50+ Lovely British TV Shows Set by the Sea
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Last Updated on November 11, 2025 by Stefanie Hutson
The UK may be small, but it has nearly 20,000 miles of coastline (though exact totals vary based on how you measure it). Given the small, dense nature of the country and its abundance of coastline, it's no surprise that quite a few British television shows are set by the sea.
In this post, we take a look at 50+ different British (and a few Irish) shows set by the coast. Some are obvious (think Doc Martin or Shetland), but we hope we've covered a wide enough variety of new and old shows that there's something new for everyone.
Whitstable Pearl
Whitstable Pearl is a coastal crime drama in which single mum and former police officer Pearl Nolan (Kerry Godliman) runs a seafood restaurant and moonlights as a private detective, investigating murders and local secrets in the Kent seaside town of Whitstable alongside gruff outsider DCI Mike McGuire (Howard Charles), with Frances Barber as her outspoken mother Dolly.
Watch it: Streaming
Grace
John Simm (Life on Mars) stars in a brooding crime drama about Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a methodical investigator haunted by his missing wife as he pursues complex cases along Brighton’s piers, marinas, and shingle beaches with support from Richie Campbell (The Pact) and Rakie Ayola (Anthony). The south coast seaside setting keeps each investigation framed by sea mists, tourist crowds, and the changing moods of the Channel.
Watch it: Streaming
Hope Street
In the fictional Northern Irish seaside town of Port Devine, officers at a small coastal police station juggle everyday crime, deep-rooted local grudges, and the arrival of a detective with secrets of her own. Amara Karan (The Darjeeling Limited), Ciarán McMenamin (Primeval), and Brid Brennan (Brooklyn) lead this ensemble police drama, with Donaghadee’s harbour, fishing boats, and windswept shoreline giving every storyline a distinctly coastal feel.
Watch it: Streaming
Intruder
Elaine Cassidy (No Offence) and Tom Meeten (The Ghoul) play a well-off couple whose isolated Cornish clifftop home becomes the site of a fatal home invasion, forcing them into a cover-up in this four-part psychological crime thriller while Sally Lindsay (Scott & Bailey) appears as the family liaison officer who starts to doubt their story. The plot makes constant use of the house’s coastal position, with sea views, cliff paths, and lonely beaches emphasising how exposed and cut off this seaside life really is.
Watch it: Streaming
The Long Call
Ben Aldridge (Our Girl) plays DI Matthew Venn, a reserved detective who returns to his North Devon hometown with his husband and finds himself leading a beachside murder investigation that forces him to confront the strict religious community he left behind, in a character-driven crime drama based on Ann Cleeves’ novel. Beaches, estuaries, and wind-battered coastal villages on the North Devon shore frame the investigation, with Pearl Mackie (Doctor Who) and Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) among the key figures tangled up in the case.
Watch it: Streaming
Annika
Nicola Walker (Unforgotten) plays dry-witted DI Annika Strandhed, head of Glasgow’s Marine Homicide Unit, investigating bodies that surface in Scotland’s lochs, rivers, and coastal waters while juggling single motherhood and a prickly history with colleague DS Michael McAndrews, played by Jamie Sives (Game of Thrones), with Katie Leung (Harry Potter) among the team tracking killers across the Clyde and nearby shorelines.
Watch it: Streaming
Good Ship Murder
Shayne Ward (Coronation Street) stars as Jack Grayling, a former detective who has reinvented himself as a cabaret singer on a luxury Mediterranean cruise ship, only to be drawn back into sleuthing when passengers and crew start dying in suspicious ways; alongside Catherine Tyldesley (Coronation Street) as by-the-book First Officer Kate Woods, this crime drama leans into sea views, port calls, and sun-soaked decks as the pair solve murders in between glamorous coastal stopovers.
Watch it: Streaming
Beyond Paradise
Kris Marshall (Death in Paradise) and Sally Bretton (Not Going Out) lead this Death in Paradise spin-off, following DI Humphrey Goodman as he swaps the Caribbean for his fiancée’s hometown on the Devon coast and joins the small Shipton Abbott police station; quirky investigations play out against fishing boats, tidal rivers, and the pastel-fronted harbour streets of Looe standing in for the seaside setting.
