‘This Apple TV drama looks and feels like something totally alien to pretty much everything else out there’
Nothing really compares to Severance. That’s not to say it’s everybody’s cup of tea, it’s just that this Apple TV drama looks and feels like something totally alien to pretty much everything else out there.
Returning after an interminable three-year absence, series two had a lot to live up to and it delivered, with that unique colour palette and stark environment providing a brilliant, foreboding, unsettling backdrop to a storyline that zipped, zigged and zagged along.
Adam Scott (Mark) and Britt Lower (Helly) were back and more informed – but not wholly – about their ‘innie’ existence, while Zach Cherry’s Dylan embarked on a touching storyline that straddled reality and the weirdly mesmerising world of Lumon. Tramell Tillman’s Milchick, another beautifully composed performance, is accompanied by the bizarre Miss Huang, superbly played by newcomer Sarah Bock. Just what Miss Huang’s motivation is – and where her purpose lies – remains unclear.
The show, as it has always tended to be, remains unashamedly confusing in parts (at least to this hack), freewheeling with storylines and subjects that seem to have no immediately obvious relationship to the broader narrative (just how important are the goats?). Yet therein lies the show’s maverick quality, posing questions about who we are and what we do, and what others do and why they do it, within a construct that is at once believable but also an incredible enigma.
UK BROADCASTER SHOW OF THE YEAR
Leonard and Hungry Paul
Let’s be honest, 2025 has been a bit of a year for most folks in the industry, and good news stories haven’t exactly been easy to come by in the wider world either.
Enter Leonard and Hungry Paul, a much-needed televisual tonic that warmly envelopes you for six half-hour episodes and suggests there is another way to live.
Based on Rónán Hession’s novel, writers Richie Conroy and Mark Hodkinson provide a gentle, insightful and moving reflection on the interactions of two board-gaming loving friends in their 30s as they make their way through life in a quiet, peaceful suburb of Dublin.
In its own way, Leonard and Hungry Paul has an End of the F***ing World vibe about it, perhaps understandable given Alex Lawther’s masterfully toned-down performance, while Laurie Kynaston and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell of Derry Girls fame provide engaging, quirky portrayals.
There are no grisly murders, no over-the-top epiphanies and few moments of grandiose affection, although there is a death around which the story pivots and which nudges Lawther’s Leonard forward.
This is a show of nuance and subtlety, despite the narration of Hollywood A-lister Julia Roberts, no less, and while we wouldn’t want all of our TV to look like this, thank goodness some of it does.
| Top five UK broadcaster shows | Top five streamer shows | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonard and Hungry Paul, Subotica for RTÉ/BBC1 NI/BBC2 | 1 | Severance, Apple TV | |
| 2 | The Celebrity Traitors, Studio Lambert for BBC1 | 2 | Pluribus, Apple TV | |
| 3 | I Fought the Law, Hera Pictures for ITV1 | 3 | LOL: Last One Laughing UK, Initial and Zeppotron for Amazon Prime Video | |
| 4 | This City is Ours, Left Bank Pictures for BBC1 | 4 | Mo, Netflix | |
| 5 | Kingdom, BBC Studios Natural History Unit for BBC1 | 5 | Death by Lightning, Netflix |
- Richard Middleton, head of content, Broadcast International
Broadcast’s shows of the year
Members of the team pick their favourite programmes of 2025
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Currently
reading
Richard Middleton: Severance, Apple TV
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