It’s not yet September but already 2026 is shaping up to be a phenomenal year for small-screen entertainment. There has been no shortage of scenes that have made us laugh, cry, and gasp – which is why for the past few weeks we at The Independent have been celebrating the best of the best by speaking to the people responsible for making them happen.
We’ve ranked our favourites here, and now it’s over to you. Vote for the moments you loved the most in the poll below – and we’re sure you won’t be shy about letting us know which we got wrong, or the scenes we missed altogether. With a new season of fabulous TV on the way this autumn, let’s take some time to appreciate everything that’s come before.
11. Scott Hunter’s grand gesture in Heated Rivalry
open image in galleryWhile the year’s hottest show focused on the steamy romance between rookie ice hockey players Ilya and Shane, there was another relationship that fans couldn’t get enough of: the one between closeted player Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and the sweet art history student Kip. Terrified of losing the man he loves, Scott puts everything on the line by coming out after his hockey team wins the league cup by kissing Kip right there on the ice. It was perfect TV. The mutual slow-build of the show’s two relationships culminated in a John Hughes’ style display of romance – the big gesture viewers were hoping for.
Francois Arnaud: “For Scott, it’s like he hasn’t taken a full breath in like 10 years. Kissing Kip… it’s not even a choice at that point – it becomes essential for him, like he can’t take it anymore. Because he’s an incredibly private person, he’s not a showman and he doesn’t want the spotlight on him.”
10. Patricia lets loose in Widow’s Bay
open image in galleryFew people had heard of Widow’s Bay when it debuted back in April, but 19 Emmy nominations later, and the horror-comedy is an early contender for TV show of the year – with British actor Kate O’Flynn emerging as its breakout star. As Patricia, the mayor’s eccentric assistant and the town’s local pariah, O’Flynn brings a searching, awkward vulnerability alongside her comedic talents. In episode four, she takes one last stab at reinventing herself by throwing a big bash only to discover the book she’s been using to plan the party has actually been guiding her through the steps of a demonic ritual. Whoops!
Kate O’Flynn: “Oh, the dancing! We had a choreographer and a workshop where we looked at various random music videos because we thought that was something Patricia would do, she’d teach herself a couple of moves to have in her back pocket. And then on the day, I just freestyled – there are some Fosse references in there and some of my own moves. It was whatever felt right for Patricia at that moment. That’s what I call Unbridled Patricia. Patricia Unleashed!”
Read in full: Kate O’Flynn on winning everyone over as the true-blue weirdo of Widow’s Bay
9. Diane Morgan’s flatulent poetry recital on Last One Laughing
open image in galleryThe comedian and actor offered up one of the best moments on Last One Laughing season two, reciting the classic Dylan Thomas poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” while unleashing fart noises from a machine. Here, the deadpan genius explains how it came together.
Diane Morgan: “I knew I was going to have to go up on stage and do something in front of all those comics, and I thought, what am I gonna do? I felt like everything had been done – funny dances and songs. And then I remembered fart machines. And I think there’s something really funny about doing something really straight and serious and just blowing off through the whole thing. It’s so childish, but I think it stands up.”
8. The Other Bennet Sister gives us not one soaking wet Darcy but two
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There was something so winning about this exquisite BBC show, which pulled focus on Pride and Prejudice’s most overlooked character: Mary Bennet. This was about romance! Yearning! Grand gestures! And one grand gesture in particular, which offered a nostalgic throwback to the now iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Yes, that’s right, Mary – so charming played by Ella Bruccoleri – found herself in a lake with not one, but two wet-shirted suitors. Colin Firth, eat your heart out!
Ella Bruccoleri: “The lads were meant to wear wetsuits under their shirts to keep them safe and warm, and I think the billowing Regency shirts are just so see-through that Laurie (Davidson, who plays Ryder) and Donal (Finn, who plays Haywood) decided that it would ruin the aesthetic. Vanity got in the way! So they didn’t put them on and they were cold, basically. They were in the water for quite a long time.”
Read in full: The Other Bennet Sister star on the viral lake scene: ‘I didn’t even get a tiny bit wet’
7. Jon Snow’s devastating visit to the doctor
open image in galleryHe’s spent over half a century on our screens, and is one of the most revered broadcasters of his generation so to see Jon Snow sitting in a doctor’s surgery, and struggling to remember the three short words that had been spoken to him mere moments earlier, came as a shock. The journalist had invited a camera crew, led by director Laura Warner, into that most intimate of settings for his film Jon Snow: A Last Big Story, a documentary that charted the devastating impact Alzheimer’s is having on his brain.
Laura Warner: “It was genuinely really upsetting, because by that point we’d been filming with Jon for a really long time and I knew and loved Jon and Precious a lot, and the realities of the disease are just really harsh. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever filmed. There were a lot of other points during the filmmaking where I had to put the camera down and I thought, as a human being rather than a filmmaker: no, now’s the time to look after Jon. Now’s not the time to be filming.”
Read in full: Jon Snow trusted me to film him with Alzheimer’s. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done
6. Tip Toe delivers the most horrifying finale of the year so far
open image in galleryFrom the very first scene of the Channel 4 drama Tip Toe, viewers knew the story was hurtling towards one awful, inevitable conclusion: the brutal killing of Leo, a gay bar owner played by Alan Cumming. The horrifying image of Leo’s lifeless body hanging from a lamppost on his suburban Manchester street made for one of the most shocking TV moments of the year, the camera unflinching as it captured the group hauling their victim out onto the street and stringing him up while Leo’s friends watched on, unable to save him.
