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Last Christmas, David Oyelowo played a vengeful prison officer in Les Misérables The Tiger Who Came To Tea (Channel 4) – 23 minutes and 17 seconds of unmitigated joy. I know which one I’d rather watch again.
Adapted for the small screen from Judith Kerr’s delightful 1968 children’s book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea uses 20,000 individual drawings to bring Kerr’s wild imagination to life. So intricate is each frame that a few months ago the production team thought they weren’t going to get it done in time for Christmas – so they recruited students from Middlesex University to help them out. The result is lovely: sticking closely to Kerr’s original drawings, it is reminiscent of 1982’s The Snowman , its intricate and subtly inconsistent shading giving the whole thing a sort of old-school vibration.
Kerr invented the tale – a little girl and her mother are visited by a taciturn tiger, who eats their cupboards bare and drinks their taps dry – as a bedtime story for her own daughter after a trip to the zoo. Here, the mother and daughter are ably voiced by Tamsin Greig and Clara Ross, while director Robin Shaw and screenwriter Joanna Harrison keep the story’s playful spirit alive.
Voiced in snarling baritone by Oyelowo, the eponymous beast was described by Shaw as “the Roger Moore of tigers” – and he’s right. In the hands of Oyelowo, the animation team and some excellent Foley work, he is charming, entitled and just a little bit dangerous. He’s also delightfully greedy – quietly (and I must say somewhat seductively) eyeing up, and then loudly scoffing, the following: a tray of cookies, a whole cake, a can of whipped cream, a block of cheese, an entire turkey, several lemons, and a tube of toothpaste.
Show all 30 1 /30The 30 best TV shows of the decade The 30 best TV shows of the decade 30. Homeland (season 1, 2011) Few dead horses have been more flogged, but if you stretch your mind back enough, it is possible to remember a series with a fantastic premise that kept us guessing for 12 whole episodes. The question: had returning war hero Sgt Brody (Damian Lewis) been radicalised in a foreign jail cell? CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) thought so, but she had plenty of problems of her own. I still think it would have been better if he'd detonated at the denouement. Twisty, compelling, briefly essential. (EC)
Showtime
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 29. Mum (2016-2019) The slow-burning relationship between Cathy (Lesley Manville), a widow and mother of superhuman forbearance, and her late husband’s best pal Michael (Peter Mullan) elevated what could have been a run-of-the-mill suburban comedy into a beautifully composed portrait of friendship, grief and mid-life romance. (FS)
BBC
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 28. Handmaid's Tale (2017- ) Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, set in a pious patriarchal state, lost its way in the second series, but the first, which arrived a few months after Trump entered the White House, was a triumph. As Offred, Elisabeth Moss seethed under her mask of impassivity, while the rich palette gave us a dystopian nightmare as imagined by the 17th-century Dutch school. (FS)
Hulu
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 27. Money Heist (2017- ) Perhaps the trashiest show on this list, but trash of the highest grade, Money Heist is Netflix's most popular non-English series, a hit across Europe and South America, with 34m accounts watching this year's Part 3 in its first week of release. A mysterious mastermind known as The Professor gathers together a crew of misfit criminals to execute a robbery on the Royal Mint in Spain. Tense, funny, clever and often completely preposterous, La Casa del Papel has only been held back by its off-putting English title. (EC)
Netflix
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 26. Rick and Morty (2013- ) It unfortunately inspired some of the worst fans on the internet, but that shouldn't detract from Rick and Morty's inventiveness. Ostensibly a parody of Back to the Future, about the adventures of a young boy and his alcoholic, mad scientist grandfather, the cartoon uses its set-up to put its heroes in an endless number of frenetic, frequently insane situations. Blink and you miss a gag and two pop-culture references. (EC)
Adult Swim
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 25. The Returned (2012-2015) This exquisite French series is about the dead trying to return to their old lives in a secluded mountain town dispensed with the usual gory zombie tropes, instead dwelling on the human instincts of these confused beings – specifically their desire to love and be loved – and the grief experienced by those they left behind. (FS)
Channel 4
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 24. Catastrophe (2015-19) Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney were a masterful double act in this sitcom about a holiday fling resulting in an unplanned pregnancy. The pair’s attempts to build a life together yielded scabrous gags about sex and post-partum leakage, a cameo from the late Carrie Fisher and an underlying tenderness that resisted spilling into sentimentality. (FS)
Channel 4
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 23. Killing Eve (2018-) A wicked cocktail of comedy and humanity, shock and gore, the first series of Killing Eve, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was a subversive joy. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer played, respectively, a spy and an assassin whose continental game of cat-and-mouse was a blood-spattered love story for the ages. Sadly, when Waller-Bridge handed off writing duties in the second series, the magic wasn't quite the same. (FS)
BBC/BBC America
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 22. Borgen (2010-2013) The Killing may have started the Scandi craze, but it aired in Denmark in 2007, so it doesn't count for these purposes. Borgen was everything The West Wing wasn't: a cliché-resistant drama that showed politics in grating reality, with plenty of plausible schemers in slick outfits and a wonderful central performance by Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg, the Prime Minister trying to balance principles with power. (EC)
