The Top 12 Shows For Telly Vision's Tenth Anniversary

When Telly Visions launched in September 2011, PBS and Masterpiece were still generally the most dependable way to watch British shows in America. Both A&E and Bravo, which had started as highbrow cable channels in the 1990s, had long left those ambitions behind. BBC America existed, but only in the top tiers of cable add ons, and half of it was American shows anyway. Despite the ability to stream video over the internet arriving with the ubiquity of broadband, watching the BBC and ITV still required dedication and some internet know-how.

But change was already on the way. Netflix, which had started offering streaming directly to homes in 2007, had started adding older British TV series to its library. It had only been a couple of years since Masterpiece Theater had rebranded to Masterpiece. However, the show that would bring it in line with modern prestige programming, Downton Abbey, had already reached sleeper hit status with the truncated version of its first season, which had premiered earlier that year. (Meanwhile, Masterpiece's big bet, the Upstairs Downstairs reboot, flopped hard.) And a little reality show about baking was running a second season, the first not to be a Kids In Need charity special, over on BBC Two.

Here in 2021, it's almost impossible to imagine that landscape now, with six primary streaming services vying for our eyeballs (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO Max, Peacock, Disney+), all of which have British imports helping round out their coffers. Masterpiece is still a significant importer, but it is no longer the only anthology series on the PBS roster, joined by upstart Walter's Choice. There are easily another dozen more minor niche services from Apple TV+ to AMC+ to Discovery+, with British and British-adjacent programming. And there are even some streaming services that are 100% dedicated to bringing over U.K. and foreign titles, like Acorn TV and BritBox.

With the last ten years now in the rearview mirror, let's take a look at some of the most popular series that Telly Visions has covered over the years and see which have survived the test of time and which are as dated as the day they arrived.