15 Hidden Gems on YouTube (You Can Watch for Free)

Death on the Nile (1978)

Forget Kenneth Branagh’s recent remake. This classic Hollywood take on the Agatha Christie mainstay is a lush, Oscar-winning delight, led by Peter Ustinov as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Plus, it’s hard to top the cast of Hollywood legends like Bette Davis, David Niven, Angela Lansbury, Maggie Smith, 88, and Mia Farrow, 78.

Watch it: Death on the Nile

The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (2019)

The Man in Black returns to the spotlight in this original YouTube documentary, featuring previously unseen (and unheard) archival materials from the country legend’s memorable performance at California’s Folsom Prison. Daughter Rosanne Cash, 68, Emmylou Harris, 76, and Bruce Springsteen, 73, all chime in with additional insights.

Watch it: The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash

The Goes Wrong Show (2019-21)

There’s something irresistible about bloopers — an idea that has birthed a wide variety of (mostly) reality TV shows. In this hilarious two-season series, a fictitious amateur theater troupe from the U.K.’s Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society mount a series of error-prone productions, from a courtroom drama to a Christmas play featuring a Santa who enjoys way too much sherry.

Watch it: The Goes Wrong Show

Grand Designs (1999- )

For two decades, designer Kevin McCloud, 64, has hosted this series that unblinkingly follows the building of a new house, from blueprints to final trims. What sets the show apart from its high-gloss HGTV cousins is how it keeps the cameras rolling when problems arise: Contractors quit, cranes won’t go up steep hills, budgets get busted, tempers flare. Some projects come off without a hitch, while others are epic disasters worthy of Greek tragedy.

Watch it: Grand Designs

The Impossible (2012)​

J.A. Bayona’s film is a kind of humanistic horror film, imagining a scenario that’s all too realistic. A family of five is vacationing at a beach-side villa in Thailand when a massive tsunami strikes, separating them. Dad (Ewan McGregor) and the two youngest kids survive, and he soon goes searching for his wife (Naomi Watts) and eldest son (future Spider-Man star Tom Holland, in an impressive performance) who have been swept deep into the island by the torrential force of the waves. This is a gripping, often harrowing tale that ultimately provides some hard-won uplift.​

Watch it: The Impossible

Kitchen Nightmares (2007-2014)

Quick-tempered British super-chef Gordon Ramsay, 56, first made a name for himself on this reality series, going into failing restaurants and berating chefs, owners and front-of-house staff at volumes higher than a perfectly executed soufflé. Better yet, the original British version was pure fly-on-the-kitchen-wall vérité — with the struggling restaurateurs expected to step up to the stove on their own (in the better-funded American reboot, Ramsay and the show ponied up for new appliances and full dining-room makeovers). Kitchen Nightmares captured Ramsay at his cheffiest, and anticipated a whole genre of foodie-centric series like The Bear.

Watch it: Kitchen Nightmares

Midsomer Murders (1997-)

The U.K.’s version of Law & Order is a comparably long-running crime drama set in a fictional county that seems to have a body count as high as Cabot Cove (the Maine town made famous in Murder, She Wrote). Here, the cases are cracked by Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles, 79), and in later seasons by his younger cousin John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon, 62). And instead of the ba-dum gavel sound effect, the show’s theme tune boasts an otherworldly theremin.

Watch it: Midsomer Murders

To Catch a Thief (1955)​

Cary Grant and Grace Kelly sizzle in this Oscar-winning classic from Alfred Hitchcock (who makes his signature cameo as a bus passenger about 10 minutes in). Grant plays a retired cat burglar who uses his skills to apprehend a copycat criminal targeting well-to-do tourists in the French Riviera, including an heiress played by the future Princess of Monaco. While the film has more charm than suspense, the two leads demonstrate the sparkling power of on-screen chemistry.

Watch it: To Catch a Thief

Taskmaster (2015- )

Each season in this wildly entertaining show, five comedians compete in a series of bizarro tasks (throw a tea bag into a mug from the greatest distance, get a stuffed toy camel “through the smallest gap”). All are seeking to win the favor of Taskmaster Greg Davies, 55, and his obsequious assistant (and show creator) Alex Horne — with the humor rung from the easily flustered contestants’ exasperation as well as their outside-the-box thinking. (Former Great British Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc, for example, ran her toy camel through the local Baby Gap, winning admiration and top marks.)

Watch it: Taskmaster

Unsolved Mysteries (1987-2010)

The granddaddy of true-crime shows still holds up decades after its launch. Unlike modern imitators, and a recent reboot on Netflix, the long-running show benefited from sharp writing, minimal padding (no music cues or talking-head interviews) and host Robert Stack’s no-nonsense narration.

Watch it: Unsolved Mysteries

Wiseguy (1987-1990)

This ’80s crime series, starring Ken Wahl, 66, as an FBI agent who goes undercover to infiltrate the Mafia, was ahead of its time. Instead of discreet episodes, story arcs unfolded over multiple episodes — often featuring notable guest stars like Jerry Lewis, Maximilian Schell and a young Kevin Spacey, now 64.

Watch it: Wiseguy