Television series
The Larkins
- Comedy
- Light-hearted
A sun-drenched ITV comedy-drama set in 1950s Kent, where the Larkins—lovable, resourceful, and gently chaotic—navigate rural life with warmth, abundance, and cheerful defiance against suburban pretension. Bradley Walsh anchors this genial crowd-pleaser with the ease of someone playing a dream version of himself: a man who owns the land, feeds everyone, and wins every argument with a smile.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like warm, rowdy family comedy with a sly streak of mischief, where a household's appetite for food, drink and getting one over on officialdom carries the whole thing along like a summer picnic.
Skip it if you want sharp plotting or a steady escalation of stakes; this is episodic and loose, happy to wander, and its broad jollity can feel repetitive over a full run.
What it asks of you: Settle in for hour-long episodes that take their time, with no need to track a complicated plot. Attention can drift and you will still be fine.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Grantchester2014
A similarly warm but substantive British drama set in the 1950s-60s, blending faith, crime, and community. If you loved the Larkins' world-building and gentle handling of period detail, this deepens that comfort with real moral complexity.
But Tone shifts toward the genuinely dark and tragic. Much less raucous; the humour is drier and the emotional weight harder.
Lovejoy1986
A cheeky English antiques dealer outwits snobs and bureaucrats with charm and improvisation. Same DNA: rural cunning, gentle roguery, a protagonist who's always one step ahead, and absolute affection for the landscape.
But Dated 80s production values and a slower pace. Won't feel as lush or as modern in its comfort.
All Creatures Great and Small2020
The recent remake captures the same postwar Yorkshire idyll—community, animals, eccentrics, and a cast that feels like family. Quiet charm without being saccharine. Wholesome without being naive.
But Very gentle. If you want plot momentum or real stakes, you'll be disappointed. Sometimes almost plotless.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Larkins
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Cold Comfort Farm1995
Both celebrate English rural life through the lens of a family who disregard convention. Both are about plenty, comfort, and resistance to outside judgment—but Stella Gibbons's novel is sharper, meaner, and more satirical about the romance of farming.
Noel Coward-era comedy about an outsider civilising a chaotic Sussex farming family with modern ideas. Pre-dates the Larkins TV era but embodies the same mythology: rural abundance, family chaos, sexual frankness, and comedy from clash between old and new.
But Black and white, theatrical pacing, very stagy dialogue. Modernist satire rather than warm comedy. Some will find it arch and dated.
More like this (8)
The Watchers2022
A radio soap opera capturing rural English life, farming, and community drama across seventy years. The Larkins are the Archers made visual and comedic—same world, same values, different medium.
But Radio drama demands your imagination and patience. A long listen; the pacing is leisurely and the payoffs are modest.
Heartbeat1992
Small-town Yorkshire police procedural with a huge heart. Period detail, recurring characters you grow to love, gentle humour, and an unfaked affection for ordinary people and ordinary problems.
But Depends heavily on nostalgia for 1960s Britain. Some episodes are thin. Can feel repetitive if watched in long runs.
Inspector Morse1987
Oxford detective drama with immense depth, culture, and humanity. Shares the Larkins' love of English landscape and period texture, but trades comedy for genuine mystery and philosophical weight.
But Bleak. Morse is lonely and caustic. Far darker in register; the pleasures are intellectual rather than convivial.
Foyle's War2002
A WWII-era detective series with meticulous period detail and a cast of thoroughly realised characters. Shares the Larkins' grasp of postwar English life, but with genuine espionage and moral complexity.
But Crime-focused and sometimes grim. Less of the raucous family joy; the tone is measured and occasionally somber.
Midsomer Murders1998
English countryside mysteries where the landscape and village life are as much the draw as the murder. Cosy but with real teeth. A huge, reliable catalogue of episodes.
But Formulaic. Some episodes are genuinely lazy. The violence can feel arbitrary, as if tacked on to justify the genre label.
EastEnders1985
Long-running British soap with a genuine ensemble cast and community at its heart. Proves you can build a world people want to return to, season after season, the way you do with the Larkins.
But Soap pacing is relentless and narratively thin. Stories repeat. The tone is cynical and urban—nothing like the Larkins' warmth.
Tampopo1985
Both treat food and hospitality as profound acts of love and resistance. Both believe in doing things well and sharing what you have. But where the Larkins are warm and raucous, Tampopo is meditative and faintly absurd.
A Japanese ramen-western about a widow and a drifter improving her noodle shop. Sounds absurd; it's a meditation on craft, community, and the joy of feeding people. The Larkins' philosophy—abundance, hospitality, outsmarting the system—in a completely different culture and idiom.
But Deliberately surreal. Part narrative, part comic sketches, part food documentary. Tone is droll and elliptical. Won't satisfy anyone expecting conventional story structure.
The Leopard1963
Both use landscape, food, family, and hospitality as anchors against change. But the Larkins win their battles with jokes and charm; the Leopard watches his world end with stoic grace.
Italian epic about a Sicilian aristocrat navigating change while trying to preserve his world and family. Grand, sensuous, bittersweet. Like the Larkins, it's about defending a way of life against external pressure—but in Technicolor, with operatic stakes and genuine tragedy baked in.
But Glacially paced. Three hours, Italian cinema of the 1960s—requires patience and surrender. The comfort is existential, not convivial. Beautiful but melancholy.
