{"id":511116,"date":"2026-04-03T17:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:28:12","slug":"the-top-ten-british-tv-satires-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511116\/","title":{"rendered":"The top ten British TV satires \u2014 ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Hugh Bonneville\u2019s befuddled bureaucrat Ian Fletcher making a welcome return to the airwaves in Twenty Twenty Six on Wednesday, it\u2019s time to consider the other greats of British satirical comedy.<\/p>\n

Happily,\u00a0W1A, the Twenty Twenty Six<\/a> predecessor also written by John Morton, earns a place on the list \u2014 but it was a tough choice. The BBC1 warhorse\u00a0Have I Got News for You\u00a0was a near thing for its longevity alone. But I was reluctant to open myself up too much. Alan Partridge in all his TV incarnations could be seen as a fantastic satire on a certain type of person, however the same could be said of David Brent of The Office and many other scripted comedies. <\/p>\n

The shows I have chosen are ones that take fearsome and direct swipes at political and social issues \u2014 and they\u2019re all brilliant.<\/p>\n

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10. Monkey Dust (2003\u201305)<\/p>\n

This often-overlooked animation from the Have I Got News for You\u00a0founding producer Harry Thompson and his co-writer Shaun Pye is bold and extremely funny. Broadcast slightly under the radar on the fledgling BBC3 channel, it was fantastically daring, featuring a skit portraying the director-general Greg Dyke as a swearing oaf and the DJ Neil \u201cDr Fox\u201d Fox being torn apart by hounds. Not for the faint-hearted.\u00a0DVD<\/p>\n

9. The Windsors (2016\u201323)<\/p>\n

\"HarryHarry Enfield as Prince CharlesJack Barnes\/Channel 4<\/p>\n

This fabulously rude, unrelentingly silly royal satire takes such an over-the-top approach to its subjects that it feels oddly affectionate. Bert Tyler-Moore and George Jeffrie have fun with an almost pantomimic portrait of palace life, including a scheming Camilla (Haydn Gwynne), an idiotic Prince (later King) Charles (Harry Enfield) and a Princess Royal modelled on\u00a0Rebecca\u2019s\u00a0Mrs Danvers. Channel 4<\/p>\n

8. The New Statesman (1987\u201394)<\/p>\n

\"RikRik Mayall as Alan B\u2019StardRex Features<\/p>\n

One measure of a good satire is how it can prefigure real events. And there was something about Rik Mayall\u2019s brazen young MP and self-appointed \u201crising star of the New Right\u201d Alan B\u2019Stard that spoke to the sleaze that was to engulf the Tory party in the early 1990s. Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran\u2019s scripts are ebullient and funny, with excellent support from Michael Troughton as Alan\u2019s thick sidekick, Piers Fletcher-Dervish.\u00a0ITVX<\/p>\n

7. Yes Minister\/Yes, Prime Minister (1980\u201388)<\/p>\n

\"CastFrom left: Derek Fowlds, Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Paul EddingtonBBC<\/p>\n

One of the most civilised of our sharp satires, the 22 episodes of\u00a0Yes Minister\u00a0and 16 episodes of\u00a0Yes, Prime Minister \u2014 when Paul Eddington\u2019s Jim Hacker astonishingly got the top job \u2014 are a joy. The idea that calculating civil servants like Sir Humphrey Appleby run rings around elected politicians may have felt cynical, but the scriptwriters Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn certainly had a point. iPlayer<\/p>\n

6. Spitting Image (1984\u201396)<\/p>\n

\"IllustrationFrom left: caricatures of Neil Kinnock, Margaret Thatcher, David Owen and David Steelitv\/Rex Features<\/p>\n

Arguably the biggest opposition to Margaret Thatcher\u2019s government in the 1980s wasn\u2019t the Labour Party of Neil Kinnock but the clever men and women behind this landmark, intensely impudent puppet show. The targeting of the royals and many in the Thatcher government (including a bovver-boy Norman Tebbit) upset some, but others (including Michael Heseltine) reportedly sought to buy their own latex caricatures. Recently revived for the internet age<\/a>. spittingimageofficial.com\/BritBox<\/p>\n

