Fortunately though, the first half of 2014 has provided us with some first-rate telly that, for reasons of having a life, you may have missed or wilfully ignored.

This is your opportunity to catch up with what you’ve not seen, so here’s 10 top quality shows you can catch up on while others are watching people knock their balls about and bite one another…

 

Utopia: Series 1

No, this didn’t air in the last 6 months, but as that big eye will have told you, Series 2 is coming to Channel 4 soon, so it’s the ideal moment to put on your tinfoil hat, head to 4OD and start downloading the first series into your mind via your eye and ear input units. But be warned, once you start down the rabbit hole it’s difficult to stop.

I’ve not finished watching it all yet, so you won’t be alone. Join me, I’ll bring popped corn and Mexican maize triangles. It’ll be fun. More fun than having sand rubbed in your eye anyway.

> Buy the Series 1 boxset on Amazon.

 

Penny Dreadful

Currently still showing on Sky Atlantic, the Hackney Hammer Horror antics of Penny Dreadful are dark and bloody monster nonsense featuring all your favourite public domain creepy characters, played by your favourite actors.

There’s David Warner as Professor Van Helsing, Rory Kinnear as Victor Frankenstein’s Monster, and Billie Piper as a woman coming to terms with her Irish accent. Best of all though is the still-ridiculously-handsome Timothy Dalton as Sir Malcolm Murray (swoon), who growls his way through nests of vampires and Ancient Egyptian lore while looking for his daughter, Mina Harker.

> Pre-order the Series 1 boxset on Amazon.

 

Game of Thrones: Season 4

Full disclosure: I’ve never seen it. But I hear it’s quite popular. In the same way that breathing is quite popular. So breathe it in. Is Sean Bean still in it?

> Pre-order the Season 4 boxset on Amazon.

 

Sherlock: Series 3

While our colons were still solving The Riddle of the Christmas Leftovers, our brains were engaged with puzzling through another fine series of Sherlock. Yes, even Episode 2. (Against a volley of disagreement I maintain that ‘The Sign of Three’ is brilliant. Shush.)

Given that a series of Sherlock passes by our screens slightly less often than Halley’s Comet, it’s always wise to parse out your viewing of them, but with so little else on, and at least a year until we find out how ‘you know who’ did ‘you know what’, now is as good a time as any to watch a man in a heavy coat solve crimes as you swelter in the traditional British humidity.

> Buy the complete Series 1-3 boxset on Amazon.

 

Inside No.9

A dark chocolate comedy treat, watching The League of Gentlemen‘s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s Inside No.9 is funny in the way that laughing at a clown at twilight is funny. Beneath the chuckles it’s all rather unsettling, even though you can’t take your eyes off it.

It’s a uniformly strong series, but if you only watch one, make it ‘A Quiet Night In’, where two hapless thieves attempt to steal a painting. Almost entirely without dialogue, it is pure silent comedy at its best, and darkest.

> Buy Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

 

Which shows would you recommend catching up on this summer? Let us know below…