DR Fiktion
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 21. Detectorists (2014-17) Following the exploits of Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook), dedicated treasure hunters and members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club, Detectorists was about people and their passions, community and camaraderie. It’s a wonderfully tranquil meditation on male companionship. (FS)
BBC
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 20. The Americans (2013-2018) Where other series burn brightly and fade after a couple of years, FX's Cold War spy drama took its time. Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell, married in real life, shone as the Russian couple working as spies in suburban Washington DC. The tension built over six seasons to a magnificent finale, rewarding those who stuck with it. (EC)
Patrick Harbron/FX via AP
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 19. The Leftovers (2014-2017) The premise is one of the most intriguing in television: people struggling to come to terms with something called the "Sudden Departure", a mysterious event in whichtwo per cent of the world's population simply disappeared. Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta's drama received iffy reviews at first, but its reputation grew through its second and final outings, with writing and performances that explored the full depth of the setup without losing the pervasive air of mystery. (EC)
HBO
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 18. The Crown (2016- ) The third series is a noticeable drop-off in quality, but for two series The Crown achieved a number of unexpected feats. It made viewers genuinely interested in the Royal Family, and not in a Prince Andrew "should they go to prison?" kind of way. With sumptuous sets and costumes and some excellent performances, especially Claire Foy as the young monarch, this remains the high-water mark of Netflix polish – proof that money can, sometimes, buy you love. (EC)
Netflix/PA
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 17. The Great British Bake Off (2010- ) Reports of the death of TV’s baking behemoth have been greatly exaggerated: despite host departures, a channel move and the off-screen antics of a certain perma-tanned judge, this big-hearted competition in which friendships are forged and adults weep over sagging soufflés remains the ultimate feel-good reality show. (FS)
Channel 4
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 16. The Trip (2010- ) Two men bicker over bottles of fine wine. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s low-key, semi-improvised and implausibly funny tours of high-end European restaurants saw the pair’s insecurities deliciously laid bare as they discussed sex, ageing and ambition. Michael Winterbottom directed. (FS)
IFC Films
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 15. Happy Valley (2014- ) This Yorkshire-set, Bafta-festooned series gave us Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), a pleasingly complex, no-nonsense police sergeant up to her neck in rapists, murderers, addicts and the odd ailing sheep, together with some superbly earthy dialogue courtesy of writer Sally Wainwright. (FS)
BBC
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 14. Girls (2012-2017) Without Girls there is no Fleabag or Adam Driver, and it would probably merit inclusion on those two facts alone. But Lena Dunham now attracts as much opprobrium as praise, and it's easy to forget how new her breakthrough comedy felt in its naturalistic depiction of young women in New York. This was Sex and the City for people who spent more time on Instagram than at work, created by people the same age as those they were portraying. Its look and feel have cast a long shadow. (EC)
Rex Features
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 13. Sherlock (2010- ) Witty, inventive and dazzling to look at, Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss’s relocation of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories to the present day worked beautifully, as did the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as the “high-functioning sociopath” Holmes and Martin Freeman as the put-upon army veteran Watson. While later series would drift, the first three were unbeatable. (FS)
BBC
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 12. Chernobyl (2019) A five-part drama about a nuclear disaster in 1986 is not the most promising prospect for a night in with a bottle of wine. It is a tribute to the writer, Craig Mazin, and director, Johan Renck, as well as its cast, especially Jared Harris, that Chernobyl managed to be totally gripping, with frequent moments of stark, horrendous beauty. (EC)
HBO
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 11. Atlanta (2016- ) At first, the musician and comedian Donald Glover's series about struggling rappers in Atlanta looked like a familiar, safe kind of sitcom about loveable losers. But it quickly evolved into something fresh: a smart, occasionally surreal examination of life at the margins of America, whose angry heart never spilled into preachiness or got in the way of the jokes. (EC)
AP
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 10. Love Island (2015- ) Who could have anticipated a dating show in which twenty-somethings sit around in microscopic swimwear would tell us so much about the human condition? Gaslighting, bromances, the complexities of “girl code” – Love Island delved beneath the spray tans and schooled the nation on modern manners. (FS)
Rex Features
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 9. Patrick Melrose (2018) An electrifying study of addiction, trauma and the corrupting power of privilege, based on the autobiographical books by Edward St Aubyn. Benedict Cumberbatch played the feckless antihero grappling with his past and trying (and mostly failing) to be better than the wretched aristos that raised him. (FS)
Sky
