10 Must-Watch British Comedy Shows, According to the Cast of ‘SNL UK’
Greer Riddell is a London-based culture journalist and critic writing on film, television, audience behaviour, and the wider media industry. She is a Writer and Social Media Coordinator at Collider and TV Editor at FILMHOUNDS.
Her recent collaborations include Netflix, Warner Bros., DC Studios, Hulu, and Disney+, producing features on titles including Saturday Night Live UK, Severance, Sitcoms, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Stranger Things. Her recent reviews include Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85’, Scrubs Season 10, and The Boroughs. Her work has also included coverage of UK film festivals and features published in Film Stories Magazine.
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It's promising to know that the cast of Britain's latest comedy Saturday Night Live UK hit are also huge fans of the country’s humorous back catalog. When speaking to Collider ahead of SNL UK’s second season, the cast — Ayoade Bamgboye, George Fouracres, Celeste Dring, Jack Shep, Paddy Young, Emma Sidi and Al Nash — shared which UK shows they would recommend to U.S. viewers looking for their next overseas binge.
Their answers ranged from razor-sharp political satires like The Thick of It thanks to Ayoade Bamgboye to brutally awkward sitcoms like Celeste Dring's pick of Peep Show. Some are obvious classics, others are cult favorites that deserve a much bigger audience. But together they offer a pretty great glimpse into the series that have shaped British comedy, so make sure you add them to your watchlist!
'The Thick of It' (2005–2012)
Recommended by Ayoade Bamgboye
If you loved Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and the fraught political nightmare of it all, then Ayoade Bamboye's pick of The Thick of It needs to go straight to the top of your list. The four-season satire, created also by Armando Iannucci, with Jesse Armstrong among its writers, is the preceding British version, following the chaos of modern government and drawing heavily on the 1980s sitcom Yes Minister. The series began on BBC Four before its success propelled it to BBC Two, running from May 2005 to October 2012.
The series presents a worryingly accurate world of politicians and civil servants with Iannucci conducting extensive background research. He was concerned by how much government responsibility was being placed in the hands of recently graduated advisers. "They'd never fixed a car or bought a house or really done anything complicated," Iannucci said to The Guardian in 2025. The result is a series full of incompetence, maneuvering and beautifully poetic rants. If you've only ever seen Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who, his character Malcolm Tucker is going to be a very rude awakening. Tucker is the aggressive and profane Director of Communications who berates and threatens everyone in his way. Many of his insults have made their way into the British vernacular since. Even British politicians admitted that the show's nightmare scenarios had some truth behind them!
'Big Train' (1998–2002)
Recommended by Paddy Young
If your favorite kind of comedy is the sort that takes a perfectly ordinary situation and then sends it hurtling somewhere completely surreal, macabre or downright bizarre, Paddy Young's pick of Big Train is worth seeking out. Created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame, this sketch show ran from 1998 to 2002 and sits firmly in the tradition of Monty Python, gleefully subverting everyday situations until they become something you could never have predicted. Its cast is a remarkable roll call of British comedy talent, including Simon Pegg, Mark Heap, Julia Davis, Rebecca Front, Catherine Tate, Kevin Eldon, and Tracy-Ann Oberman.
One sketch features a bad-mannered man being stabbed to death by his embarrassed wife at a dinner party, while another involves an English tourist asking two French locals for directions but instead of helping, they nonchalantly reply in perfect English that they do not speak English! Much like SNL UK's musical guests, Big Train dropped '70s/'80s pop musicians into unexpected situations: Kevin Rowland from Dexys Midnight Runners was reanimated as Frankenstein's Monster and Chaka Khan became a Wild West bounty hunter pursuing the Bee Gees. Big Train is very close to Saturday Night Live in spirit and format, and became a breeding ground for talent that would go on to Spaced, Brass Eye, and The Catherine Tate Show, to name a few.
'Ann Droid' (2026–Present)
Recommended by Emma Sidi
Emma Sidi's pick, Ann Droid, is Diane Morgan's brand-new sitcom from July 2026 with a surprisingly heartfelt premise for one that also has a robot. Featuring Morgan, The Royle Family's Sue Johnston, and Motherland's Paul Ready, Ann Droid is set in 2029, and it follows Sue (Johnston), a widow whose husband died 18 months earlier, as she adjusts to life with her new assistant Linda (Morgan). Linda is a discontinued AnnDroid Z58/100 Basic Eldercare Robot, given to Sue by her son Michael (Ready), who is moving out of the house in an attempt to fix his marriage.
