Daniela Nardini

Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced.

Nine short stories based on the true experiences of London Underground passengers: "Mr. Cool" (Amy Jenkins, dir.); "Horny" (Stephen Hopkins); "Grasshopper" (Menhaj Huda); "My Father the Liar" (Bob Hoskins); "Bone" (Ewan McGregor); "Mouth" (Armando Iannucci); "A Bird in the Hand" (Jude Law); "Rosebud" (Gaby Dellal); "Steal Away" (Charles McDougall)

In a bleak Inverness midwinter, Luisaidh is careening off the rails after the suicide of her best friend. She medicates her misery with joyless sex, chips and a belief in the power of positive drinking. Surrounded by bittersweet memories, she struggles to find someone to talk to or some reason to make life worthwhile at the most stressful time of the year.

Davy and Ally have to re-learn how to live life in Edinburgh after coming home from serving in Afghanistan. Both struggle to learn to live a life outside the army and to deal with the everyday struggles of family, jobs and relationships. Sunshine on Leith is based on the sensational stage hit of the same name, featuring music by pop-folk band The Proclaimers.

The story of Billy, Will, Jules, Daphne and Dodie, a group of people who prove that there are no secrets between friends. It all comes out in the end.

The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.

'Festival' is a black comedy set during the annual Edinburgh Fringe festival. The film is based around both the judging of a major comedy award and the performers at one of the smaller venues. Various plot strands interweave, including the bitter relationship between a famous self-obsessed British comic and his ever-suffering assistant, an actress debuting at the festival with a one-woman show about Dorothy Wordsworth and a depressed, rich housewife who spies on the stoned Canadian theatre troupe to whom she has rented out her house

Drama about a woman who works as a personal shopper in a glamorous department store who becomes seduced by the opulent lives of her clients, with devastating consequences.

Documentary providing rare access to the inner workings, personnel, seminarians and history of the oldest Scottish institution abroad - Il Pontificio College Scozzese (The Scots College in Rome.)

Investigative reporter Jack Parlabane stumbles across the aftermath of a murder scene in Edinburgh, and when he shows little sign of shock at the gruesome killing of a respected doctor, Detective Inspector McGregor suspects that he is the killer and Parlabane must clear his name.

A decade on, Egg, Milly, Warren, Anna and Miles meet again at Ferdy's funeral. Egg is a writer, Milly a mum, Anna's still a lawyer, while Warren and Miles have 'business' careers.

A cheeky tale of a female football referee whose life takes an interesting turn when, despite a lack of enthusiasm for anything other than sport, she finds herself working as a plus-size model.

Comedy set in a chaotic Hogmanay party. Beth and Eric Baird's Hogmanay goes horribly wrong as family, friends and neighbours descend on their home. As they count down to the bells in traditional Scottish style, a lively evening is assured as drink flows and Beth's legendary steak pie comes out of the oven. Secrets are revealed, tempers fray, scores are settled and a gazebo is destroyed.

In this fondly remembered mini series John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men.

Richard Feynman is one of the most iconic, influential and inspiring scientists of the 20th century. He helped design the atomic bomb, solved the mystery of the Challenger Shuttle catastrophe and won a Nobel Prize. Now, 25 years after his death - in his own words and those of his friends and family - this is the story of the most captivating communicator in the history of science.

Johnina seeks revenge on her childhood abuser and the community that enabled him, with the help of a duck.

Starry architects Purves and Pekkala are offered the chance to redesign a Georgian church, but when the head of Scottish Heritage falls from the church tower in a mysterious accident, it becomes a question of whether he fell or was pushed.

Eve Turner is an ambitious military officer with a brilliant career ahead of her, but when she suffers a brutal attack by two officers, her world falls apart.

An emotionally repressed and traumatised young man is challenged by disruptive outsiders to face up to his delusion, and risks losing the final bond to his dead mother.

Filmed over a year, Transsexual Stories follows the lives of Anne, Gladys, Carla, Bee and Jan – five trans women at various stages of transition. Whether it's 17-year-old Bee, who is just beginning her hormone therapy, retired antiques dealer Gladys who had her full sex change operation at the age of 69, or ex-soldier Anne who has recently come out to friends and family, it's tough coming out in the public eye.

A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.

Waterloo Road is a British television drama series set in a comprehensive school of the same name, first broadcast on BBC One on 9 March 2006, and concluding its original run on 9 March 2015. It was recommissioned in 2021, and resumed starting 9 January 2023. At the failing comprehensive school, and later academy of the same name, the professional and personal lives of the students and staff are examined. Affairs, scandals, blackmail and many, many headteachers. Who said education was easy?

Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.

Documentary series which ranges widely over Britain's social and cultural history, its narrative-led storytelling offering a richly immersive and varied window onto the past.

Five aspiring lawyers are aiming for the top - but behind the scenes they're a mess of love, drugs and excess.

Seventeen-year old Paul can see the spirits of the dead. When one of these restless spirits crosses back into the living world, he is forced into a fight to prevent the apocalypse.

If... is a series of BBC drama-documentaries broadcast on BBC Two from March to April 2004 and December 2004 to January 2005, each of which considers the potentially catastrophic political or social consequences that might arise from current trends in the United Kingdom. Using a drama with interviews from experts, then a discussion of the programme with a panel of experts from both sides of an argument. During the show a televote of opinion is cast.

As sex becomes less of a taboo in the new century, relationships get more diverse, but love is still a complicated thing that tests various couples in this drama.

Mini series depicting the turbulent and bloody reigns of Scottish monarchs Mary, Queen of Scots and her son King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England and foiled the Gunpowder Plot.

Reckless is a British television serial written by Paul Abbott. Produced by Granada Television for ITV, it aired in six parts from 6 February to 13 March 1997. Owen Springer is a Junior Doctor who falls for the sophisticated and glamorous Anna Fairley. Little does he know that she is married to his boss, consultant Richard Crane.

"The Sherman Plays" is a series of television adaptations of plays originally staged at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff. The series, produced by HTV, ran from 1993 to 1997. It featured a variety of dramas, some of which were specifically written for the series.

Undercover vice squad detective Tom Howarth goes missing while investigating the murder of a prostitute. His wife Lois and his best friend Matt, also detectives, set out to search for him, but end up falling in love with one another.

In this fondly remembered mini series John Byrne, creator of Tutti Frutti, explores the country music scene in an unsentimental portrait of Glaswegian life and culture. Local food and wine correspondent Frank McClusky falls in love with waitress Cissie Crouch. Unfortunately for him, she’s the wife of a convict, who is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. As Frank’s life becomes more embroiled with Cissie’s he goes on a mission to track down the guilty men.

Drama series centring the establishment of a feminist publishing house from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Drama inspired by real events that tells the story of a fatal car crash involving a group of young friends and the devastating impact it has on the survivors and their families.

Ali Pearson is an English law officer simultaneously involved in a heated and clandestine relationship with her sister's beau and a city-wide police hunt for a serial rapist. When the squads close in on the boyfriend as their prime suspect, it foretells Ali's need to 'lay down her cards' by confessing her relationship to the man in question. But this may mean permanently losing all ties with her sister. Ali suddenly finds herself torn violently in two directions - but she's quickly running out of time, as new details come to light regarding the suspect's background and motivations.

A child is missing and a woman is accused of her murder and that of four other children. A forensic psychiatrist is charged with finding out the truth.