Best tv shows like The Beiderbecke Affair
Last updated March 2024
Looking for tv shows like The Beiderbecke Affair? Share your knowledge to guide others discover movies and tv shows you've already seen that might suit them too. Boost the cohort of people recommending videos to one another. We value your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. Trevor tries to buy some jazz records but this leads to meeting a "dazzlingly beautiful platinum blond", a suspicious detective sergeant and a strange pair of men running a junior football team. Big Al and Little Norm agree to help Trevor and Jill with their school supplies problems. Jill decides to stand as a local councillor. A tale of "Black Economies", council corruption and many strange characters all set to a background of Bix Beiderbecke.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 607
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 320 min
Plot tags: offbeat, realistic, suspenseful, witty, contemplative, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like The Beiderbecke Affair (1985):
Similar in 85%
The Beiderbecke Tapes (1987)
Plot Summary:
Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne teaches English and wants to help save the planet. They live together and just want a quiet life. Then they meet John the barman who died but is much better now. John gave them a tape which led to meeting Dave the wimp. They find out about The Peoples Front For The Liberation of west Yorkshire. The man with no name called Mr Peterson came to see them. He was followed by the six men in grey suits. Jill goes to see The Oldest Suffragette In Town. Trevor and Jill go on a trip to Amsterdam with their class from "San Quentin High". Trevor and Jill meet The Honourable Order of Elks who are "looking for a bit of action".
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama, Music, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Raffles (1975)
Plot Summary:
Raffles was a 1977 television adaptation of the A. J. Raffles stories by Ernest William Hornung. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television and written by Philip Mackie. The episodes were largely faithful adaptations of the stories in the books, though occasionally two stories would be merged to create one episode such as "The Gold Cup" which featured elements from both "A Jubilee Present" and "The Criminologist's Club".
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 200
Genere: Comedy, Crime
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Fool Britannia (2012)
Plot Summary:
Fool Britannia is a hidden camera sketch series which has aired since 1 September 2012 on ITV. Fool Britannia sees Dom Joly surprising unexpected members of the public with pranks. The first series aired for eight episodes. The second series is scheduled to begin airing on 5 October 2013. This series will consist of six episodes.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 93
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, not serious, witty
Similar in 76%
Minder (1979)
Plot Summary:
Minder is a British comedy-drama series about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV. The show ran for ten series between 29 October 1979 and 10 March 1994, and starred Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, an honest and likable bodyguard and George Cole as Arthur Daley, a socially ambitious, but highly unscrupulous importer-exporter, wholesaler, used-car salesman, and anything else from which there was money to be made whether inside the law or not. The show was largely responsible for putting the word minder, meaning personal bodyguard, into the UK and Australian popular lexicon. The characters often drank at the local members-only Winchester Club, where owner and barman Dave acted, often unwillingly, as a message machine for Arthur, and turned a blind eye to his shady deals. The series was notable for using a range of leading British actors, as well as many up-and-coming performers before they hit the big time; at its peak was one of ITV's biggest ratings winners. In 2008, it was announced that Minder would go into production for broadcast in 2009 for a new version, although none of the original cast would appear in the new episodes. The new show focused on Arthur's nephew, Archie, played by Shane Richie. The series began broadcast on 4 February 2009. In 2010, it was announced that no further episodes would be made following lukewarm reception to the first series.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sitcom, comedy drama, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 86%
A Very Peculiar Practice (1986)
Plot Summary:
A young and idealistic Doctor Stephen Daker arrives at Lowlands University to work at the Health Centre, but has to cope with an eccentric set of colleagues.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, touching, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious
Similar in 85%
The Beiderbecke Connection (1988)
Plot Summary:
Trevor Chaplin teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Chapman teaches English and wants to help save the planet. They live together and just want a quiet life. Since their last adventure in ('Beiderbecke Tapes, The (1987) (TV)' ), Jill and Trevor have a child - Firstborn. Big Al asks them to put up a friend of his and, of course, they agree. But when Ivan arrives, they find he speaks no English but thinks that "Bix is cool".
