Hey there, I’m Jess ✨. On The Signature, I share reflections on beauty, routines, travel, wellness, culture, and everyday life. For those drawn to a calmer, more intentional way of living, I send a free newsletter each month on the 7th. You're welcome to join.
I have written about British miniseries I enjoyed and it was time to write about full-on TV shows too. Especially as some miniseries then turn into TV shows due to their success, which was the case with The Night Manager, with a decade-long gap between the first two seasons.
Jess
British TV Shows reviewed in this article
- Dept. Q (2025-)
- The Gentlemen (2024-)
- Hijack (2023-)
- Karen Pirie (2022-)
- Liar (2017-2020)
- The Night Manager (2016-)
Dept Q
2025 on | Where to watch: Netflix
I love Nordic Noir series like The Investigation or The Chestnut Man. Little did I know two things when I first stumbled into the poster for the Dept. Q show whilst scrolling on Tiktok:
- firstly, that that scruffy unattractive lead character was played by the (usually gorgeous) Matthew Goode
- secondly, that this show based in Edinburgh, Scotland was inspired by a Danish crime series written by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The aforementioned Matthew Goode plays the part of detective Carl Morck, who just suffered a terrible personal loss in the middle of a work accident. The intro is just shocking. After some time away from the force he is back, but not to investigate what happened to him and his work mates but into a make shift basement department, investigating cold cases. He is not that interested until he paired with Akram (played by Swedish actor Alexej Manvelov), a mysterious Syrian IT Manager who wants nothing to do with IT but prone to investigation and Rose, a young detective who needs a boost of confidence to pull through her personal life.
This show is only 9 episodes long. Albeit intense and filled with complexities, set in a very dark, grey and morose ambiance, we are also filled with hope. As we follow the investigation(s) and Carl's road to recovery and adjusting to his personal life, we also fall in love with complex and funny characters. And of course, we want to know what happened in both investigations, so it's quite a gripping show to watch.
Jess
The Gentlemen
2024 on | Where to watch: Netflix
I think I have Meghan Markle to thank for making me discover this show at the end of summer of 2026? I first heard about it when the Duchess of Sussex was rumoured to join the cast for Season 3. I was intrigued and started watching it.
Created by Guy Ritchie, it's a spin-off from his 2019 movie with the same name. On the pilot episode, we meet Edward "Eddie" Horniman (played by Theo James), as he is called out from the British Army to attend to his hailing father, the Duke of Halstead. As he dies, he discovers he is the heir to the Estate, yet he has an older brother, Freddie (played by Daniel Ings), whom their father did not trust with his life, literally. Freddie is an addict gambler and is in tremendous debt with the wrong kind of people.
Against his will yet with a great sense of duty, Eddie takes up the mission to care for his family (other than Freddie and his sister-in-law, he also has their mother Sabrina - played by Joely Richardson whom I did not know was English! I remember her from the good old Nip/Tuck days!) and sister Charlotte - played by Jasmine Blackborow - to care for) and to repay his brother's debt.
As with many aristocrats, the Halstead family is cash poor. After a bit of investigation around, Eddie discovers his father harboured a cannabis business in the (under)grounds of the estate. Eddie has to face the decision between dealing with the marijuana mob - lead by the gorgeous Kaya Scodelario as Susie Glass - or sell the estate and move away from the family history.
Jess
The Night Manager
2016 & 2026 | Where to watch: BBC or Prime
Season 1
If there is one way to grab my husband's attention to make him watch a full show with me, give us a spy thriller and make it a miniseries as the man just loathes long-winded shows (he panics when he sees me watching Grey's Anatomy 77th season). This show was right up his alley and we both enjoyed it, as this is not just a spy thriller. It’s a story about power, complicity, and how evil often wears a tailored suit and a smile.
The Night Manager started as a six-episode miniseries based on the novel by John le Carré, The Night Manager begins in a luxury hotel in Cairo, Egypt where Jonathan Pine (played by Tom Hiddleston) works as the night manager. He’s calm, impeccable and hiding a military past.
His carefully ordered life unravels when he gets pulled into the dangerous world of Richard "Dickie" Roper (played by Hugh Laurie), a billionaire arms dealer operating under the perfect façade of charm, philanthropy, and Savile Row tailoring. Recruited by British intelligence, Pine agrees to go undercover and infiltrate Roper’s inner circle. In that inner circle, he meets Jemima "Jed" Marshall, played by Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown's Princess Diana), who is Roper's girlfriend. With their intense encounters, things get even more complicated.
