Television series
Small Prophets
- Absurdist comedy
- Fantasy
- Strange
A grimy British comedy about a lonely DIY store worker who follows his dad's recipe to create prophesying spirits from rainwater and horse manure, hoping they'll tell him if his missing girlfriend will return. It's whimsical but grounded, funny without being frantic, and wholly absorbed in its own lovingly strange world. For people who like their magic unglamorous and their comedy genuinely weird.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like gentle, deadpan comedy about stubborn grief and small-scale oddballs, where the magic is played completely straight by characters fussing over a garden shed.
Skip it if you want big laughs every minute, since this is a gentle, low-key comedy that runs on mood and mundane domestic detail more than punchlines.
What it asks of you: Six episodes of roughly half an hour each, a short binge that asks for patience with quiet, odd rhythms more than close attention.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Toast of London2012
A comedians' show about an out-of-work actor in dingy London, built on the same foundation: gentle absurdism, wonderful character acting, and the kind of humour that builds from situation rather than jokes. Matt Berry is magnificent.
But It moves slowly and much of the comedy is deadpan. If you need laughs coming thick and fast, you'll find it a bit thin.
The League of Gentlemen1999
Sketch-based dark comedy that finds real oddness in British life—provincial towns, strange neighbours, the mundane made sinister. It has Small Prophets' willingness to stay in uncomfortable places and trust the audience to find it funny.
But Genuinely dark and sometimes cruel. Some sketches haven't aged well. It's relentlessly bleak in ways Small Prophets isn't.
Detectorists2014
Two middle-aged men metal-detecting in Essex, moving slowly through friendship and obsession. It's patient, tender, funny without trying, and completely at peace with its own small scale. Toby Jones is extraordinary.
But Almost aggressively quiet. There are episodes where nothing much happens except people being themselves. If you need plot momentum, this will test your patience.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Small Prophets
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Mulholland Drive2001
Both centre on a protagonist haunted by a missing person, and both suggest that the act of searching might be more real than whatever truth you're chasing. But Lynch does it in surrealism and heartbreak; Small Prophets does it with horse manure in a garden shed.
Lynch's masterpiece about identity, disappearance, and longing in Los Angeles. Diane is searching for someone she's lost—same thematic core as Michael's seven-year obsession—but rendered as dreamlike, fractured, utterly disorienting cinema. It asks whether answers even exist.
But It's a three-hour puzzle with no solution. Deliberately incoherent. If you hate ambiguity or need films to make literal sense, this is torture.
More like this (8)
Psychoville2009
League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith creates interconnected dark comedy about broken people in provincial Britain. Strange, sad, surreal—and genuinely unsettling in ways that make you laugh despite yourself.
But The tone is much darker and more disturbing. Gorier. Some will find it bleak rather than funny, and it doesn't have Small Prophets' warmth.
Inside No. 92014
Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson's anthology series: each episode a closed story, wildly inventive, genre-spanning, always surprising. Proves that British comedy can be genuinely clever and genuinely unsettling.
But Uneven. Some episodes land perfectly; others don't. The constant format-shifting means nothing anchors you emotionally the way Small Prophets' consistent world does.
Flowers2016
Mel and Sue's dark comedy about a family on the edge of collapse, funny and terrible in equal measure. It understands that life is usually both things at once, and it doesn't flinch from either.
But Very dark, genuinely bleak at times. The comedy comes from pain, not from lightness. If you watch this for fun, you'll be disappointed.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret2010
David Cross in a sitcom about mounting disaster, weird supporting characters, and the slow realization that nothing's going to get better. It's painfully funny and built on genuine character rather than plot.
But American, so the comedy register is different. It's also chaotic where Small Prophets is grounded. Some will find it too frantic.
After Life2019
Ricky Gervais about grief, loneliness, and the small ways people connect in provincial England. Dark and sentimental without being manipulative, and genuinely interested in its characters beyond the jokes.
But Uneven between heavy themes and lighter comedy. Sometimes the tonal whiplash doesn't work. And Gervais can be a bit much if you're not already a fan.
Brassic2019
Lancashire working-class comedy about a group of friends falling apart and staying together. Warm, silly, unexpectedly moving. Characters feel real rather than performed, which is rarer than it should be.
But Sometimes prioritizes sentiment over humour. And if the Northern accent thing doesn't charm you, nothing else will fix it.
The Brass Teapot2012
Both use homemade magic as the engine of comedy, but where Small Prophets is patient and character-driven, this is scrappy and plot-driven. Different shapes, same DNA.
A couple find a magical teapot that rewards them with money whenever they suffer minor harm. It's a strange, gleeful film about alchemy and the cost of wanting things—exactly Small Prophets' register, but compressed into ninety minutes and played for darker comedy.
But Low budget shows. Indie film made by people figuring it out as they go. Some scenes don't quite land, and the ending is slightly underbaked.
A Ghost Story2017
Both are fundamentally about waiting—Michael waiting in his shed for the prophets to answer his question, the ghost waiting for something that will never come. Both suggest that sometimes the answer isn't as important as the asking.
Casey Affleck as a ghost watching his house change hands across decades, unable to let go. It's patient, strange, structurally daring, and about obsession and the things we can't change. Grief rendered as both comedy and devastation.
But Extremely slow. There's a famous scene of someone eating pie in real time. If you need conventional narrative momentum or character development, you will be bored to fury.
People
Cast
Writing
- Mackenzie CrookCreator
Production
- Christine GernonExecutive Producer
- Emma LawsonExecutive Producer
- Emma StrainExecutive Producer
- Lisa ThomasExecutive Producer
- Mackenzie CrookExecutive Producer
- Gill IslesProducer