A panel of Daily Telegraph journalists has compiled a list of the top 50 British TV programs of all time. Not surprisingly, the 1981 Granada TV production of Brideshead Revisited for ITV makes the list:
This sumptuous adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel was obsessively faithful to its source material and it showed. Leisurely and literary, this examination of the aristocratic Marchmain family seen through the eyes of Charles Ryder…remains the benchmark for costume dramas.
Other literary adaptations on the list include The Forsyte Saga; I, Claudius; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; and Wolf Hall. Several selections appeared to be a bit too recent for inclusion–for example, The Great British Bake-Off, Catastrophe, and Fleabag don’t seem to outrank those excluded such as The Likely Lads and Whatever Happened to…, The Good Neighbors and The Jewel in the Crown.