The Best UK Film, TV and Games of 2025

Perhaps the single most dominant genre of 2025 was the thriller, which absolutely ruled our TV schedules and made real inroads into film as well. There were psychological battles in TV shows like Malice and The Girlfriend, and family members in peril in the likes of All Her Fault and The Stolen Girl. Mathematicians went on the run in Prime Target – not always fast enough to avoid danger – while spies saw things go horribly wrong in Black Ops and Slow Horses. A badly injured and deeply cynical detective tried to solve cold cases in Dept. Q, as did a haunted psychiatrist in Harlan Corben’s horror-tinged Lazarus. Corben also gave us Missing You, a dating-app themed thriller, while Emma Thompson turned PI in the twist-packed mystery of Down Cemetery Road.  

Action fans, meanwhile, were well fed with a genre that’s punching well above its weight. Jason Statham (of course!) got into trouble in A Working Man, which at times feels like as much of a beat-‘em-up as games like Fallen City Brawl or The Precinct. Or Jurassic World Evolution 3, if you prefer to try to beat up dinosaurs (not recommended. Run!). Cult British directors released new action-packed thrillers, in Gareth Edwards’ Havoc, starring Tom Hardy (Dunkirk, Legend), and The Running Man from Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), while cult US director Ethan Coen (with Tricia Cooke) made Honey Don’t! for Working Title. There was the non-stop combat of Warfare, from Alex Garland (Ex Machina) with Ray Mendoza, and some wildly inventive action in John Maclean’s extraordinary Tornado, which put a samurai-trained Japanese girl on the run from thieves in 18th century Scotland. Even the kids could get a taste for action in racing animation Grand Prix of Europe.

28 Years Later led the year in horror and brought back the cult Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) “infected” series after years away. But there was also serious creep in the one-location Hallow Road, with Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) in a car racing to save their daughter; gory horror-comedy in The Monkey; and a sort of racial reckoning in The Man in My Basement. There was even astonishing horror on TV in the form of Alien: Earth, bringing Sir Ridley Scott’s (Gladiator) xenomorph to home ground for the first time. You could stick with its sci-fi theme in games like Citizen Sleeper 2: Standard Vector, a dice driven RPG, or Mars Attracts, the fun alien theme-park management game. 

Particularly in the autumn, some of the most critically-acclaimed films and TV of awards season came from the UK. Look to films like Jay Kelly, Sentimental Value, The History of Sound, and Hamnet come the awards lists this year, while TV like Adolescence and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light have already been heavily nominated and awarded in this year’s Emmy’s. Just as good, if sometimes more comedic, are films like The Ballad of Wallis Island and I Swear, which picked up big wins at this year’s British Independent Film Awards. 

There was more gentle costumed escapism in the return of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, and lots of heaving corsets in TV hits like House of Guinness, The Buccaneers, Amadeus and Miss Austen – though A Thousand Blows, while a costume drama, was less concerned with lacing corsets than boxing gloves. The Choral, meanwhile, saw its cast focused on surviving World War I. To join the historical fun yourself, you could try VR game Trailblazer: The Untold Story of Mrs Benz.  

Fantasy fans could celebrate the return of The Witcher and Wheel of Time this year or enjoy the animated world of Wolf King or Isadora Moon. They could also join the adventure in games like Tails of Iron II: Whiskers of Winter and Into the Restless Ruins. Those keeping it much more grounded could enjoy nature documentaries like Ocean with David Attenborough, The Wild Ones, Every Little Thing or The Americas. For music fans looking for more on their favourite artists, there was even more choice. The diverse offerings included Becoming Led Zeppelin, One to One: John & Yoko, Simple Minds: Everything Is Possible and TV’s Victoria Beckham (still a Spice Girl, even if she’s better known as a designer these days). 

Comedy this year included the triumphant return of everyone’s favourite singleton in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, a bittersweet role for Steve Coogan (Philomena) in The Penguin Lessons, and a knockabout divorce story in The Roses. Philomena Cunk explained a few more “facts” about the world in the mock-doc series Cunk on Life, while TV comedy like Such Brave Girls and Too Much chronicled women trying to figure out life as best they could despite sometimes considerable obstacles. 

Maybe more exciting of all, this year’s crop of debut film directors suggested great things ahead. Urchin saw actor Harris Dickinson (The Iron Claw, Triangle of Sadness) turn writer and director to impressive effect, with Frank Dillane (The Essex Serpent) starring as a homeless man struggling to get back on his feet. BIFA winner Pillion, from Harry Lighton, chronicles an unexpectedly sweet BDSM biker romance between Harry Melling (the Harry Potter films) and Alexander Skarsgård (Passing, The Legend of Tarzan). British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr. brought us the achingly moving My Father’s Shadow, starring Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London), which debuted at Cannes to considerable acclaim. Meanwhile Karan Kandhari made the horror-comedy Sister Midnight, while Julia Jackman made the fantasy romance 100 Nights of Hero, starring Emma Corrin (The Crown). 

Rounding out a year full of beautiful, thought-provoking films were the quiet beauties of That They May Face the Rising Sun and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, the tension-packed drama of Ballad of a Small Player and Steve, and the heartbreak of Goodbye June or Christy. It may take us most of 2026 just to catch up on all the richness that this year has brought – but that’s a pretty good problem to have.