The premise sounds like science fiction silliness that could immediately be canned if the robot impression was even a fraction off perfect, but instead it will have you crying at the television. Ann Droid takes the very real fear of how AI and humans will intersect and turns it into a wholesome story you will not stop thinking about.
'On the Buses' (1969–1973)
Recommended by George Fouracres
On the Buses is a classic British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1969 to 1973 and shows the working-class lives of Stan Butler (Reg Varney) and Jack Harper (Bob Grant), who are the crew of the Number 11 bus at the Luxton and District Motor Traction Company. Stan's antics often involve concocting schemes to bunk off work, gain favor with women, or solve predicaments caused by living with his aging mother. He has a disregard for authority and is rude to women he deems unattractive, while Jack is Stan's scheming, work-shy best friend and next-door neighbor. Stan and Jack are constantly getting into trouble and being reprimanded by Inspector "Blakey" Blake (Stephen Lewis).
While a very surreal choice by Saturday Night Live UK's George Fouracres, On the Buses was a very popular sitcom in its day, spawning three spin-off feature films and a stage version. It also became Britain's top box-office hit of 1971. The series was taken to the U.S., where it ran for one series with 22 episodes in 1973–74 on NBC and was renamed Lotsa Luck, starring Dom DeLuise. When watched today, On the Buses has aged poorly and contains some outdated attitudes; so, while it was huge in its day, it is perhaps one now best suited to the lower end of your watchlist.
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world's conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world's moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
- You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
- You'd find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
- Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
- The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world's beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
- Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
- You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
- Tolkien's universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
- Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what's right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
- The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
- You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
- Harry Potter's universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
- That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
- Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
- You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don't confuse the world as it is with the world as you'd like it to be.
- Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
- Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
- Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
- You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
- The Federation is the universe's most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
- You don't just hope that's possible. You think it's the only thing worth working toward.
'Funboys' (2025–Present)
Recommended by Jack Shep
Jack Shep's pick, Funboys, brings the small-town awkwardness from shows like This Country to Northern Ireland. The series follows three young men in arrested development trying to navigate life without quite possessing the emotional maturity required to do so. The Irish sitcom comes from Rian Lennon and Ryan Dylan and first appeared on BBC Three as a short film in May 2023, before becoming a four-episode series that premiered in February 2025.
Lee R. James, who plays Funboys' glue Lorcan Boggin, explained to the BBC that the show "was inspired by the lack of representation of the rural folk who wander these lands. The small towns we grew up in are filled with oddities that deserve the spotlight." There are oddities aplenty, from first girlfriends to dead pet pigs. Plus, the ensemble cast features Jamie Demetriou, who is also the second host to take on Saturday Night Live this season — perhaps Shep was giving Collider a clue with his recommendation!
'Peep Show' (2003–2015)
Recommended by Celeste Dring
If you want a British sitcom where the quiet things are said out loud, Celeste Dring's recommendation of Peep Show is a must-see. The Channel 4 sitcom stars David Mitchell, Robert Webb, and Olivia Colman and was created by Andrew O'Connor, Jesse Armstrong, and Sam Bain, running from September 2003 to December 2015 — making it the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history. One of the show's unique qualities is its point-of-view style, which puts many awkward sitcom moments in uncomfortable close-ups — think making out with the camera! Peep Show also uses voice-overs of the characters' thoughts to share their real feelings as opposed to the dialogue, which drops you directly into the minds of Mark Corrigan (Mitchell) and Jeremy Usbourne (Webb) in their South London flat. Mark is a pessimistic, socially awkward loan manager who dreams of being a historian, while Jeremy is a perpetually unemployed layabout and failed musician living in Mark's spare room.
Despite never achieving high viewing figures during its original run, Peep Show received consistent critical acclaim and has since become a cult classic, with Ricky Gervais famously telling The Independent that, "The last thing I got genuinely excited about on British TV was Peep Show, which I thought was the best sitcom since 'Father Ted.'" So if you want a series laced with British sarcasm that turns the smallest social interaction into an enormous internal crisis, Peep Show is essential viewing.
