The Royle Family

Series Similar to The Royle Family

If you enjoyed The Royle Family, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Nathan Barley

   2005 · Comedy · ended97% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Nathan Barley is 26. He is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self-facilitating media node". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible of cool. Dan Ashcroft writes searing columns for Sugar Ape. He's considered astonishingly cool, but only by those he despises. He is surrounded by idiots and practically worshipped by Nathan (whom he considers to be their king). He is 34. Why has he failed to move on? Claire Ashcroft, 27, is Dan's sister. Like Dan she despises "cool". Unlike Nathan she despises novelty, trash, irony and gadgets. She is furious that no one will fund her hard-hitting documentary about a choir of reformed junkies.

2. Extras

   2005 · Comedy · ended97% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, also on BBC One.

   Sitcom set in the world of film and TV extras, from the Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant team that dreamt up The Office.

3. Miranda

   2009 · Comedy · ended97% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.1), also on BBC One.

   Sitcom starring Miranda Hart. It doesn't matter what Miranda attempts in life, whether it's dating or simply dealing with her overbearing mother, she always seems to fall flat, quite literally.

4. Father Ted

   1995 · Comedy · ended96% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.1).

   One small island off the west coast of Ireland. Three priests. One housekeeper. A bunch of nuns - and the most consistently awful weather on the planet.

5. Outnumbered

   2007 · Comedy · ended96% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, also on BBC One.

   Comedy about the daily rollercoaster of life with growing children, starring Hugh Dennis as the father and Claire Skinner as the mother.

6. Black Books

   2000 · Comedy · ended96% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.4).

   Black Books is a second-hand bookshop in London run by an Irishman named Bernard Black. He is probably the planet's worst-suited person to run such an establishment: he makes no effort to sell, closes at strange hours on a whim, is in a perpetual alcoholic stupor, abhors his customers (sometimes physically abusing them) and is often comatose at his desk. Help comes in the lumpy shape of Manny Bianco, a hairy, bumbling individual who (almost by osmosis) becomes Bernard's assistant. Manny is not exactly great at the job either but he is a million times better than Bernard. Next door is Fran, an anxious, frustrated woman who runs a sort of new-age shop selling the most unlikely bits of arty junk. Fran is friends with Bernard and, through him, with Manny; together the trio become embroiled in escapades that are sometimes extreme or violent or fantastically ludicrous, and always bizarre.

7. I'm Alan Partridge

   1997 · Comedy · ended96% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.1).

   This classic BBC comedy comes courtesy of Steve Coogan. Alan is a fictional self-obsessed DJ who has had several TV jobs in the past (including chat show 'Knowing Me Knowing You') and has failed to bounce back from his long dead career. Each episode normally sees Alan resorting to embarrassing anecdotes, insulting someone without noticing and failing to revive his career.

8. The Vicar of Dibley

   1994 · Comedy · ended96% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8), also on BBC One.

   Award-winning sitcom starring Dawn French who is assigned as the Vicar of the rural parish of Dibley.

9. The IT Crowd

   2006 · Comedy · ended96% match

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.7).

   The comedic misadventures of Roy, Moss and their grifting supervisor Jen, a rag-tag team of IT support workers at a large corporation headed by a hotheaded yuppie.

10. The League of Gentlemen

    1999 · Comedy · ended96% match

    Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8).

    Dark, surreal comedy about the strange inhabitants of the small town of Royston Vasey.