. In this thought-provoking series, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins asks what happens if we leave religion behind. He explores what reason and science might offer to inspire and guide our lives in religion's place. Can science bring understanding in the face of death, help us tell right from wrong, or reveal the meaning of life?
View Episode Rankings#44 - Spaced
Spaced is a sitcom like no other. The premise is simple enough: Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) and Tim (Simon Pegg) are out of luck and love, so pretend to be a couple in order to rent a flat together. Downstairs neighbour and eccentric painter Brian suspects someone's fibbing, and almost blows their cover with their lecherous lush of a landlady, Marsha. Fortunately he soon falls for Daisy's health-freak friend Twist, while Daisy herself goes ga-ga for pet dog Colin. Tim remains happily platonic with lifemate Mike; a sweet-at-heart guns 'n' ammo obsessive.
View Episode Rankings#45 - Brass Eye
Brass Eye was a controversial show that reported the issues of British popular culture. Drugs, Animal Rights, Crime, Paedophilia, these are the issues that the tabloids seem to spend their careers cashing in on. Brass Eye focused on the press and society's irrational focus on them. It takes full advantage of c-list celebrities desperate to look like they care about these 'important' issues but who only end up exposing their own ignorance and willingness to say anything if it gets them on TV.
View Episode Rankings#46 - Nathan Barley
Nathan Barley is 26. He is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self-facilitating media node". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible of cool. Dan Ashcroft writes searing columns for Sugar Ape. He's considered astonishingly cool, but only by those he despises. He is surrounded by idiots and practically worshipped by Nathan (whom he considers to be their king). He is 34. Why has he failed to move on? Claire Ashcroft, 27, is Dan's sister. Like Dan she despises "cool". Unlike Nathan she despises novelty, trash, irony and gadgets. She is furious that no one will fund her hard-hitting documentary about a choir of reformed junkies.
View Episode Rankings#47 - The Great Pottery Throw Down
Twelve of Britain's best home potters compete to be crowned best at the wheel.
View Episode Rankings#48 - River Cottage
In 1999 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall decided to quit the bustle of London and take on the life of a smallholder at River Cottage, a former gamekeeper's cottage in Dorset. The aim: self-sufficiency; to grow his own vegetables and raise his own animals for food. Over the years several series have been produced covering his experiences and watching his rural empire grow.
View Episode Rankings#49 - Teachers
Created by Tim Loane, the series follows a group of secondary school teachers in their daily lives. While the first series centres heavily around probationary teacher Simon Casey (Andrew Lincoln), later series have an ensemble approach. The cast changes dramatically over time, with few original characters remaining by the fourth series. While some of these disappearances are explained, others happen between series without explanation. The first three series are set in the fictional Summerdown Comprehensive, which merges with another school in the fourth series to form Wattkins School.
View Episode Rankings#50 - The Comic Strip Presents...
The Comic Strip Presents... debuted on 2 November 1982, the opening night of Channel 4. The first episode was "Five Go Mad in Dorset", a parody of The Famous Five. It was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, who wrote most of the early episodes. "Five Go Mad..." drew anger from some viewers for the way it mercilessly satirised a children's classic, although the Enid Blyton estate had given permission for the broadcast. A meeting was called to discuss the group's future with Channel 4, after complaints from viewers.
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