'Pulling' (2006–2009)
Recommended by Celeste Dring
Saturday Night Live UK's Celeste Dring also recommends Pulling, the sitcom created by Sharon Horgan and The Third Day's Dennis Kelly, which originally aired on BBC Three before being promoted to BBC Two. Pulling follows three single female friends living in Hackney, East London, with Horgan starring as Donna, Tanya Franks as Karen, and Rebekah Staton as Louise. The series follows the trio as they navigate friendship, relationships, bad decisions, and the general chaos of being an adult without having everything remotely figured out.
Pulling was recognized beyond its cult following in 2007, when it was BAFTA-nominated for Best Situation Comedy, while Sharon Horgan won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Actress in 2008. Horgan has since gone on to write and star in other beloved series such as Catastrophe, Bad Sisters, and, most recently, HBO's Youth.
'The Young Ones' (1982–1984)
Recommended by Jack Shep
Looking for something anarchic, surreal and chaotic? Jack Shep's recommendation of The Young Ones is one to revisit, but we're not sure how you'll look at Britain afterwards! The sitcom was written by Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer and, alongside Mayall, stars Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, and Alexei Sayle. It was broadcast on BBC2 running from 1982 to 1984. It follows four undergraduate students sharing a house in squalid conditions while studying at the fictional Scumbag College in London. Its humor is offbeat and surreal while mixing slapstick, puppets and cutaways. One particularly memorable example is the second series' use of "flash frames" in every episode, mocking the public fear of subliminal messages in television and music.
Much like Saturday Night Live, the series also included a notable selection of guest stars and musical performers and is credited with bringing alternative comedy to British television in the 1980s. The Young Ones made household names of its writers and performers and inspired an American adaptation. A pilot titled Oh, No! Not THEM! was filmed, featuring Nigel Planer and Jackie Earle Haley, complete with a claymation opening-credit sequence, but Fox did not pick up the series.
'Blackadder' (1983–1989)
Recommended by Al Nash
Al Nash's recommendation, Blackadder, is really four different period British sitcoms wrapped around the same slippery central character played by Mr. Bean himself — Rowan Atkinson. Originally airing on BBC One from 1983 to 1989, all four series star Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as his servant Baldrick. Each season moves to a different historical period and surrounds the pair with a new set of characters, although several actors reappear from one series to another, including Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry, and Hugh Laurie. Season 1, The Black Adder, takes place during the fictional reign of "Richard IV". Blackadder II is set during the reign of Elizabeth I. Blackadder the Third moves to the Regency era in the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the reign of George III, and Blackadder Goes Forth takes the characters into the trenches of the Great War in 1917.
Blackadder was so beloved in Britain that Atkinson returned to the role for King Charles III's 50th Birthday Gala in 1998, where he read aloud a letter refusing an invitation to perform at the gala, calling such occasions "very, very, very dull." In another link to Saturday Night Live, the idea for Blackadder was developed by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis while they were working on the satirical Not the Nine O'Clock News.
'Motherland' (2016–2022)
Recommended by Ayoade Bamgboye
Ayoade Bamboye's other pick, Motherland, is full of school runs, playdates and the social warfare of middle-class parenthood in West London. The sitcom ran from September 2016 to December 2022 on BBC One and was created by the stellar team of Sharon Horgan, Graham Linehan, Helen Serafinowicz, and Holly Walsh. At the center is working mother Julia Johnstone (Anna Maxwell-Martin), whose own mother (Ellie Haddington) abruptly decides to stop taking care of her grandchildren, forcing Julia to take a much more active role in their lives and education.
Julia becomes friends with working-class Liz (Diane Morgan) and frantic stay-at-home dad Kevin Brady (Paul Ready), while also having to deal with the local group of super-mothers led by Amanda (Lucy Punch) who looks down on the disheveled trio. Julia is constantly overwhelmed by the demands of being a parent and gets little support from her perpetually absent husband, Paul (Oliver Chris). The Motherland universe was so popular that a spin-off was announced in May 2024 titled Amandaland, centering on Punch's Amanda who, after divorcing her wealthy husband, tries her best to keep up appearances while often being upstaged by her mother, played by the legendary Joanna Lumley.
Saturday Night Live UK
- Release Date
- March 21, 2026
- Network
- Sky One
- Directors
- Liz Clare
- Writers
- Daran Johnson
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.