5. The Thick of It (2005\u201312)<\/p>\n

\"TerriFrom left: Joanna Scanlan, Roger Allam, Will Smith, Ben Willbond and Geoffrey StreatfieldBBC<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0Spitting Image, this reacted to the political current \u2014 in this case the control freaks and spin doctors of New Labour. Overseen by Armando Iannucci, the handheld filming and scabrous scripts (the show had a \u201cswearing consultant\u201d) are dazzling, with the standout character being Peter Capaldi\u2019s Malcolm Tucker, a man who was not based in any way on Alastair Campbell. Oh, no.\u00a0iPlayer<\/p>\n

4. That Was the Week That Was (1962\u201363)<\/p>\n

The show that brought the wit and excitement of the 1960s satire boom to the airwaves also made a star of its young presenter, David Frost. It is hard to imagine the shock that some of the skits caused, with attacks on figures such as the prime minister Harold Macmillan as well as Britain\u2019s declining status in the world. Ted Heath blamed\u00a0TW3\u00a0for the \u201cdeath of deference\u201d, but you could argue the politicians themselves were partly to blame.\u00a0BBC Archive channel on YouTube<\/p>\n

3. W1A (2014\u201317)<\/p>\n

\"AlexFrom left: Joel Fry, Alex Beckett, Sara Pascoe and Jessica Hynes in W1ABBC<\/p>\n

John Morton started with\u00a0Twenty Twelve\u00a0(about the Summer Olympics in London), then went on to satirise the organisation that broadcast it \u2014 the good old BBC, largely seen through the eyes of the baffled Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville). Its observations can be piercingly accurate, and its great characters include Hugh Skinner\u2019s hapless intern Will and Jessica Hynes\u2019s jargon-spouting PR Siobhan Sharpe, wielding phrases such as: \u201cLet\u2019s nail this puppy to the floor.\u201d iPlayer<\/p>\n

2. Not the Nine O\u2019Clock News (1979\u201382)<\/p>\n

This classic married the punky energy of its era to some sublimely sophisticated writing. The scriptwriting team, which included John Lloyd, Richard Curtis and David Renwick, produced bespoke material for a dazzling performer line-up of Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson and Chris Langham (later replaced by Griff Rhys Jones). The show tackled racism, Cold War gloom and unemployment with panache.\u00a0BritBox\/Prime Video<\/p>\n

1. Brass Eye (1997\u20132001)<\/p>\n

Chris Morris, who made his name on\u00a0The Day Today, upped the ante with this extraordinarily bold fusion of current affairs and comedy. It is known for featuring real figures who were prepared to say anything \u2014 including MPs about a made-up drug called Cake. The uncompromising\u00a0Brass Eye\u00a0special on media hysteria over paedophilia is its shockingly unforgettable crowning glory.\u00a0Channel 4<\/p>\n

Love TV? Discover the\u00a0best shows on Netflix<\/a>, the\u00a0best Prime Video TV shows<\/a>, the\u00a0best Disney+ shows<\/a>\u00a0, the\u00a0best Apple TV+ shows<\/a>, the\u00a0best shows on BBC iPlayer<\/a>, the\u00a0best shows on Sky and Now<\/a>, the\u00a0best shows on ITVX<\/a>, the\u00a0best shows on Channel 4<\/a>\u00a0streaming, the\u00a0best shows on Paramount+<\/a>\u00a0and our favourite\u00a0hidden gem TV shows<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to check\u00a0our critics\u2019 choices to watch<\/a>\u00a0and browse our comprehensive\u00a0TV guide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Hugh Bonneville\u2019s befuddled bureaucrat Ian Fletcher making a welcome return to the airwaves in Twenty Twenty Six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}