Whether it’s whirlwind love, coming-of-age heartache or a celebration of friendship you’re after, it can be found here in our critics’ unmissable selection of cosy shows to watch this Valentine’s Day.
The Lovers
Johnny Flynn and Roisin Gallagher star in a darkly comic Belfast-set romance
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
A successful city dweller is forced to return to his home town, where a reality check ensues and love arrives from a surprising source. It sounds like the plot of a Hallmark Christmas movie, but The Lovers takes that set-up and gives it so much edge that you barely recognise it.
Lovesick’s Johnny Flynn stars as slick, arrogant London broadcaster Seamus, who returns to his hometown of Belfast. Once there, his big-city arrogance lands him in trouble, and he falls headlong into the life of suicidal supermarket worker Janet (The Dry’s Roisin Gallagher). Will the two fall headlong for each other? And what will Seamus’s London girlfriend (Alice Eve) make of it if they do? Janet is a great character – darkly hilarious and just a little vulnerable underneath it – and the way Gallagher wrings the most out of every line and look she has in the role will keep you coming back for more. (Six episodes)
One Day
TV adaptation of David Nicholls’s novel about life and love
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Beginning with their final night at university together, One Day follows Dexter and Emma (The White Lotus’s Leo Woodall and This Is Going To Hurt’s Ambika Mod) across almost two decades, as they cross in and out of each other’s lives and fall in and out of love with one another. The twist? We only catch up with them on one day each year, 15 July.
It’s a great conceit that allows time to flicker past as the pair’s lives and looks change across the series. It’s already been adapted into a lovely 2011 film (starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess), but this 14-parter has much more elbow room to dig into elements from the novel, delighting fans as it expands upon the joys and tragedies of Dex and Em’s lives. The fact that each episode is only around 30 minutes long helps the show to zip along at a great pace, as does the liberal use of music from each year.
The show’s makers do a good job of capturing the 1990s in particular, especially the spell when Dex becomes the odious host of low-rent, post-pub TV that’s all too close to what was actually on our screens at the time. It says a lot for Woodall’s charm as an actor that he manages to keep Dex at all likeable during those years, while you’re always rooting for the endearing Mod – who was the tragic heart of This Is Going To Hurt – to find a happy ending as Emma. (14 episodes)
Colin From Accounts
Boy meets girl – and dog – in this offbeat Aussie romcom
Year: 2022
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
This eight-part romantic comedy, created by husband-and-wife stars Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, isn’t for the faint-hearted — from fart jokes to a literal instance of pungent toilet humour, it can feel crude at times.
Brammall plays Gordon, a lonely bachelor who is driving when he’s distracted by medical student Ashley (Dyer), who flashes her boob at him causing him to run over a dog. The guilty pair take the scruffy terrier to the vet, where he ends up with wheels for back legs. Within 20 minutes Gordon and Ashley have moved in together to co-parent their disabled mutt, whom they name Colin as they fantasise that, if he was human, he would have a boring office job (hence the show’s title). It’s a great comic set-up and we then follow the flawed couple’s numerous mishaps over the course of the unpredictable series. Brammall and Dyer act well but the real star is the dog. (Eight episodes)
Smothered
Warm London romcom from one of the writers of Schitt’s Creek
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
Two worlds collide in Sky’s moreish London-set romcom, which should be a particularly good fit for fans of BBC3’s Starstruck. Our prospective lovebirds are Sammy (Sliced’s Danielle Vitalis), who’s at the end of her tether with dating and idiotic men, and Tom (Plebs’ Jon Pointing), a steady and responsible man with baggage and a house. They hit it it off one night in a bar, and promise each other a no-strings passionate affair for three weeks. They can’t leave it at that, though, but then one of them discovers a surprising secret about the other – can they get over it and find a life together?
