Radio Times Top 40 TV Shows of 2016: 40 to 31
The votes have been counted and the results are in... here's our critics' countdown of the year's best telly
32. Brian Pern: 45 Years of Prog and Roll (BBC4)
The best Pern yet was a “revealing but convoluted documentary” combining sublimely ridiculous mockumentary and painstakingly constructed spoof retrospectives. Simon Day’s parody of a Peter Gabriel-ish singer got a new wife – a scorching turn from a brilliantly cast Suranne Jones – looked back on the times when he and his old group Thotch had a Californian Fleetwood Mac phase, and then finally reunited with his bandmates and vinegar-lipped manager John (Michael Kitchen) for another hurrah. Sharp but affectionate, Pern understands exactly how absurd rock already is, and knows just how much of a comic twist it needs to be hilarious. Jack Seale
