The Best British Import TV Shows to Watch

Discover terrific thrillers, royal sagas and tales of star-crossed lovers

Nicholas DeRenzo,

Updated August 25, 2025

AARP

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Published May 02, 2025

/ Updated August 25, 2025

Rose Ayling-Ellis and Keiron Moore in 'Code of Silence'

Courtesy BritBox

From Downton Abbey to Fleabag, Black Mirror to Call the Midwife, American audiences can’t get enough of British TV shows. And luckily, series across all genres — period crime dramas, sexy spy thrillers — continue to be among Britain’s biggest and most beloved cultural exports. The past few months have yielded a fresh new batch to add to your watch list. All are either finally making their way to American streaming services after gaining praise across the pond (including this summer's crime show Code of Silence) or debuting in both places at once. Whether you’re in the mood for a ripped-from-the-headlines drama about an infamous terrorist attack, a Tudor-set literary adaptation or a Regency-era biopic, there’s a new British import for every kind of viewer. Here are the season’s best British imports to put on your calendar.

Dept. Q

This terrific crime show by The Queen's Gambit creator Scott Frank is like Slow Horses without the comedy. Downton Abbey's Matthew Goode plays a crankypants detective, haunted by the death of a colleague, who has a gift for alienating everybody, and also for solving cold cases despite being exiled to a basement office with a team of misfits. Except his misfits are at least as smart as he is, and one of them (Alexej Manvelov), a Syrian refugee who worked for the police there in dire circumstances, is absolutely brilliant, and highly motivated to catch the bad guys.

Watch it: Netflix

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth

The 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 passengers, crew members, and people on the ground in Scotland, serves as the inspiration for this gripping limited series. Colin Firth, 64, stars as real-life hero Jim Swire, an English doctor who lost his daughter in the terrorist attack and then dedicated his life to finding answers and bringing the perpetrators to justice. If you’re fascinated by this moment in history, it also recently inspired a CNN docuseries called Lockerbie: The Bombing of Pan Am 103 as well as an upcoming BBC/Netflix drama starring Connor Swindells (Sex Education), Merritt Wever (Severance) and Patrick J. Adams (Suits).

Watch it: Peacock

Black Doves

Keira Knightley earned a Golden Globe nomination for this witty espionage thriller, in which she stars as Helen, a for-hire (and very much undercover) spy married to the Secretary of State for Defence — aka, the man she’s spying on. When mobsters murder her lover, her cover is at risk of being blown, and she’s helped out by her “triggerman” Sam (Ben Whishaw) and her boss at the Black Doves organization, Reed (Sarah Lancashire, 60). It’s sexy, stylish and often surprisingly funny.

Watch it: Netflix

A Thousand Blows

If you liked Peaky Blinders, you’ll love this similarly gritty crime drama, set in 1880s East London, by the same creator, Steven Knight. The story follows the clash between the Forty Elephants, an all-female gang led by Mary Carr (Erin Doherty, who played Princess Anne on The Crown), and Henry “Sugar” Goodson (Stephen Graham, 51), who heads up the illegal world of bare-knuckle boxing. Thrust into this intoxicating world of vice is Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), who moves to the area from Jamaica with his best friend Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall) with dreams of becoming a lion tamer.

Watch it: Disney+, Hulu

Adolescence

In addition to his work on A Thousand Blows, Stephen Graham is earning raves for this Netflix psychological crime drama, which he co-created, co-wrote and stars in. He plays Eddie Miller, the father of a 13-year-old boy named Jamie who is accused of killing his classmate. Owen Cooper, the young actor making his professional debut as Jamie, particularly wowed audiences, with the Evening Standard critic even calling it “a performance that may be the best debut ever seen by a child actor.” (He’ll next appear as a young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights .)

Watch it: Netflix

Miss Austen

Set in 1830s England, this four-part series — which premiered on BBC One and is being shown as part of Masterpiece on PBS — follows a different “Miss Austen” than you might think: Jane’s sister Cassandra (played by Keeley Hawes). Adapted from the novel by Gill Hornby, the Regency-era drama explores why she made the decision to burn most of her sister’s letters after her death. Expect lavish costumes, gorgeous British scenery, and a cast of familiar faces, including Alfred Enoch (How to Get Away with Murder) and Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones).

Watch it: PBS

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light

It’s been a full decade since the 2015 premiere of Wolf Hall, an adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s revered historical novels about Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance, 65) and Henry VIII (Damian Lewis, 54). The latest installment picks back up in the direct aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s execution, with a sweeping six-episode run through Tudor history that includes the dissolution of the monasteries, a revolt in Yorkshire, a few new wives for Henry VIII, and — historical spoiler alert! — charges of treason against Cromwell.

Watch it: PBS

Code of Silence

Catherine Moulton used her own experience of hearing loss to create a thriller about a deaf barmaid (EastEnders' rising star Rose Ayling-Ellis) hired by cops to read the lips of gangsters — risky, especially when she finds herself wishing to kiss one of them.

Watch it: Britbox

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Nicholas DeRenzo is a contributing writer who covers entertainment and travel. Previously he was executive editor of United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Sunset and New York magazine.