Smothered is written by Monica Heisey (Schitt’s Creek) and is one of Sky’s more thoughtful comedies, in the best sense of that word. We won’t say too much about its twists and turns as that would spoil it, but suffice to say this is a show with a good heart and plenty of comic talent, including a scene-stealing turn from Aisling Bea. After you’ve watched one episode, you’ll likely want to watch the whole lot. (Six episodes)
The Buccaneers
Fans of Bridgerton should enjoy this vibrant Edith Wharton adaptation
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
Apple may have found its Bridgerton with this vibrant, well-cast and visually sumptuous tale of rich American girls being married to cash-poor British lords in the 1870s. It’s based on an unfinished novel by Edith Wharton that has only been adapted once before – by the BBC, in 1995 – and the story has a nice mix of light and shade, shot through with occasional belts of modern music to match the spirit of the girls. Their vibrancy collides with the stuffy British establishment and the mix of hope, romance and poignancy that follows is the meat of the story.
The cast is first-rate, especially Looking For Alaska’s Kristine Froseth as the clever Nan, who is forever accidentally overshadowing her more traditionally attractive sister. Another standout is Guy Remmers as Theo, the grumpy but soulful Duke of Tintagel, who despairs of the debutante season and would rather spend his time painting on the beach. The series itself has a complicated web of friendships and relationships that will keep you compelled from one episode to the next, and then there are all the costumes and big houses of course – no one could accuse Apple of skimping on those here. (Eight episodes)
Still Up
British romantic comedy series about a pair of insomniacs
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
When the world goes to sleep, Lisa and Danny (Antonia Thomas and Craig Roberts) are wide awake. Both suffering from insomnia, the two roam the world of night buses and all-night corner shops, chatting with each other over video calls about anything and everything in their lives.
Made up of eight episodes – with each one taking place on a different night – this is a bright-eyed and thoroughly engaging will-they-won’t-they romcom. The supporting cast is full of recognisable faces from British telly (watch out for The Inbetweeners’ Blake Harrison in particular) but it’s the sparky chemistry of the lead pair that makes this a series you might well stay up all night to finish. (Eight episodes)
Choose Love
Interactive entertainment letting you shape the course of a rom-com
Year: 2023
Certificate: PG
Watch now on Netflix
After the success of everything from trivia games to episodes of Black Mirror, Netflix now turns its interactive attention to a rom- com. It all starts like a traditional tale as likeable recording engineer Cami (Laura Marano) breaks the fourth wall to talk to us directly about her life. But soon she stumbles across various romantic possibilities – from her long-term boyfriend to an old flame to an engaging rock star – and we’re the ones who get to decide who she should pursue via our remotes.
It’s fun stuff, and if you don’t like how the story plays out, you can always watch it again and make different choices to send it down a different path.
Starstruck
Rose Matafeo stars in a charming, screwball romcom about an unlikely couple
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Watch now on Netflix
There’s something loveably retro about Rose Matafeo’s twentysomething London romcom, especially in its early episodes. It’s all about an unlikely couple, Jessie (a charmingly self-deprecating Matafeo), who works at a cinema, and international movie star Tom (Nikesh Patel), and the banter between the two of them has a distinct ring of the old screwball comedies to it.
The show is all about the highs and lows of Jessie and Tom’s relationship, and the delight of it isn’t in wondering whether or not they actually end up together at the end, but in the fun of what happens along the way.
The latest, third series opens at a wedding with Jessie and Tom at a low point, and Jessie striking up a new style of banter with another, very different man. (Three series on iPlayer, two series on Netflix)
The Bold Type
Glossy, upbeat US drama about three women’s lives working on a magazine
Year: 2017-2021
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
The female-dominated world of glossy magazines can be punishing but, unlike in the film The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep’s fierce Vogue editor, The Bold Type puts the knives away and focuses more on female solidarity.
We follow three Millennial women as they climb the career ladder, pausing for deep and meaningfuls with friends and colleagues. Just like Streep’s Miranda Priestly, their boss Jacqueline (based on former Cosmo editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, who is also a producer on the show) is an aspirational figure – she’s just a hell of a lot nicer. First shown on Prime Video and Netflix in the UK and enjoyed by plenty of people during lockdown, this series should attract even more fans on iPlayer. (Five series)
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Gloriously sunny coming-of-age teen drama from the US
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Every year, Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin looks forward to spending the summer at a family friend’s beach house. But what happens when she and the two teenage sons of the family they share with suddenly stop looking at each other as rough-and-tumble childhood playmates and begin seeing the serious romantic possibilities?
