40. A Touch of Cloth Sky1
Easy to mock the cliches of crime dramas in, say, a sketch show; much harder to do it at full length. Charlie Brooker and Daniel Maier managed triumphantly, writing the kind of extended, fizzing spoof that brought back happy memories of the Naked Gun films. It didn’t hurt that the cast had form in the genre – leads John Hannah and Suranne Jones have both played detectives in straight dramas and proved just as good at po-faced parody. Plus there were enough throwaway visual gags to make it a DVD banker. DBu
39. Episodes BBC2
Series two provided little respite for downtrodden British writers Sean and Beverly as they fought to keep their sitcom – and marriage – alive whilst all around them in La La Land were losing their heads. It didn’t help that Beverley (Tamsin Greig) had slept with the show’s star Matt LeBlanc (Matt LeBlanc), or that Sean (Stephen Mangan) was now sleeping with the female lead. The second season of Episodes continued to offer a smart, funny, hyper-real story of ‘normal’ people trying to make it in Hollywood. TG
38. The Killing BBC4
Nothing could surpass the impact, the torment of series one, but series two and three dispensed the same magic potion of horrible crime, political intrigue and pervasive gloom. One of very few TV dramas to genuinely make viewers bite their nails, its cold but fast-beating heart was Sarah Lund, played without a shred of vanity by Sofie Grabol. You longed to hug her and be shrugged off. And, wow, the ending! Lund was remorseless, opaque and driven to the last. PM
37. Mad Men BBC4
After a long bean-counting delay, the ad-land drama returned. Much of season five alienated long-term fans: why was there so little of Betty and Peggy, yet so much of Don’s ambitious and increasingly multi-faceted new wife Megan? But as the swinging Sixties took hold, we saw Roger dropping LSD, the tragic conclusion of Lane’s American journey, some deliberately pitiable office fighting, and the Beatles and James Bond on the soundtrack. As for Don himself, he remained essentially unknowable, and his attempts to create yet another version of himself through his marriage looked, by the end, doomed to founder. GC
36. Being Human BBC3
Fears that Being Human might not survive without two thirds of its original house-share – Mitchell the vampire (Aidan Turner) and George the werewolf (Russell Tovey) – proved unfounded as new supernatural beings rose to take their places. Series four mined comedy and pathos from the strained friendship between OCD vampire Hal (Damien Molony) and Michael Socha's innocent young werewolf Tom (eyebrows: actor's own) – and by making resident spook Annie (Lenora Crichlow) the heart of the household. The series did eventually give up the ghost – but immediately replaced her with a new one ahead of season five. PJ
35. A Mother’s Son ITV1
Parents who watched this psychological thriller all felt the same chill run down their spine. Hermione Norris was Rosie, a well-to-do woman whose life was turned upside down when a local schoolgirl was murdered and her son appeared to be hiding a bloodstained pair of trainers. Her dilemma over whether to ignore her basic, protective mothering instinct and turn her son over to the police was one that resonated with any mother, and it was evocatively realised over the course of a tense two hours. DC
34. Accused BBC1
Jimmy McGovern's one-off dramas were tighter and tougher this year, kicking off with an extraordinary performance by Sean Bean as a strutting but vulnerable transvestite in a halting relationship with a married man (Stephen Graham). Even better were Anne-Marie Duff and the godlike Olivia Colman as two women trying to stand up to violent gangs. At its best, Accused delivered stories with immense power and purity, heightened further by the gimmick of not knowing who will end up in the dock or for what. JS