Top TV in April

Get an injection of British comedy – and a big dose of kid stuff – in the latest TV additions to our Instant catalogue.

Top 10

Dirt series 1-2

Flashy, trashy fun with Courtney Cox as the editor in chief at the tabloid magazine Dirt and the slighter more respectable glossy Now (she merges them in episode 2 to save money). Ian Hart is her buddy and employee – a paparazzi who is also a functioning schizophrenic. Given legs this 2007 show might have been another 30 Rock, but a Hollywood screenwriters’ strike intervened, cutting the second series to just 7 episodes. By the time it was over, so was Dirt.

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Bob the Builder

You can tell a lot about a show by the guest stars it attracts… In this case: John Motson, Sue Barker, Ulrika Johnsson, Elton John, Alison Steadman, Noddy Holder and Chris Evans have all chipped in (though of course Neil Morrissey voices our indefatigable contractor). Created by Keith Chapman in 1998, Bob boasts the catchiest theme song on CBBC (a number one single in the UK and Australia) and has currently notched up 100 episodes. Altogether now: Can we fix it? Yes, we can!

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The Trap Door series 1-2

Claymation, vintage 1984. This is Tim Burtonesque before Tim Burton was Tim Burton: a creepy horror comedy for kids of all ages, featuring the blue monster Berk, a disembodied skull, Boni; and The Thing Upstairs, the master of the castle. Willie Rushton provides the voices and each episode lasts about four minutes.

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Balamory series 1

What’s the story in Balamory? And which coloured house are we going to? Pitched as a soap opera for pre-schoolers, this BBC Scotland show has a certain charm for parents too. It’s also a musical, each character has his or her own signature tune (or two), including the likes of “I’m PC Plum” and “Josie Jump is My Name”.

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Teletubbies series 1-3

If one year olds ruled the world this would be the biggest show in history. It’s still pretty big. Three hundred and sixty five 25-minute episodes were produced between 1997 and 2002 – which means the babies who grew up with Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa (our favourite) and Po are now teenagers. How long before Michael Bay churns out a Hollywood blockbuster?

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Iron Man series 1

Talking of Hollywood blockbusters, this 1994 animated series preceded Robert Downey Jr’s career capper by about a decade. Back then Marvel wasn’t quite such a player on the big screen, and Iron Man was voiced by Robert Hays, of Airplane fame. The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man were stable mates in the Marvel Action Hour, all of them boasting a faintly anime look

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Friday Night Dinner series 1

Mildly barmy, but still very recognizable Channel 4 sitcom about a mildly barmy, still very recognizable family, the Goodmans, and their traditional Friday night antics. Tamsin Greig (Black Books; Green Wing), Paul Ritter, Simon Bird and Tom Rosenthal star. Writer producer Robert Popper created Look Around You, so you know where he’s coming from.

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Fresh Meat series 1

This sitcom from Peep Show creators Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain features half a dozen freshers sharing a flat in Manchester – reportedly the writers took inspiration from The Young Ones, though critics suggested it was a more grown up version of The Inbetweeners. Jack Whitehall is JP, an “old stoic” and geology student, and the focal point for much of the show’s emotional drama. It was named the Best New Comedy at the British Comedy Awards, 2011.

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Bottom series 1

Young Ones scallywags Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson import and update 3 Stooges style slapstick in this extreme sick-com from 1991. They’re London flatmates Eddie and Richie, men behaving really, really badly, in this seminal series. Apparently the show was born out of a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot that Mayall and Edmondson starred in!

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Spaced series 1-2

Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg in another top UK sitcom about perennial underachievers, 30something flatmates Daisy and Tim. Lightning fast and wacky as a cricket bat, it’s probably the only sitcom that will ever have you checking the director credit, and lo and behold, that would be Edgar Wright, of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame.

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Tom Charity

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