Based on Jenny Han’s bestselling books, this sweet show embraces drama, comedy and most of all romance as Belly deals with the emerging love triangle that threatens to upturn her life. Series two ups the drama even further as life-changing events such as cancer and the threat of losing the beach house are thrown into the mix. (Two series)
And Just Like That…
Sex And The City sequel featuring Carrie and co
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Sky
Watch now on NOW
Seventeen years after the sixth and final series of the original hit TV series, the Manhattan friends were reunited for a belated sequel. The original show, and two subsequent successful films, charted the love lives of newspaper sex column writer Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her three best friends – clever lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), prim Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and unstoppable Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) – but when it returned, four had become three with Cattrall absent due to disagreements over the storyline.
The series brought a nice blend of the familiar and the fresh to the lives of the now fifty-something friends. It’s true the first episode did come in for some criticism – and some angry exchanges with the makers of the Peloton exercise bike – but the second episode hit a more thoughtful groove, and the show found some interesting stories to tell about Carrie, Charlotte and, particularly, Miranda. And, of course, the off-camera friction with Cattrall added a certain frisson. The first series proved so successful that the second was commissioned almost straight away. (Two series)
Significant Other
Anti-romantic comedy about two broken-hearted people
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on ITVX
This comedy is about as dark and bittersweet as it gets – ostensibly a boy-meet-girls scenario but one that is instantly awkward and painful and nothing like love at first sight. It’s best seen as an anti-romcom, a show about loneliness and human frailties where the sweet in the bittersweet does win out – it just takes a little while, and it gets pretty gnarly along the way.
When we first meet neighbours Sam and Anna (Home’s Youssef Kerkour and The IT Crowd’s Katherine Parkinson), Anna is having a heart attack and Sam is gobbling pills and writing a suicide note on a pizza flyer. Neither of them shuffle off this mortal coil, however, and what follows is a slow and occasionally ugly coming together of these two profoundly lonely, sad people.
They certainly make an odd couple, and not an obvious match, but in as much as Sam is just out of a relationship and Anna has clearly given up on ever making a meaningful connection with men, they are both in similar spaces – uncertain and uneasy around potential love interests.
Both Parkinson and Kerkour are also immensely likeable. Their moping doesn’t come off as irritating and you’ll be cheering each chink of optimism as it comes their way. (Six episodes)
Love Me
Poignant and funny Australian drama about romance at different times of life
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Acorn TV
There are a lot of sharp edges to this Melbourne-based drama, which is all about love – pursuing it, holding on to it, and the pain of losing it – at different times of life. The Matrix’s Hugo Weaving is its most familiar face, as the kind but painfully self-sacrificing husband to ailing Christine, to whom he’s been married for nearly 40 years. Their late-30s daughter Clara (Bojana Novakovic), meanwhile, is at her wits’ end dating weirdos she finds online. Both their lives are about to take a turn, and Weaving in particular is remarkable to watch, with a performance that’s both heartbreaking and unexpectedly hilarious. The scenes in which he fends off wildly inappropriate enquiries from female friends about his sick wife are an example of both.
Love Me is based on a Swedish series, Alska Mig, and the story has that Scandinavian fatalism that the Australians do well too. It’s also great to see Novakovic in a very different role to the one she played in flashy US crime drama Instinct with Alan Cumming, which is where you may know her from. Series two opens with the characters in a much more stable place, but with the sense that it might not last for long. (Two series)
Catastrophe
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney star in this caustic TV pregnancy romcom
Year: 2015-2019
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan star as an American man and an Irish woman thrown together messily in London in a comedy of ‘clumsy lust, instant pregnancy and genuine disaster’ that is definitely not for the easily offended. It was also a huge hit for Ch4, though, and that’s partly because the relationship of Rob and Sharon (Delaney and Horgan) is presented in such an unusually frank fashion by its two stars, whose control over the show was much greater than most actors – not only did they create Catastrophe, they also wrote all 24 episodes.
