Babylon

The best British crime comedy TV series

Who knew drug gangs, murder and front-line policing could be such a barrel of laughs? Featuring Matt Berry's Year Of The Rabbit, brand-new Black Ops and more.

Babylon box set review

With Peep Show creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong on board, this comedy-drama makes serious points about police PR cock-ups - and it's really funny, too.

Sam Bain on bringing Babylon to the screen

With the series available on DVD and Blu-ray from today, co-creator Sam Bain spoke to Digital Spy about the challenges of bringing Babylon to the screen.

Babylon: jarring reality, doused with humor

The British series Babylon, a complicated and darkly satirical comedy about law enforcement and its discontents that runs on the Sundance Channel starting Thursday, is eerily timely for American viewers. It touches on issues from pensions to prison privatization, but the story is built around two questionable police shootings. One, of a young black man, leads to riots that escalate because aggrieved police officers refuse to leave their stations.

Babylon star Adam Deacon charged with harassment

Babylon star Adam Deacon has been charged with harassment. The 31-year-old actor, from Bethnal Green, East London, was charged with one count of harassment on December 20, a Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed.

'Babylon' season 1 episode 6 review

Well, if there's one thing we've learned tonight, it's that the writers of Babylon certainly know how to leave us on a heck of a cliffhanger! Seriously, we have to wait how long for the next episode?!

Radio Times review

If ratings are an indication, viewers haven't warmed to this genre-shredding satire. Once you get on Babylon's wavelength, it's a juicy picture of the Metropolitan Police as (to quote its heroine) "a perspex Death Star", a place where the vogue for transparency means the PR tail wags the policing dog.

But it's hard to get on the wavelength when Babylon is deadly serious one minute and swearily silly the next. Any series, even the blackest of comedies, where your lead character commits suicide halfway through has a hill to climb. The repercussions of that shock are still being felt as the firearms squad returns to duty and Sharon (the splendidly underplayed Nicola Walker) faces a crisis.

After a pilot which felt slightly underpowered given the calibre of creative talent involved, this comedy-drama has really clicked into gear over a full series. While never quite becoming The Thick Of It for the eternally beleaguered Met, Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong and Robert Jones's creation has trampled irreverently over all manner of sacred cows concerning our law enforcers' dealings with the media.

'Babylon' season 1 episode 5 review

After a rocky couple of episodes, it really feels like Babylon is back to full strength this week, with a barnstorming episode that finally brings lagging storylines up to a point of interest.

The penultimate episode of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's slightly strange drama/comedy proposition, and the show remains perched on the edge of a Charlie Brooker-style dark drama, without quite breaking through. Still, there is some strong satire, great acting and excellent jokes. As ever, the armed response guys get the best lines, even in the middle of a cover-up ("I've shot him in the back. You can't make it out on these cameras"), while Liz attempts to turn a missing child into a career opportunity.