Top Five TV Shows That Got Darker Than They Had Any Right To

Growing up, we tuned into TV for light entertainment — a bit of fun after school, or harmless Saturday evening drama. But every so often, shows aimed at kids, teens, or even families pulled the rug out from under us and went weirdly dark. Traumatising storylines, nightmare fuel imagery, or lessons that felt way too heavy for teatime telly.

Here are five TV shows that got unexpectedly dark — and scarred us in the process:

5. Grange Hill

The vibe: A school drama, aimed at kids and teens, with the usual classroom banter and playground antics.

The darkness: Famously, it wasn’t afraid to get real. Bullying, racism, drugs, mental health, abuse — you name it, Grange Hill covered it. The “Just Say No” anti-drugs campaign still echoes in the collective memory, as does Zammo’s harrowing heroin addiction storyline.

Lasting trauma: Imagine watching your after-school drama suddenly tackle heroin dependency. Yeah, that’s why it’s stuck with us.

4. Worzel Gummidge

The vibe: A light-hearted, quirky show about a scarecrow who comes to life.

The darkness: Worzel could remove and swap his own head — which, let’s be honest, was already nightmare fuel. Add in the bleak countryside atmosphere and some surprisingly sinister guest characters, and it often tipped into the uncanny.

Lasting trauma: Worzel’s head-switching antics sit in the same mental filing cabinet as Doctor Who monsters — childhood TV that scared you more than horror films ever could.

3. Byker Grove

The vibe: A teen drama from Newcastle, best known for launching Ant and Dec.

The darkness: Like Grange Hill, it went heavy — tackling storylines like homelessness, teen pregnancy, sexuality, gang violence, and drug use. But nothing topped the infamous paintballing accident where a main character, PJ, was blinded. That’s after-school telly for you.

Lasting trauma: One minute you’re laughing at Ant and Dec’s antics, the next you’re processing life-changing injuries at 12 years old.

2. Animals of Farthing Wood

The vibe: A cartoon about cute woodland animals on an adventure. Lovely, right?

The darkness: Wrong. This show was a parade of trauma. Characters were burned alive, trapped, poisoned, starved, or hunted. No one was safe.

Lasting trauma: Generations of British kids watched this after tea, expecting fun animal antics, and instead got Watership Down: The Series. RIP the hedgehogs.

1. Threads (1984)

The vibe: OK, this wasn’t a kids’ show — but it was shown on BBC Two at a time when plenty of curious teenagers ended up watching. A “what if” drama about nuclear war hitting Sheffield.

The darkness: Honestly? One of the bleakest things ever put on British television. Starvation, radiation, societal collapse. Nothing was held back.

Lasting trauma: Thousands of people tuned in expecting a slightly scary drama and got the most harrowing two hours of TV ever made. Even today, people say it traumatised them for life.