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If P.E. was your favourite subject at school, then oh boy, are you in for a treat. We’ve reached the time of year when British television suddenly gets very P.E. There’s running and jumping, football and tennis, the Olympic Games… Competitions and tournaments abound, and all televised as an interruption to your usual programming.

For non-sports fans, of course, that means a TV drought approaches. Or, to see it as more glass-half-full, it’s an opportunity to catch up on stuff you missed from earlier in the year. Below is a list of picks of the best British TV series from the first half of 2024. The US TV list is coming, and the movies one is here. Feel free to add your own recommendations below!

Baby Reindeer

Stream on: Netflix

If you haven’t watched Baby Reindeer, then you’ve almost certainly heard its name. In publicity Netflix couldn’t buy,...

Where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday that Taskmaster’s series 17 contestants first appeared in the studio, shakily establishing their pecking order, testing out their rudeness vs sucking-up strategy when it came to Lord Greg Davies, and shifting nervously in their seats as they wondered which of their psychological breakdowns had made the edit. Now, they’ve all grown-up and left home, leaving five empty chairs waiting for the next set of bums to warm them.

Those bums, and the comedians attached to them, have now been officially announced. Competing for the head of the Taskmaster in series 18 will be: Andy Zaltzman, Babatunde Aléshé, Emma Sidi, Jack Dee and Rosie Jones.

Here’s a little bit of info about each of them.

Andy Zaltzman

BBC Radio 4 satirist, stand-up and co-host of The Bugle podcast, Andy Zaltzman is a political comedian and cricket obsessive whose interest in...

Warning: This article contains spoilers for series five of Ghosts

Somehow, the final series of Ghosts has neatly tied up all the show’s loose ends while still leaving us wanting more – which is a jolly good thing considering they’ve confirmed we’re getting one more Christmas special in December 2023.

They really packed a lot into those last six episodes, revealing the heartbreaking truth behind the deaths of Kitty and the Captain, showing Alison and Mike’s next step in life, and giving the whole gang the opportunity to say all the lovely, touching things fans wanted to hear (as well as adding a poignant reference to Mary in the opening credits).

Taking the characters on these final journeys involved lots of flashbacks and new faces, so let’s recap all the most important guest stars from series five:

Anna Crilly as Joy Kielty

Joy is an unexpected visitor in episode one,...

Lad. For many, the word conjures images of toxic masculinity – lad mags, lad culture, LadBible (before it went mainstream). But for a young Liam Williams, living in the small town of Garforth near Leeds, it was simply a term of endearment. “When I grew up, ‘lad’ was quite a Yorkshire…” he pauses, careful not to claim “lad” as entirely his. “It’s not exclusively Yorkshire, but it’s quite a Yorkshire idiom. As we were becoming teenagers and playing with more adult identities and imitating parents or people, older men, I guess, I remember ‘lad’ coming into our vocabulary. It created a nice sense of belonging in the group.” He adopts a Yorkshire accent, presumably reminiscent of one he once had: “’Ow’re you doing lad, ’ey up lad.”

I meet Williams in an old-school pub in London, perhaps an appropriate setting to talk about laddishness, with the final series...

Andrew Gaynord’s feature debut is set for release in 2022.

BFI Distribution has acquired UK comedy All My Friends Hate Me, for release in the UK and Ireland in 2022.

The deal was finalised just ahead of the film’s UK premiere at the 65th BFI London Film Festival on Friday (October 8). WME Independent handled the sale with BFI Acquisitions Manager Laura Dos Santos. it has already been acquired for North America by Super.

The film – which premiered at Tribeca – is Andrew Gaynord’s feature debut. Gaynord’s previous credits include Netflix series The Characters.

All My Friends Hate Me is...

An inter-generational zombie horror-comedy, an Alan Partridge-presented travelogue, Rowan Atkinson fighting a bee… 2021 British TV comedy is a broad church, and that’s before we’ve come to all the stand-ups slicing up their Edinburgh shows into streaming half-hours and Daisy May Cooper playing a 17th century witch. Here’s the info about those new shows and more.

This list will be kept updated through the year as new commissions, casting and release dates arrive. Here’s a look back at the new British comedies that arrived in 2020, here are the new British dramas on their way this year, and here are 2021’s best returning British TV series.

And Did Those Feet

In addition to a second series for The One Show-spoofing This Time With Alan Partridge, the son of Norwich is back to poke fun at the history TV genre. With a working title of And Did Those Feet,...

Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow Prods., whose CEO is former BBC Films chief Christine Langan, has appointed Rupert Majendie as head of comedy development.

Majendie produced BAFTA-nominated BBC series “Pls Like,” starring Liam Williams and Tim Key, Nick Helm’s “Heavy Entertainment” for BBC Three, and, most recently, the new Tom Davis and James de Frond BBC One sitcom “King Gary.” For film, he is in production with Film4 and the BFI on funded feature “Brian and Charles,” written by David Earl and Chris Hayward.

Alongside his television credits, Majendie also created online comedy platform mr box, originating ideas that have gone on to be adapted for other mediums including Romesh Ranganathan’s “Hip Hop Saved My Life” and Earl and Hayward’s “Brian and Charles.”

Coogan, Baby Cow’s creative director, said: “Rupert is at the vanguard of the emergent generation of comedy writers and performers. He has intuitive good taste.

The Shanghai International Film Festival has postponed its 23rd edition due to continued coronavirus disruption. The event, one of China’s most significant film fests, had been due to take place June 13-22. Organizers said today that preparations had been “progressing steadily” but concerns over the pandemic meant it could not take place on its original dates – new dates will be announced “as soon as possible”.

Spanish actress Itziar Ituño, who plays Inspector Raquel Murillo in hit Netflix show Money Heist, will make her English-language debut with a role in UK short animation Salvation Has No Name. The sixteen-minute stop motion project comes from producers Delaval Film and is being part-funded by the British Film Institute. The film will also feature the voice of Yasmine Al Massri, who starred in ABC’s thriller series Quantico. Joseph Wallace is directing the project and the team includes animators from Wes Anderson...

Stolen Picture, the production company founded by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, has launched a new drama initiative to work with up-and-coming writers on young-adult projects, with two series already in development.

The first project from the Righta Incubator initiative, “We Never Sleep,” is a detective comedy-thriller that will tackle bullying, justice, morality, mental health and post-Brexit small-town life. “Chemistry,” the second project, is a fast-paced genre hybrid that will pose questions about what it means to be human as the show follows protagonists on the run for their survival.

Pegg and Frost formed London-based Stolen Picture with former Fox Searchlight and Bad Wolf executive Miles Ketley last year. There has been keen interest in the new indie banner’s projects, given the founders’ loyal following and string of film and TV hits.

Horror comedy movie “Slaughterhouse Rulez” is in production, and half-hour paranormal investigator comedy “Truth Seekers” is in development.