Look out for Carrie Fisher as Rob’s mother in the first three series – this was the last TV role she filmed before her death, in 2016 – and be prepared for some dark but honest turns in the story as the fourth series arrives. Catastrophe hasn’t been available on demand for a while, so the addition to Netflix is a welcome development. (Four series)
You & Me
Fresh, London-set drama about modern relationships
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on ITVX
This new three-parter is a fast and fresh drama about modern relationships that encapsulates all the joy, the pain and the healing power of love in all its forms. The first five minutes point to what should be a neat happy ever after but, a lot like in real life, we don’t get all the answers at once.
Defined by its creator Jamie Davis as a love story set in the ‘then’ and the ‘now’, the show seamlessly switches between two timelines in a way that isn’t confusing but instead heightens the tension and emotion. Unusually, it’s a love story that is seen largely from the man’s point of view and there’s a strong central performance from Industry’s Harry Lawtey as Ben, the northern lad making his way in London. Sophia Brown and Jessica Barden play the two women who, like Ben, are hoping to find love and happiness, but feel their past is holding them back.
You’ll think you’ve seen it all before, but this is no typical boy-meets-girl romance. Instead, it’s an energetic treat that really keeps you on your toes.
The Flatshare
Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay stars in this romantic comedy
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Paramount+
In a rom com, the ‘meet cute’ is the cute moment when the couple we’re rooting for first stumble into each other’s lives. In this British series they share the same flat but are contractually required not to be there at the same time.
Now, if you want to complain about realism, you could say that there’s nothing to stop them meeting in a coffee shop – but realism isn’t the point of rom coms, so they don’t, and the way these two swap increasingly intimate Post-it notes about the state of their lives is undeniably romantic.
The comedy mostly comes from the life of boozy, newly single Tiffy (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay) who, true to the form of the genre, has an unrealistic job at an online magazine. Again, realism isn’t the point of rom coms, and there’s a charm and a slow-burning honesty to this that’s really nice to watch, and it has the odd laugh-out-loud moment, too. (Six episodes)
Emily in Paris
Lily Collins in a rom-com about an American girl in the French capital
Year: 2020-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Sheer escapism meets every French cliche going in a gentle romantic drama about an American marketeer let loose in Paris. Made by the same team as Sex And The City, there is plenty of froth to enjoy but underneath it all is also a story of friendship, ambition and love with plenty of heart.
Lily Collins is a delight as Emily Cooper, an American who has been sent to Paris to work at a luxury marketing firm. While the first series is big on culture clashes as Emily thrashes her way around the capital, the second looks deeper into the characters, including Emily’s enigmatic boss Sylvie, played by Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu. It also sees her find love in an unusual place. Paris has rarely looked more beautiful, while the clothes are a never-ending joy. (Three series)
Kid Sister
The dating life of a Jewish woman in New Zealand
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on ITVX
This Kiwi comedy is a fun, frank and fruity look at the messy ups and downs of Jewish dating life in New Zealand. If you saw Emma Seligman’s 2020 film Shiva Baby or enjoyed Rose Matafeo’s series Starstruck (iPlayer), this could be your next modern dating fix.
Lulu (played by the show’s creator Simone Nathan) lives in Auckland, a part of the world where more people identity as Jedi than they do Jewish. That explains why she’s been secretly dating a gentile.
Outside of her dating life, Lulu is the kind of modern woman who has an Amy Schumer feel to her – she’s a loveable train wreck in other words. There’s the usual pressure from her parents to marry a ‘nice Jewish boy’ – her dad urges her to ‘date pork but marry kosher’, but Lulu has big decisions ahead of her. (Five episodes)
Up Here
Songs, slapstick and inner voices abound in a fun musical comedy series
Year: 2023
Watch now on Disney+
When wannabe writer Lindsay (Good Girl’s Mae Whitman) moves to New York, she swiftly falls in love with rich kid Miguel (Carlos Valdes). They seem perfect for each other. Now if only they can get the voices in their heads to agree with that…
This gloriously likeable eight-episode series takes a familiar romcom set up and peppers it with fantastic fantasy elements (only we can see the various figures who play the voices inside the characters’ heads), physical comedy and songs – lots and lots of songs. With a script by the man behind Tick, Tick…Boom! and songs from the team behind Frozen, it’s a genuine treat. (One series)
Four Weddings And A Funeral (TV series)
American miniseries loosely inspired by the hit Richard Curtis romcom
Year: 2019
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Channel 4
Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project) co-wrote this US TV spin on Richard Curtis’s romcom that’s more a remix than a remake, with stock characters out of classic romcoms stirred into a modern melting pot.