Russell T Davies: “It took about three days to film as we had to be very careful with it. There was a school nearby that broke up at 3.30pm, so we had to stop at that point every single day. We were next to quite a major A road, so we had to erect huge screens to block off the set, otherwise cars driving along would have seen a man hanging, and we could have caused an accident.”
Read in full: Russell T Davies on shielding public from Tip Toe’s horrifying finale
5. Larry Dean impersonates Louis Theroux to his face on Saturday Night Live UK
open image in galleryWith his inquisitive frown, awkward interview style and seemingly endless collection of blue knitwear, bespectacled documentarian Louis Theroux is certainly up there with the great figures of British TV. So, when SNL UK chose to caricature the TV star, it unsurprisingly chimed with his multi-generational fanbase. It was simply cherry on the cake when the actual Weird Weekends star rocked up himself.
Larry Dean: “Louis said that he really liked the sketch and that’s why he said yes. He’s been offered other cameos on shows like this and doesn’t usually like doing this stuff. He said that when people impersonate him, he sometimes becomes too self-aware. When myself and Lorna went to Louis’ dressing room to read through the script with him, he hadn’t read the full thing and when he said in the sketch, ‘Is that fair to say?’ he looked up at Lorna and went, ‘Do I say that?’”
Read in full here: I did an impression of Louis Theroux to his face on live TV. I’ve never cringed so much
4. Rivals’ heart-wrenching mid-season finale
open image in galleryThe Rivals mid-season finale was unusually tense for a show typically characterised by bouncing buttocks and obscene orgasm faces. Tony Baddingham’s (David Tennant) affair with Maud O’Hara (Victoria Smurfit) was exposed at a disastrous family dinner, to the horror of his wife Monica (Claire Rushbrook). Later, over Hobnobs and brandy, she and Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson) have a quietly devastating conversation about whether they would ever be brave enough to leave their awful husbands. The performances from Rushbrook and Katherine Parkinson were Bafta-worthy: heart-piercing yet restrained, and steeped in pathos.
Claire Rushbrook: “It feels facetious to say, but it was sort of like not being allowed to come! I know that’s an incongruous analogy for our darling Monica Baddingham, but that’s how it felt playing that scene. There’s no moment where you can actually have a good cry, or really let it all out. It’s still all: hold it in, hold it in, hold it in.”
Read in full: Claire Rushbrook takes us behind the scenes of Rivals’ mid-season finale
3. Jeremy Clarkson reveals his cancer diagnosis
open image in galleryIn scenes that aired in June this year – but were filmed back in summer 2025 – Jeremy Clarkson sat down with his farmhand Kaleb Cooper and land agent Charlie Ireland to talk about dates for the harvest season. Taking an uncharacteristically sombre tone, he broke the news that he had cancer. The moment – completely unrehearsed and caught organically on camera by the show’s long-time director Kit Lynch-Robinson – struck a chord with viewers. Clarkson has since announced he’s in remission.
Kit Lynch Robinson: “It was pure disbelief. You can see it in Charlie and Kaleb’s faces – we all were just completely knocked for six. We have always joked that he is superhuman – he has lived in his body and seemingly bounces back from everything. But we kept our professionalism and kept filming; realising very quickly that here was a man laying himself bare for TV and we better honour that. We knew we had one job: to do justice to this moment. There will be time for kindness after. So that in itself is weird.”
Read in full: Inside the filming of Jeremy Clarkson’s cancer bombshell
2. Harriet Tyce wages war over the breakfast table on The Traitors
open image in galleryIt was episode seven, past the halfway mark of the BBC reality show’s fourth season, and Harriet Tyce was at the end of her tether. In a scene that had the bite of a criminal thriller and the sting of a courtroom drama, Tyce laid out her argument against fellow contestant Rachel Duffy with gumption – perhaps too much gumption, given that the breakfast table quickly descended into a screaming match over smoked salmon and pastries.
Harriet Tyce: “Unfortunately, I would say that I was consistently myself throughout. Of course I knew I was being filmed, but I was beyond really thinking about it. My higher brain was not engaged at that moment. I mean, that was just a pure emotional response, and I think that’s what’s made it so uncomfortable to watch back because it’s so rare that any of us would actually be recorded [in our worst moments].”
Read in full: Harriet Tyce: ‘I’m going to be haunted by Traitors for the rest of my life’
1. Harry Kane loses his voice on live TV
open image in galleryThe best moments, of course, are the completely unscripted ones. When BBC journalist Kelly Somers pulled over England captain Harry Kane for a few words after an all-timer of a victory against Mexico, she was as surprised as all of us at his response: nothing but a squeak. It perfectly captured the euphoria of the moment and made us all love the England number 9 even more – no surprise that it was shared on social media over 81 million times.
Kelly Somers: “It almost felt like there was a collective, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s over, thank God we’ve done it.’ And then we needed a laugh, and he gave us a bit of a laugh. It was the perfect tonic to a stressful game. I think there was 11 minutes of added time, so we’re talking over one hundred minutes of pure stress! And then we all just got a big laugh. And people weren’t laughing at him, but with him and feeling his pain and just enjoying another moment that no one expected. It was an evening of the unexpected and that just capped it off really.
Read in full: The Harry Kane BBC interview that defined England’s World Cup run
Now it’s your turn to decide
So, which unforgettable 2026 TV moment – whether its Harry Kane’s speechless BBC interview, Harriet Tyce’s Traitors meltdown, Jeremy Clarkson’s cancer reveal or another pick – deserves to be crowned the best of the year?
Now it’s your turn to decide. Vote in our poll below for the 2026 TV moment you think deserves the crown – and if we’ve missed one, tell us in the comments.