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 8. The Vietnam War (2017) Ken Burns's epic 10-part documentary followed up his other conflict opuses, on The Civil War and The War, with a detailed story about Vietnam. Using new interviews from both sides as well as archive footage, the documentary shows in unrelenting detail a catastrophe that unfolded in slow motion. Some critics accused it of underserving the experience of the Vietnamese civilians. But it left viewers in no doubt that not only did the US leadership pursue it long after it was a lost cause, but they knew from the start it was unwinnable. (EC)
Trailer screenshot
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 7. Black Mirror (2011- ) Charlie Brooker sent every other TV critic, or at least one of them, into a spiral of envy by proving not only that it was possible to cross over into creation, but to do so in style. Black Mirror's taut near-future tales of techno-dystopia are almost always interesting, even if they sometimes fall short of their ambitions, as with the high-concept recent film, "Bandersnatch". The best episodes, like 2016's tour de force, "San Junipero", are gripping examinations of human connection in a world where interactions are increasingly by screens. (EC)
Getty Images
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 6. Blue Planet II (2017) The first of the Attenborough documentaries to speak directly of the human impact on the natural world, this kaleidoscopic ocean odyssey provided a visual feast of clam-cracking tuskfish, alien-looking pyrosomes and anthropomorphic dolphins, while reminding us how it could all be lost. (FS)
BBC
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 5. BoJack Horseman (2014- ) Only in a world of Netflix budgets can you imagine a concept as wild as BoJack Horseman’s getting off the ground. It's a cartoon set in LA, ostensibly a comedy about celebrity, except half the characters, including its lead, are anthropomorphised animals. Halfway through its final season, which has been split into two, its initial zaniness has given way to something darker and more interesting. Lurid colours and visual wit dress one of the most humane explorations of depression, addiction and cycles of abuse. (EC)
Netflix
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 4. Fleabag (2016-19) What began, in its first series, as an enjoyably acid-tongued portrait of modern womanhood became a fully fledged masterpiece in the second. Written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag gave us perfectly calibrated scenes of familial dysfunction and sexual longing – the latter memorably culminating in the Priest’s simple, thrilling instruction: “Kneel.” (FS)
BBC
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 3. This is England (2010-15) The first spin-off series from Shane Meadows’ 2007 film, about a gang of ex-skinheads from the Midlands, was set during the 1986 World Cup, and remains one of the great British dramas, depicting working class lives with humanity and humour. This is England ’88 and ’90 followed, both of them similarly infused with heart and soul. (FS)
Channel 4
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 2. Succession (2018- ) Said to have been a decade in the making, Succession is worth every minute spent on it. Brian Cox enjoys a dream of a late-career role as Logan Roy, the ageing media tycoon unwilling to relinquish control of his company to any of his ungrateful and talentless children. There's oblivious eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck), troubled addict Kendall (Jeremy Strong), scheming daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) and abrasive youngest Roman (Kieran Culkin), along with a host of hangers-on, partners and support staff. None of them seem to have the right stuff. It's an intriguing set-up, but Succession is lifted by its script, performances, locations, costumes, music and direction, which place it firmly in a tradition of laughing at our rulers, where the mirth comes tempered with the knowledge that these are really the people in charge. (EC)
Graeme Hunter
The 30 best TV shows of the decade 1. Game of Thrones (2011-2019) Yes, the final series went a bit weird. Maybe the final two series. A case could be made that the TV adaptation was never as emotionally resonant when it went beyond George RR Martin's novels. The final series were only disappointing compared to what had come before, which was a fantasy on an unprecedented scale that managed to be grandiose without slipping into melodrama. An invented universe with necromancers, dragons, magic swords and ice zombies was notable for its plausible realpolitik. At a time when viewing tastes were meant to be becoming more atomised, Game of Thrones was global event TV, which made household names of the Starks, Lannisters and Greyjoys and provided a whole generation of English character actors with a regular income. (EC)
AP
Benedict Cumberbatch offers his plush, distinctive voice to the role of the father, a benevolent if unimportant figure who trots off to work and then swans back in to discover that the tiger has drunk all his beer. And there’s a lively musical number, courtesy of Robbie Williams , that’ll be stuck into your head until the new year.
How should we interpret The Tiger Who Came To Tea ? Is it a wry reflection on youthful trust? A parable about the importance of hospitality? A gentle send-up of the British tendency towards passive politeness? Or even, as journalist Emily Maitlis put to Kerr herself, a symbol of “the 1960s sexual revolution, where normal mores and suburban life became upended by this wild and exotic creature”? No, said Kerr, it is about a tiger coming to tea.
Kerr had a heavy hand in the production process, banning pizzas from the tiger’s menu because they were too American, and insisting that excess dialogue be removed from the script. But she never got to see the finished product. She died in May at the age of 95.
“Of course it was sad she wouldn’t be there to see it finished,” said Shaw. “But, in a strange way, it was motivating – it made us want to do an even better job.” I think she’d have been delighted. And I think you will be too.
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