London on Screen: TV Shows & Films Worth Watching Before Your Trip

Watching something set in London before you visit gives useful context for neighbourhoods and city character — here's a shortlist that's more informative than most guidebooks.

TV Shows

Peaky Blinders touches London's criminal history in the 1920s. Sherlock (BBC) uses genuine London locations extensively. Fleabag captures a specific slice of contemporary London life and humour. Luther shows a darker, more atmospheric side of the city.

Films

Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary and About Time all use real London locations extensively and are useful for orientation. 28 Days Later's opening sequence of an empty central London is genuinely disorienting to watch after visiting.

Tips

• Watching something London-set before you go genuinely helps with neighbourhood orientation.
• Several film location walking tours build on these — search for specific operators once you know what interests you.

Podcasts About London

Several long-running podcasts focus specifically on London history and culture, offering walking-tour-style episodes you can literally follow on foot around specific neighbourhoods. These work particularly well for the City of London and the East End, where a guided audio narrative adds context that's easy to miss just walking past.

Documentaries

Historical documentaries about the Blitz, the Great Fire of London and the construction of the Underground all add useful context before visiting the relevant sites — the Museum of London's own YouTube content is a reliable, free starting point.

Tips

• Walking-tour podcasts are genuinely useful — download episodes before you arrive in case of patchy signal.
• The Museum of London's free video content is a good primer before visiting in person.