7 Best TV Shows on BritBox Right Now (April 2025)

John “Ludwig” Taylor (David Mitchell) doesn’t like people all that much. A recluse, he prefers to stay inside and indulge in his primary passion — making puzzles. But when his twin detective brother, James, disappears, he’s forced to impersonate him to find out what happened. To make matters more stressful, he has to use his skills as a puzzlemaker to solve crimes in his brother’s absence.

Ludwig uses its far-fetched premise to create a hugely entertaining mystery show that’s also a fish-out-of-water comedy. With the aid of his brother’s wife, Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), Ludwig has to be as charming and outgoing as his brother is while solving crimes. He’s not usually successful, which results in awkward scenarios that are pure comedy gold.

If you miss Monk and want a murder mystery series that isn’t all that serious, check out Ludwig. It’s one of the best-reviewed shows of 2025 and has already been renewed for a second season.

A crude joke told at a party could be one man’s downfall in the excellent three-episode drama Douglas Is Cancelled. The man in question, Douglas Bellowes (Hugh Bonneville), is a longtime news anchor with a journalist wife (Alex Kingston), a coanchor who looks up to him (Karen Gillan) and the respect of his peers. But when a tweet alleging he told a sexist joke at a wedding starts to gain traction, Douglas is forced to defend the things he has always taken for granted.

Douglas Is Cancelled examines the role of social media, journalism and gender politics in the post #MeToo era. If that sounds serious, relax  — the show has that wicked humor the Brits have refined for centuries. Bonneville is fine as the hapless Douglas, but it’s Kingston and Gillan who shine as the main women in his life who aren’t exactly pleased with his behavior.

The spirit of Twin Peaks lives on in Passenger, a seemingly typical police procedural that’s accentuated with dashes of weirdness. Detective Riya Ajunwa (Wumni Mosaku) has been working in the small town of Chadder Vale for five years, and she’s grown a bit bored. But when a young girl mysteriously disappears, she gets more than she bargained for as a series of strange incidents suggest something otherworldly is at play.

Passenger isn’t perfect — it’s about two episodes too long and the plot is a bit of a mess. But it conjures a creepy vibe that recalls David Lynch’s seminal ’90s drama, and the synth-heavy score and moody visuals will cause you to look over your shoulder more than once.

Charming, handsome and suave — you may think you know Cary Grant, but you’d be mistaken. “Cary Grant” was just another role the actor played and was a carefully constructed persona by Archibald “Archie” Leach, Grant’s real name and identity.

Over four episodes, Archie examines how a poor British boy who was kicked out of school and worked as a traveling acrobat became one of the most popular movie stars ever. The White Lotus season 3 star Jason Isaacs is unrecognizable as the older Grant, who, at the peak of his fame in the ’60s, is unhappy with his current role in life. Archie is less a hagiography of a beloved icon and more a dissection of what made Archie/Grant tick, as well as an exploration of how he never reconciled with the past he was so desperate to cover up.

It’s 1954, and all Luke Fitzwilliam (David Jonsson) wants to do is board his train on time and rest. He gets more than he bargained for when he meets Miss Pinkerton (Penelope Wilton), who tells him about a mysterious string of deaths happening in a nearby small village. When Miss Pinkerton herself is killed, Luke decides to avenge and capture the killer at any cost.

Murder Is Easy is a typical Agatha Christie tale, but this adaptation is a little livelier than the rest. That’s primarily due to the casting of Jonsson and Wilton, who both bring a sense of fun and mischief to their roles. The production values are top-notch, and the mystery is good enough to keep you guessing throughout the show’s two episodes.

Northern Ireland is well represented in Blue Lights, an absorbing police procedural that just wrapped up its second season in 2024. The first season follows three novice police officers as they are trained by their mentors and experience their first work assignments. The second season is set a year later and shows just how much they’ve grown and what they still need to learn about police work.

Blue Lights is a bit like the “Law” part of Law & Order as it focuses mostly on police work rather than getting too specific about each officer’s personal lives. The show is set in Belfast and takes a “slice of life” approach that gives it a captivating, gritty realism. 

True crime aficionados will surely enjoy The Pembrokeshire Murders, a three-episode dramatization of the Welsh serial killer John Cooper. In 2006, Detective Steve Wilkins (Luke Evans) reopens two cold cases that were never solved. Both involved random acts of murder, and the only thing linking them is a series of burglaries that could hold the clue to the killer. Facing resistance from his peers, Steve becomes obsessed with cracking the case and bringing the killer to justice over 20 years after the crimes were committed.

The Pembrokeshire Murders is set in Wales, which isn’t your typical location for a murder mystery. That alone sets it apart from the others in the genre, but the show’s incredible true story is gripping and Evans is a fine, if stoic, protagonist. The series is three episodes long and is based on the book The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Bullseye Killer by Wilkins.