Watch it: Streaming
Hotel Portofino
Natascha McElhone (Californication) stars as Bella Ainsworth, a British hotelier running a luxury retreat for wealthy guests on the 1920s Italian Riviera, juggling demanding patrons, family tensions, and the rise of Mussolini’s fascism in a lush period drama that lets Portofino’s harbour, terraces, and sunlit sea views frame every scandal and romantic entanglement, with support from cast members like Anna Chancellor (Four Weddings and a Funeral).
Watch it: Streaming
Madame Blanc Mysteries
Antiques dealer Jean White, played by Sally Lindsay (Mount Pleasant), relocates to the southern French village of Sainte Victoire after her husband’s sudden death and finds herself drawn into cosy crime investigations involving valuable objects, holiday homeowners, and local gossip. Stories play out in sunlit squares and market streets with the Mediterranean coastline never far from view, supported by Steve Edge (Starlings), Robin Askwith (Confessions of a Window Cleaner), and Sue Holderness (Only Fools and Horses).
Watch it: Streaming
Granite Harbour
Royal Military Police sergeant Davis Lindo, played by Romario Simpson (Noughts + Crosses), transfers to Aberdeen and learns the ropes as a detective in a contemporary police procedural set in a North Sea port city. Cases unfold around the harbour, oil docks, and grey waterfront streets, with Hannah Donaldson (Annika) and Dawn Steele (Monarch of the Glen) rounding out the team.
Watch it: Streaming
Karen Pirie
Lauren Lyle (Outlander) plays DS Karen Pirie, a young but persistent cold case detective who is asked to reopen the 1990s murder of a teenage barmaid in St Andrews, uncovering buried misogyny, police failings, and long-held secrets in a tightly plotted crime drama. The investigation repeatedly returns to the Fife coastline around the university town, using beaches, coastal roads, and sea views as key locations tied to both the original crime and the people still living with its consequences.
Watch it: Streaming
2000 Acres of Sky
Filmed in the seaside village of Port Logan, this early-2000s series follows a single mother in London who sees an advert about a Scottish island that needs someone to run a local B&B, along with a plea for two children so they can keep their local school open. She persuades a friend to pretend to be her husband, and together they leave London behind for island life.
Sadly, it was removed from streaming services a little while back, but you can enjoy all of it on DVD if you have a region-free DVD player.
Watch it: DVD
The Aphrodite Inheritance
This eight-part series was created by Michael J. Bird in 1978 as a follow-up to two other Mediterranean-based shows, The Lotus Eaters and Who Pays the Ferryman? (both further down on this list). Peter McEnery (The Collectors) starred as a man travelling to Cyprus to look into the death of his brother – only to find himself drawn into a mysterious conspiracy.
Watch it: DVD
The Bay
Morven Christie (The A Word) and later Marsha Thomason (Cobra) play family liaison officers in a contemporary crime drama set in Morecambe, where major cases pull them deep into the lives of grieving families and strained communities. Each investigation unfolds along the town’s tide-swept promenade, beaches, and bay-front estates, using the shifting sands and unpredictable sea as a constant backdrop to missing persons, murder inquiries, and the officers’ own complicated home lives.
Benidorm
Benidorm follows an ensemble cast of British holidaymakers and staff at an a resort in Benidorm, Spain. For those not familiar with the real location of Benidorm, it's a bit like Cancun for North Americans – a coastal holiday destination working class people can afford, with a lot of all-inclusive hotels.
The sitcom lasted for 10 seasons before being cancelled in 2018, though many of the cast members showed up later in creator Derren Litten's Scarborough (also on this list).
Blackpool
Not surprisingly, Blackpool is set in the English seaside resort town of Blackpool. This BBC production is a bit unusual in that it's a musical drama. It stars David Morrissey (The Walking Dead). Sarah Parish (Bancroft), and David Tennant (Doctor Who, Broadchurch), focusing on the events after a young man is murdered in a Blackpool arcade.
Watch it: Streaming | DVD US | DVD UK (non-UK buyers may find the price is sometimes better on Amazon UK)
Booze Cruise
This series of three feature-length episodes stars Martin Clunes (Doc Martin), Neil Pearson (Drop the Dead Donkey), and Mark Benton (Shakespeare & Hathaway) as the odd trio of neighbours travel abroad to buy alcohol. Wildly underrated, this one doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere legal – but you CAN buy a DVD copy if you have a region-free DVD player to watch it on.
Along with a channel crossing, one episode involves a car being washed out to sea.
