Never rated Lewis personally.
Same stupid plots if you took the time to consider them for a moment, but with none of the grouchy charm. YMMV.
I second Spaced and also New Tricks which has great characters. We’ve been working on British detective shows, and went through the umpteen seasons of A Touch of Frost also. And read one or two of the books, which are dreadful - one case where the series is far better.
We started watching Life on Mars but gave up after two episodes - me because of the failure of nerve in considering the situation, my wife because she considered the characters stereotypes. Does it get better?
We’re starting on Prime Suspect now.
My favorite Britcom is “One Foot in the Grave.”
“The Book Group” is very entertaining.
life on mars was an interesting premise, and well acted and written, up until episode 3, where i realised that they were never going to progress the storyline. i would guess they were too scared that moving the storyline on every episode would alienate people coming to it late, and thus each episode began and ended in the same place, and all that happened was they solved a crime in that episode. it was a 70s cop show, with random references to the present day.
after several episodes of that, i pretty much gave up (although i think i did end up watching the whole first series). i have never bothered with the second series. more courageous writing with more depth would have made it a good program, as the two lead actors were very good.
I’d also suggest that “that Mitchell and Webb look” is brilliant (apart from the last series which dipped somewhat).
“Numberwang” is genius. (and the aforementioned Cheesoid robot…“hate self…hate self”)
The delightful Olivia Coleman is a common theme throughout Mitchell and Webb’s work and she is also in the recent "Twenty Twelve"an office-style (though rather broader) series about the organising committee for the London Olympics.
Actually I was conflicted on “Life on Mars” and “Ashes to Ashes”.
I never got into during the first run and waited a while for the repeats before watching it all. It did seem more a period piece than anything else.
As it developed into “Ashes to Ashes” I was still interested to see the adventures of this interesting group of people, and Gene Hunt in particular but never thought it was going to develop into more than a bit of buddy-cop-slapstick.
However, slowly slowly through the second series they began to hint towards a larger story thread and actually, they tied up all the loose ends very neatly and very brutally. It was a far more engaging, honest and uncompromising ending than I had a right to expect.
And on the subject of John Sim, You might want to try “state of play” The original BBC series.
Two mini-series worth having in your collection:
‘Our Friends in the North,’ and ‘The Second Coming,’ both starring Christopher Eccleston of Doctor Who fame.
‘Friends’ is about British politics and how it influences the lives of four friends over a 40-year period, and ‘Coming’ is a deliciously-controversial saga about an ordinary man who suddenly discovers one day he’s the son of God.
Engrossing, absorbing, have-to-see-what-happens-next television. After having seen bits and pieces of both series on YouTube a year or so ago, I bought the dvds of both series from Amazon, and then went out and bought a newer-model dvd player that could be modified to play Region 2 discs.
Another vote for Inspector Lewis. The quality of the story does vary, of course, but I always watch them. You can view some complete episodes here for a limited time. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html
My favorite of the more recent ones is “The Dead of Winter”, admittedly in substantial part for the incredible dark beauty of Camilla Arfwedson as Scarlett Mortmaigne.
Eastenders?.. I gots nofink else, ya slappers.
There’s always All Creatures Great and Small. Starring a future Dr. Who, if I remember correctly.
For the not-so-serious, The Wire in the Blood, starring Robson Green. Oh, and even better, his series before WitB, Touching Evil.