PULP RANKED: 5 Slightly Boring British TV Shows to Binge Watch These Holidays

By Madeline Ward

If you, like me, have the cultural tastes of an upper middle-class baby boomer, you’d be acutely aware of the deeply relaxing nature of small screen masterpieces like Antiques Roadshow and Grand Designs. There is nothing more soothing than the dulcet tones of your favourite TV architect or art historian lulling you into a spaced out-bliss. An hour (or 10) with Kevin McCloud or Fiona Bruce is all you need to reset your frazzled, post-exams brain and ease into the holidays. Boil the kettle, turn on ABC IView and make your home on the couch with these classics.

5. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces

Ah, the poor man’s Fake or Fortune. Trying to work out if an artwork is a lost Titian isn’t quite as engaging when there’s no rich idiot who spent upwards of a couple hundred grand on a potential fake in the mix. This show is good watching for Art History majors considering risking it all in an attempt to become the next Fiona Bruce, and that’s about it.

4. Time Team

Time Team archaeologists were given three days to excavate potential sites around Britain, in a high-stakes TV format that was (at least, according to host Tony Robinson) by 2013 one of the biggest funders of archaeology in the UK. Time Team is perhaps most memorable for the often rainbow-sweatered Mick Aston. Aston saw the show as a means to make archaeology accessible to a large, public audience, and as a giant middle finger to his stuffy academic colleagues. Cheers to that.

3. Fake or Fortune

Old-Fashioned Detective Skills! Fiona Bruce! Art Dealers Losing and Gaining Large Amounts of Money! The best episode in this program is in Season 6, Episode 1, when Phillip Mould discovers he has lost out on about $2 million over a painting he finally proves is by John Constable.

2. Grand Designs

There is no greater high than watching Kevin McCloud gently chastise someone for building a multi-million-dollar property on a rapidly eroding cliff. Grand Designs is truly God-Tier Television, recommended for anyone who enjoys watching wealthy people make terrible decisions (and occasionally beautiful architecture).

1. Antiques Roadshow

Antiques Roadshow has a well-deserved cult following since its launch in 1979, and is both delightfully problematic and extremely wholesome. Plus, there’s over 40 years of episodes to binge watch.