Television series

My Hero

Name: My Hero
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Released: 2000
Cast: James Dreyfus, Ardal O'Hanlon, Emily Joyce

Comedy
Urban fantasy
Light-hearted

A gently absurd fantasy sitcom where a bumbling alien superhero moves in with a London family. Thermoman has the powers but not the sense to use them, creating collision after collision of miraculous mishaps and romantic confusion. Cosy, good-natured, and deeply silly—perfect if you want something warm and daft without the cynicism.

TVMaze rating

3.7

If you liked this

Fawlty Towers1975

Basil Fawlty creates chaos by the minute through sheer incompetence and pride. The chaos spirals beautifully, never meanly. If you loved watching Thermoman bungle his way through domestic life, this is the patron saint of that energy.

But The comedy is very specifically Python-adjacent and very British in sensibility. Some of the humour lands harder if you know 1970s BBC conventions. Basil can be abrasive in ways Thermoman never is.

Red Dwarf1988

A last human, a creature of pure energy, and a creature that evolved from cats are stuck in deep space. It has the same anarchic sci-fi premise as My Hero—cosmic oddness meeting mundane situations—and the same refusal to take itself seriously.

But It starts rough and got progressively weirder. Early episodes are cheaper-looking and less polished. The humour is very broad, sometimes aggressively so.

Coupling2000

Set in London, contemporary, fast-paced comedy about people navigating relationships and mishaps. It shares My Hero's warmth and its willingness to let characters be likeable even when they're making terrible decisions. Sharp writing, great ensemble cast.

But The show is very sex-focused and occasionally dated in how it handles that. Some storylines rely on misunderstandings that feel forced. The energy can feel exhausting if you want something quieter.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from My Hero

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Amélie2001

Both centre on outsiders who bumble through the world with good intentions and transform it not through grand heroics but through genuine care for ordinary people.

A woman with magical thinking shapes the world around her through small interventions. Like My Hero, it's a fantasy about how impossible people—socially weird, awkward, out of step—can actually make things better. Visually gorgeous and utterly joyful.

But It's aggressively whimsical and colourful in ways that can feel saccharine or exhausting. The pacing is slow and contemplative. If you find whimsy cloying, this film was designed to test that limit.

Blackadder1983

Scheming, pompous characters constantly outmanoeuvred by circumstance. Like My Hero, it works because the leads are excellent performers who can sell both the jokes and the pathos. Endlessly quotable and genuinely moving when it needs to be.

But Set in different historical periods, each series has a different tone. Some people find the first season unwatchable. The humour is wickedly dark in places, which shifts the register entirely from My Hero's sweetness.

The IT Crowd2006

Socially incompetent people navigating workplace absurdity with genuine heart underneath. It has My Hero's willingness to be silly without being cruel, and its best episodes land on something unexpectedly touching about loneliness and connection.

But Relies heavily on nerd-culture references that can feel dated. The lead character's portrayal has aged into something more complicated than it felt at the time. Some episodes are stronger than others.

QI2003

If you love gentle, digressive comedy that celebrates clever people being amusingly wrong, this is essential. Stephen Fry guides a panel through fascinating tangents. It has My Hero's playfulness and the same infectious enthusiasm for the ridiculous.

But It's not a narrative show—there's no forward momentum and some episodes are uneven. The humour is very panel-show specific. Later seasons vary wildly in quality depending on the guests.

Press Gang1989

A group of kids running a school newspaper and getting into chaos. Warm, funny, genuinely affecting when it needs to be, with cast chemistry that makes everything work. Early 90s British charm without being saccharine.

But It's technically a children's show, though adults love it. Production values are obviously lower than modern TV. Some jokes land harder if you remember that era.

Saxondale2006

Steve Coogan plays a grumpy middle-aged man in a caravan running a pest-control business. Beneath the surface surliness is real warmth and surprisingly touching material. Similar balance of whimsy and heart to My Hero, just filtered through a different temperament.

But The lead character is genuinely unlikeable in ways Thermoman isn't. The pacing is slow and digressive. If you need immediate gratification or conventional plot structure, this won't work.

Peep Show2003

Pointless men make bad decisions in London flats in real time. The point-of-view camera work is innovative. It has the same commitment to making losers likeable and creating comedy from accumulated small humiliations, though it's much darker.

But The cringe humour is relentless and genuinely uncomfortable. Both main characters are fundamentally selfish and it never lets you forget that. Nothing is resolved—it just stops, which some find cathartic and others find frustrating.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy1981

Both are fundamentally about kindness and friendship between creatures who don't quite fit anywhere, told through surreal comedy rather than conventional warmth.

A confused human is pulled into space and encounters increasingly absurd cosmic bureaucracy. It has My Hero's DNA—a lonely outsider learning to navigate an illogical world alongside people who don't quite understand him. Funny, weird, and strangely moving.

But The BBC production is deliberately cheap-looking as a joke. The rhythm is very Douglas Adams—lots of dead air and deliberate anti-comedy. If you need conventional storytelling, this will frustrate you.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy poster

Perfect Blue1998

Both explore what happens when someone's public persona diverges catastrophically from their inner reality—one as comedy, one as nightmare, asking what's at stake in that gap.

A pop star's sense of self fragments as her life spins out of control. Genre-wise it's a psychological thriller, not a sitcom, but it shares My Hero's meditation on identity and the gap between who we present and who we are. Haunting and deeply strange.

But It's a dark, disturbing anime film about obsession and violation. There are scenes of genuine violence and sexual threat. It's the opposite of My Hero's warmth and comfort, which is exactly the point.