British Dark Comedy I Recommend

January 1, 2020

These ones have silly or surreal humor:

The Mighty Boosh - very weird surreal humor that I enjoyed as a teenager
Look Around You - A parody of “science education” TV - season 1 and 2 are very different so definitely worth trying both!
Green Wing - surreal and silly sitcom set in a hospital - think it’s semi-improvised
Campus - very similar to Green Wing but set in a university
Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place - A parody of 1980s sci-fi/horror TV
The IT Crowd - A silly sitcom set in a computer support department
Toast of London - A silly sitcom about an aging actor
Nathan Barley - A sitcom about early hipsters
Feel Good - this isn’t really silly or surreal but it’s a very good and heartwarming sitcom about gender identity

These are really dark:

Brass Eye - a dark parody of current affairs news shows
The League of Gentlemen - very dark comedy horror about life in a small rural village in England
Inside Number 9 - Written by the same people as The League of Gentlemen but a bit more up to date - each episode is a different story
Nighty Night - one of the darkest comedies on this list… you’ve been warned!
I Am Not an Animal - dark animated series about animals escaping from a lab and living in the real world
Fleabag - you know how good this is!
Peep Show - a sitcom shot from a first-person perspective - where Olivia Coleman first came to fame!
Flowers - dark sitcom about a strange family
Monkey Dust - I’ve not seen this but Matt says it’s great but very very dark

These are really good dramas with comedic elements:

Years and Years - Follows a family over 15 years into the future - really interesting and a bit to real!!
Killing Eve - Amazing female-led cast and writing about a female serial killer/assassin
Black Mirror - near-future sci-fi that feels very real and darkly humorous
It’s a sin - very moving but also heart-warming and funny depiction of the AIDs crisis in London