Telly news, episode guides and what to watch next
Falling asleep mid-episode is a British birthright, but not every streaming app handles it with grace. We put the UK's big services through the doze-off defence — sleep timers, 'still watching?' prompts, resume recaps and the dreaded 3am autoplay — to find out who tucks you in and who leaves the telly running until dawn.
We put BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, U and the big streamers through a thoroughly unscientific sofa test. The result is a ranking built on the things that really matter: loading speed, search sanity and whether the app remembers you were halfway through episode three.
British telly has a bad habit of leaving us mid-sentence: the bomb still ticking, the door still opening, the confession still hanging in the air. This is a call for a proper cliffhanger amnesty — not endless revivals, just the courtesy of a closing chapter.
A living-room audit of UK streamers and catch-up players, scored on subtitle speed, readability and whether their sound mixes make dialogue sound like it was recorded under a duvet. Some platforms clearly respect your nan, your kettle and your last shred of patience. Others do not.
From the EastEnders duff-duff to the Countdown clock, some telly noises have moved into our heads permanently. We rank the UK audio cues that still make us sit up in 2026 — and nominate the streaming sound design worth watching.
Long after we stopped reading the Radio Times, most of us can still hit BBC One blindfolded. A fond, slightly grumpy look at the channel numbers seared into British thumbs — how the EPG became a national map, why streamers keep failing to build one, and the small interface tweaks that would make telly feel like ours again.
Ad-supported streaming is now the default for plenty of UK telly lovers, but not all ad tiers are created equal. We rank the big Brit streamers on break frequency, placement and whether they have the common decency to let a good cry finish before flogging you a hatchback.
The duff-duffs land, the voiceover starts, and we are promised chaos. What we get is a row about a chippy. Here is our highly unscientific ranking of telly's most misleading 'next time' trailers — and a small plea for honesty, or silence.
Forget the dragons and the drone shots — the most memorable hour of British telly is usually two actors, one room and a kettle doing serious dramatic work. Here’s our entirely unofficial awards ceremony for the bottle episode, from sitcom sofas to interview-room standoffs.
They warn us about strong language, talk us through a schedule shake-up, and somehow make a teatime repeat feel like a proper occasion. As streaming menus get colder in 2026, Paam TV makes the case for telly’s most underrated performers — the continuity announcers.
Two years between series and a cast of thousands — the recap is the most underrated button in streaming. We put BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, Netflix UK and Prime Video through four tests to see who actually respects your memory.
No credits, no title card, no warning — just ninety seconds to make you put the phone down. We rank ten British cold opens that did the job before the theme tune even cleared its throat, from Derry Girls to this year's Traitors launch.
A thoroughly unscientific awards ceremony for the second-screen age, sorting the British telly that survives a scroll from the shows that catch you out the second you glance at a message. Includes the Do Not Scroll hall of fame, the perfect background shortlist and a two-minute test for your own watchlist.
Modern telly is terrified of silence. Credits are squeezed, autoplay is always lurking and the next episode is shoved in your face before the last one has finished. Here is a modest argument for a breathing-room setting — and for letting British telly earn its closing moments again.
Thirty-four titles saved, none watched, and a quiet sense of failure every time you open the app. The streaming queue has stopped being a to-do list and started being a debt — so here's a self-assessment framework and five rules for pruning it without the shame.
The skip button has quietly become the most-used control in British telly, and honestly, most intros deserve it. But there's a tier of opening titles that genuinely earns its ninety seconds — so here's our never-skip fifteen, plus the three we bin before the kettle's even boiled.
You know the face. You just can't place the name. We celebrate the supporting players who prop up every British drama, build a 2026 spot-them checklist, and ask why they never get the gong.
Once upon a time, 9pm was a national event. Now it's a scheduling shrug. We mourn the watercooler hour, trace its slow demise across 2026, and find out what (if anything) is worth watching at nine instead.
Forget the frocks and the five-minute speeches — the real awards go to whatever's on while you're folding a fitted sheet and half-reading a group chat. Here are our entirely unscientific winners for 2026, from the best laundry-folding drama to the show most likely to send you to sleep on a Sunday.
You've had the argument. Someone swears blind a beloved British sitcom is 'definitely on iPlayer', and forty minutes later you're both staring at a rental page asking for £2.49 an episode. Here's our guide to the shows stuck in the digital attic in 2026 — and where to actually find them.