When that moment comes around, we find relief in a particular corner of television’s back catalogue: shows and films that are gently funny, warm without being saccharine, and observant rather than punchline-driven. Typically somewhat eccentric, they are full of humanity, absurdity and characters we feel we know – not least because many of us grew up with people very like them. For comfort amid the chaos, look to these series – some old, some much newer – which are well worth settling down with. Ideally with a good cup of tea and a toasted tea cake.
Small Prophets
From Detectorists creator Mackenzie Crook comes this gloriously idiosyncratic comedy. Pearce Quigley plays Michael Sleep, a gentle, slightly adrift man working in a DIY superstore whose life has been on pause since his girlfriend disappeared seven years earlier. His closest – and somewhat unlikely – ally is Kacey, a younger colleague whose greatest ambition is to appear on Neighbours – despite the inconvenient fact that the show is no longer running. The story takes a magical turn when Michael’s father (Michael Palin), now living in a care home, reveals the secret of growing homunculi: tiny prophetic humans cultivated in jars who can answer any question – but only with the truth. The premise could easily have been bleak – but Small Prophets is anything but. Eccentric, wistful and full of wonder, critics have hailed it as ‘pure, pure pleasure’ and we absolutely concur. Watch it on iPlayer.
Mum
Stefan Golaszewski’s brilliant sitcom follows Cathy (Lesley Manville), a recently widowed woman navigating family life, friendships and the undercurrent of a romance she’s not quite sure she’s ready for. Giving the understated performance of a lifetime, few could carry this off with as much humanity and humour as Manville who, opposite the also-brilliant Peter Mullan, is surrounded – and often thwarted – by her casually insensitive and entirely un-self-aware family; something she endures with remarkable forbearance. A funny and deeply tender depiction of suburban life. Watch it on iPlayer.
Detectorists
If you bypassed Detectorists and jumped straight to Small Prophets, well, then, we have nothing but envy for the hours of joy that lie ahead. Few shows embody gentle television quite like Mackenzie Crook’s cult favourite. Following two metal-detecting enthusiasts wandering the fields of rural Essex, Detectorists turns this unassuming hobby into something profound – as well as freighted with rivalry. Its humour is dry, its pacing gentle and, chiefly, its affection for both landscape and friendship make it one we return to again and again. Watch it on iPlayer.
Love On A Branch Line
This 1990s adaptation of John Hadfield’s comic novel is one of those slightly forgotten gems that is ripe for joyful rediscovery. Set in a languid corner of the Norfolk-Suffolk borders, it follows a mild-mannered civil servant dispatched to investigate whether the Office of Output Statistics should be closed – only to find himself seduced by village life and, more specifically, the wildly eccentric local aristocrat's three beautiful, intensely unconventional daughters. Starring Leslie Philips, David Haig, Abigail Cruttenden and Michael Maloney, it is a gently absurd reminder of the pleasures of comic storytelling – the kind that rarely gets made any more. It’s no longer available on iPlayer, but you can watch it on YouTube here.
Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons’ glorious rural satire translates wonderfully to screen. The 1995 adaptation – starring Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins and a young Kate Beckinsale in her breakout role – follows plucky orphan Flora Poste as she descends upon the doomed Starkadder clan at the aptly named Cold Comfort Farm. Determined to bring order to the chaos, she resolves to take each family member in hand: from Amos, who thunders sermons of fire and damnation, to the reclusive Aunt Ada Doom, who has not left her bedroom for some twenty years. Full of eccentric characters, arch humour and delicious absurdity, it remains one of the most joyful literary adaptations around. Watch it on Dailymotion.
Mapp & Lucia
Based on E. F. Benson’s brilliantly biting novels about two would-be queen bees, this deliciously camp period comedy chronicles the polite warfare between two social climbers in 1930s English village society. It is a masterclass in comic rivalry, all cutting remarks, social manoeuvring and exquisitely petty drama played out over tea parties and bridge evenings. The even better news? There are two superb adaptations to feast upon – firstly the 1985 version starring Prunella Scales, Geraldine McEwan and Nigel Hawthorne, and the newer BBC version, starring Miranda Richardson and Anna Chancellor at war with one another against the picturesque backdrop of Tilling (in fact, the ever-lovely Rye). Watch it on iPlayer.
