The best British TV shows on Netflix

A British horror show for a modern world, Red Rose is about a group of friends preparing to graduate high school and head off to college. Before doing so, they want to have one last summer of debauchery. When one of the smartphone-obsessed teens downloads an app called Red Rose, it takes over, making cruel demands and threatening terrifying consequences if they aren’t met.

Set in Bolton, England, the BBC series has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and familiar names behind it. Red Rose was created by Michael and Paul Clarkson, who worked on shows like The Haunting of Bly Manor, and it’s produced by Eleven Films, the same company behind Sex Education. Judy Berman of Time Magazine applauds the series for its “keen observations about young people, social media, and surveillance without getting pedantic.” Red Rose is a fresh, modern, tech-savvy take on the horror genre.

Get ready to salivate, take notes, and be impressed with the competitors in this lighthearted baking competition series that highlights amateur bakers with oodles of talent. In every episode of The Great British Bakeoff, contestants partake in three rounds featuring a signature bake, a technical challenge, and a showstopper to show off their skills. They’ll often have to create baked goods they may have never tackled before and, with the technical bake, get only simple instructions they need to interpret to the best of their abilities. Someone goes home each week until a winner is crowned.

As the home bakers furiously complete the tasks, the hosts travel throughout the room, providing colorful commentary and even sampling the goods. From elaborate three-tiered cakes to delicious tarts and mouth-watering cookies, The Great British Bakeoff is a wonderful show for those who love to bake. Hearing the personal backstories of the competitors is heartwarming, too, from young men following a passion to grandmas showing how they can still run circles around a younger generation.

Earning an impressive 100% Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh rating, Cunk on…, also referred to as Cunk on Earth, is a British mockumentary by Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror) that stars Diane Morgan (After Life) as Philomena Cunk, an investigative reporter who, in a style similar to characters like Sasha Baron Cohen’s alter egos Ali G and Borat, asks absurd questions of her worldly interview subjects. These include everyone from historians to archeologists, composers, and other subject matter experts.

The character first appeared on the TV review series Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, and her deadpan comedic style was a hit, resulting in this dedicated series. There’s just one season with five episodes. Cunk on Earth is a fun watch as Cunk presses experts on serious topics like world history, the Industrial Revolution, and the Space Race with the most ridiculous statements and inquiries.

If you were mesmerized by Theo James’ performance in the second season of The White Lotus, you’ll love him even more after watching The Gentlemen. The Guy Ritchie action comedy serves as a spinoff to Ritchie’s 2019 movie of the same name. James stars as Edward Horniman, a former United Nations peacekeeping officer who inherits a 15,000-acre estate, along with the title of Duke of Halstead, following his father’s death. What Horniman quickly learns, however, is that the land is being used to grow marijuana, and is part of a massive empire run by a criminal syndicate.

Thrust into the criminal underworld he knows nothing about, Horniman must try to navigate the murky waters while maintaining his prestigious position in a house that is on the verge of breaking down. Faced with danger at every turn, Horniman is forced to partake in the illegal activities if he wants any hope of escaping from the syndicate’s clutches. The Gentlemen is a violent, action-packed series with plenty of humorous moments to break up the tension.

Set in the East End of London in the late ’50s and ’60s, it follows a group of nurse midwives as they deal with major historical moments, discoveries, and periods in time and how they impacted the job, from the Baby Boom of the late ’50s, to poverty, post-war immigration, the introduction of gas for pain relief, and birth defects, along with other social issues like teen pregnancy, adoption, and miscarriages.

The period drama, which aired on BBC in 2012, was originally based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, who worked with a convent in London. But as it continued for nine seasons, other topics were explored based on the sourcing of historical materials.

U.K. journalist Raphael Rowe takes viewers inside some of the roughest, toughest prisons from around the world, talking with both prison guards and prisoners themselves about what life is like behind bars. Rowe himself knows a thing or two about the subject and the hardships, having served 12 years in prison for a crime until finally being released and acquitted.

The British series originally aired on Channel 5 in the U.K., after which Netflix commissioned the subsequent seasons of this fascinating docuseries. Stream all seven seasons to date.