Best Channel 4 dramas — all the must-see TV shows to watch on demand

Here are the best Channel 4 dramas to enjoy right now including Patience, After The Party, Screw and Help.

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?

This Is Us

This Is Us is a heartwarming yet heartbreaking US drama following the lives, loves and losses of the Pearson family across generations. This series has been around since 2016, but if you have yet to watch it, we promise you won't be disappointed. There are six seasons to catch up on and, while that might seem a daunting number of episodes to watch in total, you will soon be savoring every moment of this amazing series. Expect twists, turns and tears as you fall in love with siblings Kate (Chrissy Metz), Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Kevin (Justin Hartley) as we get to know them through every milestone moment in their lives. This is binge-worthy drama at its best.

Number of seasons: 6

Episodes: 106

Episode length: 42 minutes

Patience

Patience is a six-part Channel 4 crime drama set in York about a neuro-divergent, self-taught criminologist working within the Yorkshire Police. It’s adapted from the French series Astrid, and follows Patience Evans (played by Ella Maisy Purvis), a young autistic woman who works within the criminal records department. Her talent for problem-solving and deconstructing crime scenes is soon spotted by detective Bea Metcalf (played by Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser), who takes her under her wing.

When Bea recognizes Patience’s instinctive eye at crime scenes and aptitude for problem-solving, she gives her a career-defining opportunity within her department. But can Patience's sessions at a support group for autistic adults help her smash through barriers in this neuro-typical working world?

Number of seasons: 1

Episodes: 6

Episode length: 47 minutes

After The Party

Set in Wellington, New Zealand, After The Party is a tense drama full of accusations and high emotions.

Penny Wilding tells it like it is, whether that’s lecturing teenage boys on how porn will ruin their sex lives or waging a graffiti war on fishing boats. But her attitude means she has few friends and when she accused her husband of a sex crime against her daughter’s teenage friend five years ago, no one believed her. However, when Phil returns to their hometown, Penny’s daughter pleads with her to forget the accusations and move on. But can she really let such injustice go unpunished? 

Number of seasons: 1

Episodes: 6

Episode length: 45 minutes

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