We follow American communications director Maya (Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Missandei in Game Of Thrones) to London for the wedding of her best friend, and what follows is a tumultuous year in love and romance surrounding Maya and her friends, including Kash (Starstruck’s Nikesh Patel).
Taking Richard Curtis’s films as the jumping-off point for the series is a neat idea as his films are basically ensemble pieces on the themes of love and romance, and over ten episodes there’s more time for the characters to grow and evolve. (Ten episodes)
Him & Her
A comedy about real-life love in all its lazy, messy glory
Year: 2010-2013
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Some of the best, most original relationship comedies of recent years have been written by Stefan Golaszewski. His most recent was Marriage, starring Nicola Walker and Sean Bean. Before that, he won a BAFTA for Mum, which starred the marvellous Lesley Manville as a suburban widow whose home was filled with well-meaning, if irksome, family and friends.
Him & Her was Golaszewski’s first sitcom. Another BAFTA winner, it stars Russell Tovey and Sarah Solemani as Steve and Becky – a lacklustre couple living a lockdown lifestyle long before the pandemic. Even if they hardly leave the house, there is no shortage of witty and hilarious observations made around the most banal of events – and regular visits from their neighbours (such as Joe Wilkinson’s Dan) and family, including Becky’s sister and her fiance (Kerry Howard and Ricky Champ). Over four wonderful series, they eventually find the energy to get married. (Four series)
Cold Feet
The eventful lives and loves of three Manchester couples
Year: 1997-2020
Certificate: 15
Watch now on ITVX
A runaway hit that first cantered onto our screens as a pilot in 1997, this centred on three couples going through ups and downs in their relationships, taking in divorce, babies, death and new as well as temporary partnerships. You certainly didn’t watch it for ‘happy ever after’, but for the rollercoaster ride that took its core cast, and their wider circle, on one hell of a bumpy ride.
James Nesbitt is a serial womaniser who finally settles down with Helen Baxendale’s advertising executive, despite the fact that she’s married to someone else. John Thomson and Fay Ripley are Pete and Jenny, whose marriage is rocked by Pete’s affair with a co-worker, and Robert Bathurst and Hermione Norris are David and Karen, who both end up having affairs.
After a 13-year hiatus the show made a welcome comeback in 2016 for four more series, and as the characters hit their 50s, there was no sign of any of them settling down for quiet nights sipping Horlicks in their slippers. While currently being rested for the foreseeable future, the possibility of a further reunion has not been ruled out. (Nine series).
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Rose Leslie and Theo James star in an unconventional romance
Year: 2022
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Sky
Watch now on NOW
Steven Moffat’s six-part take on Audrey Niffenegger’s novel has its detractors, but it portrayed the kind of unconventional romance that you don’t often see on TV. The story is a love letter to the power of marriage as a balm to the inevitability of death, which is why it all builds towards the ceremony between Clare (Game Of Thrones’s Rose Leslie) and her accidental time traveller other half, Henry (The White Lotus’s Theo James).
It’s likely to leave you with a tear in your eye by that point, but goes through many other emotions on the way, including some points that are just laugh-out-loud funny. The only inarguable downside is the scenes with the ‘old age’ make-up, in which it just looks as if everyone is wearing rubber masks. Why, oh why, HBO? (Six episodes)
Alice & Jack
Disarmingly funny romance starring Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Channel 4
Relationships don’t always happen like in the movies, and here’s one that starts messy, and stays that way, over a 15-year period and six episodes. Written by Victor Levin, a writer with form in romantic comedies (TV show Mad About You, Destination Wedding), it follows Andrea Riseborough’s wealthy loner Alice and Domhnall Gleeson’s gentle scientist Jack.
They fall for each other, and into bed with each other, pretty instantly and Jack is smitten, but Alice constantly pulls away. She wants someone kind like Jack, but she’s also self-aware enough to believe that she’s wrong for him.
Riseborough and Gleeson are superb, making their flawed characters eminently watchable and likeable. (Six episodes)