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 201 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Darling Buds of May (1991)
Plot Summary:
An idyllic picture of 1950's rural England as seen through the lives of the Larkins, a farm family living in Kent. The show revolves around Pa Larkin, a man of a kind and mischievous nature with a penchant for getting into scrapes and talking his way out of them with equal equanimity; and his daughters, as they deal with growing up and discovering the joys and sorrows of young love.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, witty, not serious, period drama
Similar in 85%
Tiara Tahiti (1962)
Plot Summary:
James Mason and John Mills star in this comedy-drama about a tough colonel and a refined captain who clashed during the war, and continue their personal battle in peace-time Tahiti.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: clever, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 81%
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976)
Plot Summary:
Disillusioned after a long career at Sunshine Desserts, Perrin goes through a mid-life crisis and fakes his own death. Returning in disguise after various attempts at finding a 'new life', he gets his old job back and finds nothing has changed. He is eventually found out, and in the second series has success with a chain of shops selling useless junk. That becomes so successful that he feels he has created a monster and decides to destroy it. In the third and final series he has a dream of forming a commune which his long suffering colleagues help bring to reality. Unfortunately that also fails and he finds himself back in a job not unlike the one he originally had at Sunshine Desserts.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sitcom, surreal, dark comedy, humorous, realistic, cynical, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Everything Must Go (1996)
Plot Summary:
Tony is a homosexual law student who quits his studies. With a van and a handful of cash, he hits the road hoping to become a salesman. This, however, turns out to be harder than he expected.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 611
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Porterhouse Blue (1987)
Plot Summary:
In late-'80s Britain, Porterhouse College Cambridge is an anachronism, its students uniformly male and (in the vast number of cases) privately educated. When the incumbent Master dies (from a stroke brought on by overeating) the government revenges itself on Porterhouse by appointing as his successor an old graduate, the politician Sir Godber Evans. One of the tiny minority of state-school students the college has had forced on it over the years, Evans returns to his alma mater determined to drag this bastion of privilege into the twentieth century. The elderly academic staff cease their bickering and close ranks against him, but the new Master finds his most implacable and unscrupulous opponent in Skullion, the college porter.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 502
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 76%
Money (2010)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of the bestseller of the 1980s by Martin Amis.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 124
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: humorous, cynical, semi serious, psychological thriller, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
Sleepers (1991)
Plot Summary:
Amidst the thaw of glasnost, the Kremlin discovers that two Soviet agents, sent to England under deep cover in 1965, have been "lost." A beautiful and ambitious Russian agent, sent to London to track them down, becomes embroiled in a tangle of CIA, KGB and MI-5 plots and counter-plots as the two lost agents, now utterly assimilated, try to avoid detection.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 450
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: black comedy, exciting, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, intercultural, inter cultural
Similar in 79%
All Creatures Great and Small (1978)
Plot Summary:
All Creatures Great and Small is a British television series, based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot. Ninety episodes were aired over two three-year runs. The first run was based directly on Herriot's books; the second was filmed with original scripts.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, humorous, semi serious, feel good, atmospheric, talky, period drama
Similar in 89%
The Two Ronnies (1971)
Plot Summary:
The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show which aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: sketch comedy, humorous, witty, sitcom, realistic, not serious
Similar in 86%
One Foot in the Grave (1990)
Plot Summary:
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven-year period, from early 1990 to late 2000. The latter Comic Relief special was shown after the series officially ended in spring 2001. The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew, played by Richard Wilson, and his long-suffering wife, Margaret, played by Annette Crosbie. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against the problems he creates for himself. Living in a typical household in an unnamed English suburb, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy, while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. The series was largely filmed on location in Walkford, near New Milton in Hampshire, although several clues show that the series may have been set in Hampshire – possibly Winchester. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism. The series was occasionally the subject of controversy for some of its darker story elements, but was nevertheless the recipient of a number of awards, including the 1992 BAFTA for Best Comedy. In 2004, the series came tenth in a 2004 BBC poll to find "Britain's Best Sitcom". The programme also came 80th in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series, originally shown on BBC One, is now available on DVD and is regularly repeated in the United Kingdom on Gold. Seven episodes were remade for BBC Radio 2 and the series also inspired a novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sitcom, funny, dark comedy, surreal, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Mapp & Lucia (2014)
Plot Summary:
1930s comedy drama based on EF Benson's novels, about the rivalry between two women in a quaint village.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 787
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, witty, historical drama, period piece
Similar in 90%
The Black Tower (1985)
Plot Summary:
Frustrated with his career, Commander Dalgliesh is invited to Toynton Grange, a home for the disabled, by his old teacher, Father Baddeley, who is resident there. But unbeknown to Dalgliesh, something happening at the Grange is making the Father uneasy, and Dalgliesh quickly finds himself investigating a series of mysterious deaths.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 363
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Clouds of Witness (1972)
Plot Summary:
Lord Peter's brother, the Duke of Denver is accused of murdering their sister Mary's fiancé. It's up to Lord Peter and his faithful man Bunter to untangle all the clues and the contradicting testimony of a cloud of witnesses to save Denver.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 364
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: talky, detective, mind bending, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, witty, stylized
Similar in 78%
Honest (2008)
Plot Summary:
Honest is a British comedy-drama series that aired on ITV in 2008. The series is a remake of the New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune, written by James Griffin and Rachel Lang, that first aired in 2005. The programme stars Amanda Redman as Lindsay Carter, a mother of four who decides that her criminal family is going to change its ways after her husband is sent to prison. Honest also stars Danny Webb, Sean Pertwee and Camille Coduri.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 246