Watch it: DVD
Brighton Belles
This early 90s British Golden Girls adaptation was set in the coastal town of Brighton (south of London) and it had 11 episodes over 2 seasons. The series starred Sheila Hancock (Delicious, Kavanagh QC – also known for being John Thaw's wife), Wendy Craig (Butterflies), Sheila Gish (Pie in the Sky), and Jean Boht (Bread).
Sadly, it's not available to watch – not on streaming services OR DVD. It might be worth putting in a request with your favourite streaming service if you'd like to see it.
Broadchurch
David Tennant (Doctor Who) and Olivia Colman (Rev) star in this small-town coastal mystery about the investigation into the murder of a young local boy. The series was filmed along the Dorset coast, and you can read more about Broadchurch filming locations here.
Watch it: Amazon
The Cafe
Set in the coastal Somerset town Weston-super-Mare, this light comedy starred Ralf Little (Death in Paradise) and Michelle Terry (Marcella) and revolved around a cafe owned and operated by a grandmother, her daughter, and her granddaughter. The series also featured Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), then largely unknown.
Watch it: Streaming
The Coroner
Claire Goose (Casualty) stars as Jane Kennedy, a newly returned coroner who investigates suspicious deaths in a small Devon community while clashing and collaborating with childhood friend DS Davey Higgins, played by Matt Bardock (Holby City). The light daytime crime drama leans heavily on its fictional Lighthaven setting, sending each case out along windswept cliffs, coves, and harbourfront streets on the South Devon coast.
Cuffs
Set on Brighton’s busy seafront, this fast-paced ensemble police drama follows rookie PC Jake Vickers and his colleagues as they deal with everything from beach brawls to armed stand-offs, balancing high-pressure incidents with messy personal lives along the promenade and pier, with Jacob Ifan (Bang), Ashley Walters (Top Boy), and Amanda Abbington (Sherlock) leading the cast.
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a 1960s and 70s series set during WW2. One of the great British comedy classics, this one was set in the fictional seaside town of Walmington-on-Sea where a group of men worked together in the Home Guard (an armed citizen militia for those not otherwise suited for active military duty).
Death in Paradise
Ben Miller (Primeval), Kris Marshall (My Family), Ardal O’Hanlon (Father Ted), and Ralf Little (The Royal Family) are among the actors who have played the quintessentially British detective sent to work with a local team on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, where each sunny whodunnit contrasts classic locked-room and village-style mysteries with palm-fringed beaches, sea-battered cliffs, and harbours that make the ocean feel like an extra character in the long-running crime drama.
Distant Shores
Peter Davison (All Creatures Great and Small) and Samantha Bond (Downton Abbey) star in this series about a London plastic surgeon whose wife gets a six-month veterinary job on the Northumbrian island of Hildasay. Though initially unhappy with the slower pace of life and quirky inhabitants, their family eventually adjusts.
Oddly, this one doesn't stream in the US – and even in the UK, the second series was never aired. It's a quiet, pleasant show, though, and you can enjoy both seasons on DVD if you have a region-free DVD player.
Watch it: DVD
Doc Martin
In Doc Martin, Martin Clunes stars as an ex-surgeon whose sudden fear of blood led him to a new career as local GP in the seaside village of Portwenn. He's grumpy and hard to get to know, but eventually, he finds his place in the village. Cornwall's Port Isaac serves as the location for the fictional Portwenn.
Don't Forget the Driver
Set in the faded seaside resort of Bognor Regis, this dark comedy-drama follows overworked coach driver and single dad Peter Green, played by Toby Jones (Detectorists), whose routine of budget coach trips and caring for his elderly mother Joy, played by Marcia Warren (Vicious), is shaken when a desperate migrant and a death on the beach drag him into bigger questions about responsibility and belonging.
Coach excursions along the south coast, shots of the promenade, and the slightly tacky charm of England’s “sunniest” seaside town keep the sea and beachfront woven through nearly every scene.
Watch it: Streaming
The Durrells (aka The Durrells in Corfu)
Set on the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s, this warm comedy-drama follows Louisa Durrell as she uproots her eccentric family from England to a sun-drenched, cash-strapped new life where goats wander through the house, romance and chaos arrive daily, and the sea is never far from view, with Keeley Hawes (Line of Duty), Josh O’Connor (The Crown), and Milo Parker (Mr Holmes) among the ensemble cast.
