Americans: What are the best British Films/TV shows?

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I am interested to know what American viewers think of British Films and TV shows (if you watch any that is).

What films/TV shows do you think are the best? Do you have trouble understanding the accents? What is your impression of Britain from watching our films and TV?

I think these are the best British shows:
Call The Midwife
Doc Martin
Doctor Who
Sherlock {with Benedict Cumberbatch & Martin Freeman}

After watching British shows for a long time now, I hardly have trouble understanding the accents. However, it's obvious that characters on British shows are nothing like actual British people.

PS: Downton Abbey is overrated. The first season was great, now it's turned into an awful soap opera.

In no particular order, I enjoyed:

Monty Python
Mr. Bean
The Mighty Boosh
Coupling
Peep Show
Extras
The Office
The Black Adder
Keeping Up Appearances
Are You Being Served?
The IT Crowd

I used to belong to a bittorrent group where I could download TV shows. I no longer know what's on.

I thought that they were all great, although I found the 6-episode seasons to be a bit of a strange concept.

I didn't generally have a problem with the accents--the actors enunciated well.

The Full Monty
Burke and Hare
Hot Fuzz
Death at a Funeral
Shawn of the Dead
The Brother Cadfael series
Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett
Mr.Bean
The Goodies
Black Adder
Keeping up Apperances
Thin Blue Line
Wallace and Gromitt
Last of the Summer Wine
Ideal
Little Britain
Benny Hill
I never had any problem with understanding the language.I'd love to see the British isles some day.

Orphan Black

Too many to mention. I love British comedies and period dramas. I have no problems understanding the speech in these.

Other than the new Sherlock with Benedict, most contemporary crime dramas bore me, whether British or American. Plus for some reason I find the language harder to understand. Maybe it is because they tend to talk fast to heighten the crime drama aspect of it all. It may actually be the speed of speech, because I usually do not watch Graham Norton because I can not understand much of what is said.

I loved I, Claudius.

Shows:
Dr Who
Top Gear
Ripper Street
Law and Order U.K

Movies:
James Bond

Rome - the HBO, the British-American-Italian TV series.

Red Dwarf and Little Britain.

I think the same can be said of media from any country. So-called "reality TV" in America is about as far removed from actual American life as possible. It either portrays the richest of the rich, or the filthiest of trailer trash, whereas the vast majority are in between. And what really grinds my gears is that those shows are cheap to make and export so it's the only exposure to American culture that some people abroad ever get exposed to. I think that if you want to get a sample of typical American life, you should watch Everybody Loves Raymond and especially King of the Hill. They do a more realistic job of portraying typical American life, albeit in a comically exaggerated way.

Sorry for the rant, but I've been wanting to get that off my chest ever since somebody on another site said they hated American girls because all of us are supposedly rich and spoiled and think everyone else on the planet should bow down to us. I can almost guarantee that the only exposure that that person had to an actual American girl was through reality TV.

How could I forget Fawlty Towers?

I like it, but I agree that the last two seasons have been utterly predictable.

Thanks for the response. I never knew America got to see so many different British TV. I don't watch any of them myself because I hate the television.

But on youtube I like to see some of the detective shows:

Prime Suspect - (probably the best crime programs made for TV)
Trial and Retribution - (some awful crimes committed on these but of great standard)
Above Suspicion - (tries to be like Prime Suspect but doesn't quite get there)
DCI Banks - (ok, a bit sub standard)

Edge Of Darkness. We watched it in a screen writing class I took in college.

One Foot in the Grave
Father Ted (Irish show, British produced, but I'm counting it)
Doc Martin

Are my top 3.