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious, captivating
Similar in 76%
Reggie Perrin (2009)
Plot Summary:
Reggie Perrin is a modern update of the 1970s BBC sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, which starred Leonard Rossiter. The revival stars Martin Clunes and was first broadcast on 24 April 2009. Series 1 was released on DVD in Region 2 by 2entertain on 1 June 2009.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 768
Genere: Comedy
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: humorous, sitcom, light, feel good, captivating, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 86%
The Buddha of Suburbia (1993)
Plot Summary:
The Buddha of Suburbia is a 1993 British four-part television serial, directed by Roger Michell. Based on the novel of the same name by Hanif Kureishi, the programme starred Naveen Andrews as the main character, Karim Amir. The programme's music was written and performed by David Bowie. Karim Amir is a mixed-race 17-year-old who lives in a South London suburb during the 1970s. With an English mother and a Pakistani father, Karim is uncertain of his cultural identity. As his father becomes a kind of spiritual guru to the surrounding middle-class neighbours, Karim begins to explore his cultural roots with hopes that he will achieve sexual and racial self-realisation.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 516
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 222 min
Plot tags: erotic, controversial, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, witty, talky, semi serious
Similar in 81%
Rock & Chips (2010)
Plot Summary:
Prequel to Only Fools and Horses, set in the 1960s, Joan Trotter is in an unhappy marriage with the work-shy Reg, with whom she has a teenage son, Derek ("Del Boy"). However, the reappearance in Peckham of bank robber, "art connoisseur" and womaniser Freddie Robdal, recently released after a ten year prison sentence, would bring about changes in Joan's life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Behaving Badly (1989)
Plot Summary:
Behaving Badly is a 1989 British television serial directed by David Tucker. The teleplay by Catherine Heath and Moira Williams is based on Heath's novel of the same name. It was initially broadcast by Channel 4. The series was released on DVD in 2005. The plot focuses on Bridget Mayor, a middle-aged housewife and part-time teacher who is forced to re-evaluate her life when her husband of twenty years abandons her for a younger woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, dark comedy
Similar in 75%
Death of an Expert Witness (1983)
Plot Summary:
When Dr. Edwin Lorrimer, a forensic scientist working at a private laboratory is found killed, Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate. Dalgliesh had been in the area a few months previously investigating the murder of a young woman found in an abandoned car. There are several suspects: Lorrimer's subordinate, Clifford Bradley, who despises him; the new head of the laboratory, Maxim Howarth, who is jealous of his sister's relationship with him; a colleague, Paul Middlemass, who had a fight with Lorrimer. There is also a gruff and likely unethical policeman who was on the grounds of the laboratory at the time of the killing and a local pathologist who is raising his two young children after his wife leaves him for another man. When one of the suspects is also murdered, Dalgliesh learns a key piece of information.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 374
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: detective, crime drama, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
Teachers (2001)
Plot Summary:
Teachers is a British television comedy-drama series, created by Tim Loane and originally shown on Channel 4. The series follows a group of secondary school teachers in their daily lives. While the first series centers heavily around probationary teacher Simon Casey, later series have a more balanced ensemble approach. The cast changes dramatically over time, with few original characters remaining by the fourth series. While some of these disappearances are explained, others happen between series without explanation. The first three series are set in the fictional Summerdown Comprehensive, which merges with another school in the fourth series to form Wattkins School. The first three series were filmed at the former Merrywood school, while the fourth was filmed at the former Lockleaze school in Bristol, England. Teachers was nominated for six BAFTA awards between 2002 and 2004, and was nominated for Best Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Awards in 2003. In January 2005, after a muted reception to the fourth series, Channel 4 announced that Teachers would not continue for a fifth series. A short-lived U.S. version was aired in 2006.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious, sitcom, soap opera, witty, sexual, sexy, learning
Similar in 84%
Moving Wallpaper (2008)
Plot Summary:
Moving Wallpaper is a British satirical comedy-drama television series set in a TV production unit. It ran on ITV for two series in 2008–2009. The subject of the first series was the production of a soap called Echo Beach, each episode of which aired directly after the Moving Wallpaper episode about its production. The second series was based around the production of a "zombie show" called Renaissance. Ben Miller confirmed in May 2009 on his Twitter account that no further series will be made. The title, "Moving Wallpaper", is a disparaging term applied to uninspiring TV shows, or to television in general, referring to the perception that modern television viewers are "mindless absorbers of images", as if staring at wallpaper.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 311
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: semi serious, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, talky
Similar in 80%
Ordinary Lies (2015)
Plot Summary:
Exploring what happens when a bunch of white lies spiral out of control and the effect it has on an ordinary group of colleagues and friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, witty, serious, captivating
Similar in 88%
Tanner '88 (1988)
Plot Summary:
In 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics, in which actors Michael Murphy (as contender Jack Tanner) and Cynthia Nixon (as his daughter) rub elbows on the campaign trail with real-life political players Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Bob Dole, Ralph Nader, Kitty Dukakis, and Gloria Steinem, among many others. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the complete eleven-episode television series—more relevant today than ever.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 936
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 353 min
Plot tags: mockumentary, political, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 76%
The Final Cut (1995)
Plot Summary:
Approaching his 65th birthday, Prime Minister Frances Urquhart begins to see the end of his career. Not that he has the intention of resigning anytime soon. He does however hope to establish a legacy, one for the history books and one to provide his pension. Urquhart, the master manipulator, may be losing his touch however. His Foreign Secretary, Tom Makepeace, not only resigns but crosses the floor to sit in the opposition benches in order to attack the government. As his grip on power begins to wane, Urquhart goes to ever greater lengths to retain his authority.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 206 min
Plot tags: political thriller, political, clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, biting, suspense