Echo Beach
This 2008 soap opera was set in the fictional Cornish town of Poinarren, and Martine McCutcheon (Natalie from Love Actually) and Hugo Speer (London Kills) were among its stars. The series was interlinked with another, Moving Wallpaper, with both set in the same town.
Outdoor scenes were filmed around Looe and Polperro and Watergate Bay, but the series was criticised for its inconsistencies with props, locations, dialect, and regional accents.
Watch it: DVD
Edge of Heaven
This short-lived sitcom focused on the lives of a family running a 1980s-themed guest house in the seaside town of Margate in Kent. While not a wildly memorable show, it's a fun, light series you can binge in a day or two. There's just one season of six episodes.
Watch it: Streaming
Father Ted
On a remote, windswept island off the west coast of Ireland, three spectacularly unsuitable priests and their long-suffering housekeeper stumble from one absurd crisis to the next in a parish where nothing ever quite goes to plan. Created by the brilliant Graham Linehan (Black Books, The IT Crowd) alongside Arthur Mathews, this surreal sitcom stars Dermot Morgan (Scrap Saturday), Ardal O’Hanlon (Death in Paradise), and Pauline McLynn (Shameless), using Craggy Island’s sheer cliffs, stormy Atlantic views, and isolated seaside setting to heighten both the comedy and the chaos.
Fawlty Towers
Though we don't really SEE the sea in Fawlty Towers, “Communication Problems” (Series 2, Episode 1) assures us it's out there. When one particularly troublesome guest, Mrs. Richards, complains that her “room with a view” lacks a sea view, she and Basil have the following exchange:
Basil Fawlty: You CAN see the sea. It's over there, between the land and the sky.
Mrs. Richards: I'd need a telescope to see that!
Basil Fawlty: Well, may I suggest that you move to a hotel closer to the sea…or preferably in it?
Though not actually filmed there, the series was set in Torquay, a South Devon town in the “English Riviera”. So – while this one IS set by the sea, it's definitely not the show to watch if you're looking for calming sea views.
Finding Joy
Though technically Irish rather than British, that's still part of the British Isles and it's good enough for us. The series follows a young Irish woman whose life is shaken up by a breakup and new job. Fair warning: it can be a bit crass at times, so if that's not your sort of comedy, this one won't be for you.
Watch it: Streaming
Flesh & Blood
Francesca Annis (Reckless) plays a recent widow whose whirlwind new romance alarms her adult children and ultimately connects to a mysterious death on the beach, drawing the whole family into a tense investigation on the English south coast. Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter), Russell Tovey (Being Human), and Stephen Rea (The Honourable Woman) round out the cast, with the family’s clifftop home and the shoreline below giving this domestic thriller a constant backdrop of sea views and shifting tides.
Watch it: Streaming
Foyle's War
In this one, Michael Kitchen stars as DCI Christopher Foyle, an officer fighting crime along the south coast during WWII. He may not be on the front line, but he DOES deal with many cases that are related to the war efforts – smuggling, fuel theft, refugees, and so on.
The series is set in Hastings, though many parts were actually filmed in Rye. Both are located on the southern coast of England.
Gavin & Stacey
Gavin and Stacey follows two young people as they fall in love and combine their friends and families. Though roughly half of the series is set in inland Essex (Billericay, to be precise), the “Stacey” half of the show takes place in the Welsh coastal town of Wales.
If you've never watched it, this is a British comedy classic and definitely worth a viewing. It's the show that made James Corden and Ruth Jones famous, and the ensemble cast is delightful.
Hamish Macbeth
Based on the novels of M.C. Beaton, this series takes us into the world of underachieving (but clever) police constable Hamish Macbeth (played by Robert Carlyle). It's set in the absolutely lovely fictional Scottish village of Lochdubh – otherwise known as the real village of Plockton on the west coast of Scotland.
Harbour Lights
This drama ran from 1999 to 2000, with Nick Berry (Heartbeat) starring as Mike Nicholls, a former Royal Navy officer who becomes harbourmaster in his childhood hometown of Bridehaven.
Strangely, this one was only released on Region 4 (Australia) DVD, meaning most people would need a region-free DVD player to play it.
Watch it: DVD
Hinterland
Set in the Welsh coastal town of Aberystwyth, this series is unique because it was filmed in both Welsh and English. It sees DCI Tom Mathias (Richard Harrington) beginning a new job in Aberystwyth, only to be called out for a suspicious disappearance almost immediately.
