Best NOW TV shows: 13 must-watch series from Sky

The landmark miniseries dramatises the real-life events of the horrific 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and is the first ever production collaboration between Sky and HBO.

If that wasn’t itself a marker of the 2019 miniseries being about as high-quality as you can get, it’s officially the top rated TV show of all time, with a 9.7-star rating out of 10 on IMDB. This puts it ahead of Breaking Bad, which has been knocked into second place.

We may be in a golden age of telly right now, but it had to start somewhere. And twenty years since it first aired, Sopranos is still among the finest TV shows of all time.

It place in TV history is cemented, but when it first aired HBO was so concerned audiences would think ‘The Sopranos’ was about music, that they popped a gun into the title’s logo design. Wise guys.

Excuse me HBO, just what size are these lies? We’re still not sure, but either way, this is must-watch TV.

The cast of this murder mystery alone demands your attention: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley head up the ensemble cast, with Meryl Streep joining the recent second season. Witherspoon actually turned down a role in 2017’s Downsizing due to star in Big Little Lies instead. We think she made the right choice.

Set in the fictional Northern town of Hawley (even though a lot of it was shot in Manchester and other locations across the north west), this TV series is about a working class group of friends who get involved in crime to keep putting food on the table. It stars the brilliant Joe Gilgun of This Is England, Misfits and Preacher fame.

We'll admit it, we're an absolute sucker for anything Damon Lindelof does - Lost is a classic and if you haven't seen The Leftovers, then you have to immediately. So, the thought of him doing a Watchmen TV series was exciting and the show so far doesn't disappoint. Don't come to this series thinking it is a straight-up adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel - it isn't. But what it does is build a wonderful universe around the idea of the comic book and some of its characters. It's uncompromising and all the better for it.

This Sky Original series casts the brilliant Mark Strong in the lead role, as a surgeon who runs an illegal medical clinic in a series of tunnels near Temple Station in London for people who are desperate or involved in criminal activity. If his co-star looks familiar, that's because it's Carice Van Houten who played Melisandre of Asshai on Game of Thrones.

Telling the story of a high power family squabbling over control of a Murdock-esque media and entertainment conglomerate, 2018 series Succession is equal parts comedy, drama and super sharp satire.

The laughs are no surprise when you see the talent behind the show. It’s written by Jesse Armstrong, co-creator of Peep Show. The second series will premiere in August 2019, so now is the perfect time to catch up with the first season.

The Benedict Cumberbatch-starring drama based on a series of semi-autobiographical novels follows an upper class Brit in the 1980s trying to overcome his addictions. It won two BAFTAs this year: for Best Mini-Series and for Best Actor.

Cumberbatch can thank Reddit for the award-winning role. In a 2013 AMA, when asked which literary character he wants to play next, he replied with Patrick Melrose. Years later, his forum post led to meeting the producers to cast the series.

Forget Sex And the City: Broad City is the all-female NYC sitcom you need to see. Hilarious, smart, free-spritied and feminist, it follows stars real-life pals Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobsen as two twentysomething slacker best mates living their lives while trying to ‘make it’ in New York.

It turns even the most mundane of situations into awkward and hysterical comedy, usually involving some combination of schemes, spliffs and strap-ons – or all three.

Britannia has already had a popular first season, but now it's returned for a highly-anticipated second season, which you can watch on Now TV. This historical TV show is set in AD 43 and follows the Roman conquest of Britain starring some names you're bound to recognise, including Ian McDiarmid and David Morrissey.

Based on a popular comic book series, The Walking Dead is about a group of survivors in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. It's in its tenth season, so a lot has happened, but lots of the drama focuses more on encountering not-so-friendly fellow survivors than the zombies themselves.

The rest is still unwritten… or not anymore, because there’s more Los Angeles drama unfolding now on NOW TV! The iconic 2000s reality show about the trials and tribulations of the rich and gorgeous residents of LA returns for a newly rebooted series, a whole nine years after the final episode aired.

The original cast, including Heidi and Spencer Pratt are back, alongside new stars including actress Mischa Barton. She starred in The OC, which itself inspired reality show Laguna Beach, from which The Hills was a spinoff. It’s a perfect, confusing La La Land circle.

NOW TV isn’t just about critically acclaimed dramas – the latest reality shows direct from the US are on offer on the service too. Project Runway is the best of them all: aspiring designers battle it out in a knock out competition to win the chance to show a collection at New York Fashion Week and be crowned champ.

The latest series comes with a new host, supermodel Karlie Koss, and new mentor, previous winner Christian Siriano.