From "Cairo" (in reality, the Egypt bits were filmed in Morocco, but okay!) to Mallorca, Zermatt to London, the series is beautifully shot and full of espionage tension, emotional complexity, and moral greyness. You’re never quite sure if Pine is in control or spiraling. Tom Hiddleston is so so good at this duality, I love this actor. Speaking of actors I adore, we also have the exquisite Olivia Colman as Angela Burr, who plays the MI6 agent running the operation. She is brilliant and utterly grounded. Olivia was actually heavily pregnant during filming, both in real life and in the storyline, which makes me admire her even more.
The series, directed by the wonderful Danish Susanne Bier (who also directed The Undoing and The Perfect Couple, both with Nicole Kidman) won multiple Golden Globes and BAFTAs, including much deserved acting awards for both Hiddleston and Colman.
Season 2
Ten years later (for us), The Night Manager comes back for another six-episode season, this time with Georgi Banks-Davies serving as director (from Kaos, Paper Girls and I Hate Susie).
In 2019, four years after Dickie Roper's downfall, Jonathan Pine and Angela Burr reunite in Syria to identify Roper's corpse after his execution by his captors. A few years later, we check back on Pine, as he manages a surveillance unit called "The Night Owls" that gathers intelligence on criminal activity. As he suspects criminal ties from colleagues, the plot takes him to Colombia, where a web of lies and deception unfolds before our eyes.
Jess
Hijack
2023 on | Where to watch: Apple TV+
This isn’t your usual slow-burn, eerie countryside mystery but I had to include it. Hijack is a 7-part British miniseries set almost entirely on a plane, and I devoured it in two sittings. It’s intense, gripping, claustrophobic, and despite the fact that we’re 30,000 feet in the air, emotionally grounded.
The story unfolds over a single 7-hour flight from Dubai to London. We meet Sam Nelson, played by Idris Elba, a corporate negotiator with a complicated past. He’s not a special agent. He doesn’t have a gun. He’s not even particularly brave in the traditional sense. But he’s clever and when the plane is hijacked mid-air, he starts using those same boardroom negotiation skills to try to keep everyone alive.
What makes Hijack work is the tension. You feel the pressure rising minute by minute, as passengers panic, hijackers get sloppy, and authorities on the ground scramble to figure out what’s going on. There’s no superhero moment here. It’s people, decisions, and consequences.
Elba is phenomenal and cool under pressure, but always a little bit rattled. And the supporting cast? Brilliant. Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) plays a British counter-terrorism officer trying to piece things together from the ground, and every scene she's in adds a layer of urgency.
Jess
Karen Pirie
2022 on | Where to watch: ITV or BritBox or Amazon Prime
If you liked Mare of Easttown but wish it had a Scottish accent and a bit more banter, Karen Pirie might do it for you. Based on the Val McDermid novel The Distant Echo, this three-part miniseries introduces us to a young detective with a messy bun, sensible boots, and zero tolerance for nonsense.
Karen, played brilliantly by Lauren Lyle (Outlander), is unexpectedly promoted to reopen a 1996 cold case: the murder of a university student named Rosie Duff, whose body was found in a St. Andrews graveyard after a party. Three male students were suspected, but never charged. Now, decades later, a true crime podcast is stirring up public interest and the pressure is on to solve what really happened that night.
What I loved most? Karen herself. She’s smart but not slick, brave but still figuring it all out. There’s a real authenticity to her: she drinks too much Diet Coke, gets overwhelmed by bureaucracy, and talks to herself when frustrated. (Relatable.)
The series hops back and forth between 1996 and the present day, with grainy flashbacks and shifting truths. You think you know what happened. You don’t. Then you do again. And then you really don’t.
Shot in St. Andrews and Glasgow, two cities I love and I visited on my first road trip to Scotland, Karen Pirie feels moody and chilly in the best way. There’s a tension to the way people protect the past—whether through guilt, shame, or just sheer stubbornness. It’s not a series about big explosions or car chases. It’s about persistence. And power. And a woman determined to get to the truth, even if everyone else would rather leave it buried.
Jess
Liar
2017-2020 | Where to watch: HBO Max
My husband and I devoured this 6-episode miniseries in a single weekend. And then we discovered it had two seasons. Can we still call it a miniseries though?
It all begins when a woman goes on a romantic dinner date with a charming man and the next morning, accuses him of rape.
The show is brilliantly done. Each episode is packed with tension, twists, and growing uncertainty, right up until the very last bit. What really stands out are the performances, especially from Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey), Ioan Gruffudd (Ringer), who are both in seasons one and two, and Katherine Kelly, who joins in the second season.
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