This one falls quite squarely into the “bleak and atmospheric” category of British mysteries, so if you like those and you haven't seen this one yet, be sure to check it out.
Hope it Rains
This early 90s British comedy follows a young woman who goes to live with her grumpy godfather, owner of an old wax museum in a run-down resort town. The ITV series ran for two seasons, and it was written by the famed comedy writing duo of Esmonde and Larbey (The Good Life).
Sadly, this is another one of those shows that hasn't been released commercially, though you can find “grey market” copies if you look around a bit.
Jamaica Inn
This Cornwall-based period drama is based on Daphne du Maurier's novel of the same name, and it tells the story of Mary Yellan, a young woman who goes to live with her aunt after her mother dies. It's not an ideal situation, and she quickly finds herself tangled up in her dodgy uncle's business.
Fun fact: The Jamaica Inn is a real smuggling inn, and it still exists. You can stay overnight, check out the Smuggling and Daphne du Maurier museums, participate in their murder mystery events, or just grab a meal and a pint. They even have options for vegans, vegetarians, and the gluten-free. Check out their website HERE.
Kate & Koji
Breanda Blethyn (Vera) goes back to her sitcom roots in this sitcom about a cafe owner in the rundown coastal resort of Seagate in south Essex. She's a bit cantankerous at the best of times, but as the series goes on, she forms a friendship with Koji, an African asylum seeker who was a doctor before coming to the UK.
Though the town is called “Seagate”, the series was actually filmed in Herne Bay in Kent. Frasiers Pie & Mash Shop is the real cafe that served as the exterior.
Watch it: Streaming
Kingdom
This 2007 drama-comedy stars Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom, a small town solicitor in Norfolk. Though filmed in the Norfolk market town of Swaffham, it's relatively near the coast (10-15 miles) and a number of scenes venture out to the seaside.
The Lotus Eaters
This 1970s series follows British expats living on the island of Crete. The main characters are Erik and Ann, a couple who run a local tavern – but Ann has a secret. She's also a British intelligence sleeper agent. Starring Ian Hendry (Get Carter) and Wanda Ventham (Only Fools and Horses – and she's Benedict Cumberbatch's mum), it's a fun series with great scenery and a fair bit of intrigue.
Watch it: DVD
The Mallorca Files
Elen Rhys (Broadchurch) plays British DC Miranda Blake, paired with Julian Looman (Pagan Peak) as German detective Max Winter in a procedural that follows their often uneasy partnership within the Palma police as they investigate murder, smuggling, and organised crime. Cases take them across Mallorca’s marinas, beach resorts, and cliffside villas, keeping the Mediterranean and the island’s coastal landscape in view throughout the series.
It's a bit like Death in Paradise in that it offers the “fish out of water” detective – but the vibe is a little more stylish and upmarket, with a tiny hint of sexual tension between the two main characters (though that's not the focus at all).
Mapp & Lucia
This one's been done twice: once in the mid-80s with Geraldine McEwan (Marple) and Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers) and again in 2014 with Miranda Richardson (Girlfriends) and Anna Chancellor (The Split). Though it feels a bit dated, I still think the older adaptation is better.
The series is based on the novels of EF Benson, and it follows two rival women in a small Sussex town. Both adaptations were filmed in and around the town of Rye.
Watch it (2014): Streaming | DVD
Watch it (1985): Streaming | DVD
Moving Wallpaper
This comedy-drama series was interlinked with the British soap Echo Beach, with this series focusing on a fictional TV production company making the show (which was real, and appears above on this list). Echo Beach was cancelled after just one series, but Moving Wallpaper continued on for one more season.
In the second series, they focused on the production of a zombie show called Renaissance. Unlike Echo Beach, which was a real show with a full series, Renaissance was never anything more than a half hour pilot.
Stars of Moving Wallpaper included Ben Miller (Death in Paradise) and Sarah Hadland (Miranda).
Watch it: DVD
Poldark
Though many indoor scenes were filmed in studio sets in Bristol, the outdoor scenes for Poldark were filmed in Cornwall, Wiltshire, and Somerset – many along the coast.
The series begins when Captain Ross Poldark returns from fighting in the American War of Independence, only to find his father has died, his estate is in ruins, and the woman he loves is set to marry another. Its five seasons follow him as he rebuilds.
