Here are the best Channel 4 dramas to enjoy right now including Screw, Deceit, Help, It's A Sin and Misfits.
Channel 4 has a great range of drama series from both past and present, so if you're craving an old favorite or want to try something new, they've got you covered.
Don't miss our guides to the best ITV dramas and the best BBC dramas too, as there are lots of great options to choose from.
What are the best Channel 4 dramas available to stream online?
Suspect
There are two amazing seasons of Suspect to stream on Channel 4. Suspect season 1 stars James Nesbitt as veteran detective Danny Frater who arrives at a hospital mortuary for a routine ID check, only to get a devastating shock when he discovers the young woman on the slab is his estranged daughter, Christina. The autopsy suggests suicide but Danny’s convinced Christina was murdered and goes on the hunt for her killer.
Suspect season 2, released in July 2024, picks up from where the first series ended and sees Anne-Marie joining an all-star cast that includes Death in Paradise star Ben Miller, Friday Night Dinner's Tamsin Greig, The Gold's Dominic Cooper and Bodyguard's Gina McKee.
Number of seasons: 2
Episodes: 16
Episode length: 25 minutes
Screw
Screw is arama series revealing the uncensored, shocking and often darkly funny reality of life as a prison officer in a 21st century British male prison, and it's truly gripping stuff.
It's got a great cast attached including Derry Girls' Jamie Lee O'Donnell, and Good Omens star Nina Sosanya, with season 2 welcoming Lee Ingleby, so there's plenty to sink your teeth into.
Number of seasons: 2
Episodes: 12
Episode length: 47 minutes
Help
Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham star in this acclaimed drama. Help revolves around Sarah (Comer) who works in a fictional care home in Liverpool. She connects quickly with Tony (Stephen Graham), who has early onset Alzheimer's, which leaves him prone to periods of confusion and sudden outbursts which the other staff find tricky to deal with. Sarah is doing well in her job until the pandemic hits and she struggles to cope...
Number of seasons: 1
Episodes: 1
Episode length: 98 minutes
Deceit
Four-part drama Deceit explores the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell, which saw Crimewatch viewers naming Colin Stagg, who often walked his dog on the Common, as a suspect. Without forensic evidence, the Metropolitan Police devised Operation Edzell, in which a female undercover officer would build an intimate relationship with Colin Stagg and gain his trust.
The series follows this operation, as we see undercover officer 'Sadie' (played by The Virtues star Niamh Algar) — whose real name remains classified — posing as 'Lizzie James' and makes contact with Colin Stagg, and the series reveals the controversial honeytrap operation at the heart of the investigation. It led to the police wrongly arresting innocent Colin Stagg.
Number of seasons: 1 (mini-series)
Episodes: 4
Average episode length: 47 minutes
It's A Sin
In Russell T. Davies' new drama, we follow a group of friends, all in their late teens and early twenties, who move to London in 1981 and have their lives turned upside down by HIV/AIDS. The series spans a decade and follows how their lives are impacted by the epidemic.
The series is based on Davies' and his friends' own experiences. Opening up to Esquire about It's A Sin, he said: "I was 18 in 1981, so I’ve been wanting to tell this story for that long, really. When the idea for Queer as Folk cropped up in 1988, it’s interesting that I didn’t write this, because I could have. But we were still mid-trauma and I can only presume, in hindsight, that I was just too close to that.”
Stars Olly Alexander, Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells, Lydia West, Nathaniel Curtis, Keeley Hawes, Shaun Dooley, Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Fry.
Number of seasons: 1 (mini-series)
Episodes: 5
Average episode length: 48 minutes
Deadwater Fell
Fans of crime dramas won't want to miss Deadwater Fell, a mini-series that's perfect for binge-watching. Comprised of just four episodes it follows the murder of a seemingly perfect family, a mother and her three young children, with the father being the sole survivor of the house fire.
But throughout the course of the series, we discover that the family was far from happy or perfect and a remote Scottish village is rocked by these horrific deaths.
Stars David Tennant, Cush Jumbo, Matthew McNulty, Anna Madeley, Lewis Gribben.
Number of seasons: 1 (mini-series)
Episodes: 4
Average episode length: 45 minutes
Misfits
In this iconic Channel 4 series, a group of young offenders doing community service get struck by lightning during a storm and begin to develop superpowers. There are five seasons in total, so plenty to keep you occupied!
Misfits follows Kelly Bailey, Curtis Donovan, Alisha Daniels and Simon Bellamy, who soon discover their newfound powers mirror their own individual personalities, and the first series navigates the aftermath of this strange storm.
Number of seasons: 5
Episodes: 37
Average episode length: 45 minutes