The Rebel
Simon Callow stars as 70-year-old Henry Palmer, a troublesome widower living in the coastal city of Brighton. Over the course of nine episodes, the series explores the intersection of aging and topics like sex, drugs, health, and love. Though initially quite abrasive, the characters do grow on you and it eventually settles into a fun series with a bit more depth than your average sitcom.
Watch it: Streaming
The Royal
Parts of this period medical drama were filmed in the North Yorkshire coastal towns of Whitby and Scarborough. It started as a spinoff to Heartbeat, but within a few seasons it had taken on a life of its own.
It ran from 2003 to 2011, and there are 87 episodes in total.
Sanditon
British literature fans will know Sanditon as Jane Austen's last, unfinished novel. In this series, acclaimed UK screenwriter Andrew Davies picks up where Austen left off, using her characters to complete the story in his own way.
The story follows a young woman as she navigates an up-and-coming seaside resort called Sanditon. It's set during a time of major social change, and those changes bring both excitement and danger.
Scarborough
After Benidorm, Derren Litten created Scarborough. As the name might imply, the series is set in the seaside town of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, and it revolves around the lives of a group of early middle-age adults as they go about their daily business and occasionally meet up at the local pub for karaoke.
Not a lot actually happens in the series, but it's a fun slice of working class life in a coastal tourist town. It wasn't renewed for a second season.
Watch it: Streaming
Shetland
North of mainland Scotland, you'll find the remote Shetland Islands – and that's where Shetland takes place. This atmospheric mystery series stars Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez, and in spite of the incredibly small population of the islands (a bit over 20,000 as of 2019), he has his hands full with a steady stream of murders.
The series is based on the Shetland novels by Ann Cleeves, but not all storylines are derived from the books.
The South Westerlies
Another Irish entry, The South Westerlies premieres on Acorn TV in November. It follows follows Kate Ryan (Orla Brady, Eternal Law), a single mother with a promising career at Noreg Oil. She's an environmental consultant working out of Dublin, but she has her eye on a promotion that would move her to the company's headquarters in Oslo – until they add one final condition.
To get the promotion, she'll have to go undercover in a small Irish town to help squash opposition to her company's offshore wind farm. Unfortunately, she and the town have a complicated past.
Between the career challenges, her personal ethics, and the return of an old boyfriend who looks an awful lot like her son, she has a tough road ahead.
Watch it: Streaming
Stonemouth
Based on the novel of the same name by Iain Banks, this series follows a man who returns to his coastal Scottish hometown to attend a funeral. We learn that five years prior, he had left the town due to a sexual indiscretion – and that the little town is controlled by a couple of nasty rival gangs.
Tales of Para Handy
This mid-90s Scottish period drama is set in the Western Isles of Scotland during the 1930s, and it's based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. It's a fun, old-fashioned sort of show that follows the adventures of a group of men who operate a shipping boat called the Vital Spark.
If you watch it, pay attention during the episode “Para Handy's Piper”. It features a young David Tennant in one of his earliest roles.
Watch it: DVD
The Trouble With Maggie Cole
This gorgeous coastal drama stars Dawn French (Vicar of Dibley) and Mark Heap (Friday Night Dinner) as a married couple whose lives are turned upside down when French's character (the titular Maggie Cole) has a bit too much to drink during an interview about their village's upcoming celebration. She spills a number of local secrets, instantly becoming an outcast in the close-knit community.
Watch it: Streaming
Watching
This sitcom ran from 1987 to 1993, and followed an oddly-matched couple from Liverpool and nearby Meols (a posh village on the northern coast of the Wirral peninsula). Female lead Brenda (Emma Wray) is a people watcher, and Malcolm (Paul Bown) is a bird watcher – and together, they eventually learn how to get along.
Though delightful, it's not one we recommend if you're hard of hearing or your ear isn't great with thicker regional accents. The DVDs don't include subtitles.
Watch it: DVD
Who Pays the Ferryman?
This Michael J. Bird series sees an ex-soldier returning to Crete after his boat building-business is bought out. Expecting a peaceful trip with time for reflection, he soon finds his past catching up to him.
If you like this one, also check out The Lotus Eaters and The Aphrodite Inheritance (both elsewhere on this list).
Watch it: DVD | DVD UK (Sometimes less expensive from the UK)
What's Your Favourite Coastal British TV Show?
Even though this is quite a long list, we've no doubt missed plenty of good series. What's your favourite British show set by the sea? Let us know in the comments!
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